Success Story: Cooperation between the International Women’s Rights Center “La Strada – Ukraine” and the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and International Relations to organize hearings on implementation of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities of Men and Women”, November 10, 2010

The organization has invested significant efforts in promoting the adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities of Men and Women" in 2005. Cooperation between the International Women's Rights Center "La Strada – Ukraine" and the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities, and International Relations has been established to organize hearings on the implementation of the Law. The goal of the hearings was to analyze the state of implementation of the Law, discuss the need to improve it, develop the state policy on ensuring gender equality, and share ideas between the public and government agencies and parliament regarding the operation of the Law. The hearings, which took place on November 10, 2010, brought together representatives of many NGOs, academic institutions, and public agencies to discuss their vision of implementing the Law. The proposals made by the participants were taken into consideration during the development of the committee recommendations, which were published on the Committee's website. The results of the hearings include the adoption of sound recommendations by the Committee, which were developed with the participation of NGOs. However, due to the administrative reform, the national mechanism to ensure gender equality has been eliminated, and there is no agency to implement all recommendations on gender equality. To further develop inter-sectoral cooperation, the NGOs are advised to be active in their cooperation with public agencies, apply to take part in their events, initiate joint events, demand information necessary for their activities, and provide training on skills in making short presentations and providing clear recommendations. The NGOs are also suggested to be active and use existing mechanisms of cooperation with public agencies, including the Parliament, take part in committee hearings, provide expert assessment of draft laws, and organize gender-related awareness-raising campaigns.