Ukraine's commissioner invites Lithuania to join fight against sexual violence in conflict

VILNIUS - Ukraine’s Government Commissioner for Gender Equality Kateryna Levchenko has invited Lithuania to join the Kyiv-led International Alliance on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict.

"Ukraine has won the right to lead the Alliance and I would like to take this opportunity to invite Lithuania to join this informal group, which is made up of governments, public organizations, and all those who understand that this crime cannot exist in the modern world," she said on Thursday during a press conference at the Seimas on gender equality in Ukraine.

The Alliance was formed at the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative International Conference hosted by London in 2022.

Ukraine chairs the Alliance this year and the Ukrainian presidential office earlier said that the main priorities for 2025 include analyzing and improving the framework documents, strengthening programs on reparations for victims, and analyzing member states' good practices to develop a plan of measures to prevent violence, respond to cases of violence and support victims.

As of February this year, 19 countries have joined the Alliance, including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France and Japan.

A United Nations investigation published in March concluded that Russia committed crimes against humanity in its war against Ukraine. It also stated that the most brutal methods were used during interrogations and that the Russian authorities "systematically used sexual violence as a form of torture against male detainees".

According to Margarita Jankauskaite, an expert at the NGO Center for the Development of Equal Opportunities, the fact that Ukraine managed to ratify the Istanbul Convention in 2022 in the context of a war sets an example for Lithuania.

"We are concerned about Ukraine's struggle for freedom, we donate to drones, we send humanitarian aid, but freedom can also be lost without an invasion by occupiers. You lose freedom of speech, freedom to be yourself," the expert said.

"Lithuania has been dragging its feet for 14 years on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, the same Convention that Ukraine had the political will to ratify even in wartime," she added.

Adopted in 2011, the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), which obliges countries to combat violence against women and children, was signed by Lithuania on June 7, 2013, but has not been ratified yet.

Ratification of the Convention has not been included in the program of the Social Democrat-led government, but plans are underway to transpose into national law the European Union directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence.

"The Ukrainian delegation is currently visiting Lithuania to gain experience in the implementation of gender equality policy, but it seems that we have much more to learn from this courageous nation, especially in terms of political will, perseverance and determination to pursue the principles of gender equality," Jankauskaite said.

In March last year, the Constitutional Court ruled that the Istanbul Convention is compatible with the Constitution.