In autumn 2015 the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) has hired Gender Advisor, who in cooperation with UHHRU’s leadership, developed the Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination Policy, implementation of which has started in 2016.

UHHRU undertakes obligation not only to follow the Policy and to promote it in the workplace and in the implementation of projects but also to hold internal information and education campaigns aimed at raising awareness about the Policy among members of the organization. Thus, as a result of the survey of female and male employees conducted in December 2015, it was decided to carry out three gender mainstreaming training sessions concerning: gender issues in general and in the labor market in particular; gender issues in the media, non-discriminatory language, sexist jokes; gender analysis methodology, and best practices of the policy of equal opportunities.

In spring 2016, these trainings were held. In July 2016, using online method, an anonymous survey of UHHRU employees about their attitude to the training sessions was conducted, as well as further proposals to the Gender Advisor’s work were given.

Based on results of this survey, we can note that the UHHRU leadership should pay more (additional) attention to the Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination Policy in order to prove their positive attitude to the Policy and willingness to implement its principles.

It was found that almost two-thirds of those UHHRU employees surveyed in July 2016 touched upon the gender equality theme in their work. First of all, this is cooperation with organizations dealing with gender equality, work on projects related to gender issues, and advising people on equal rights and opportunities. Therefore, professional knowledge in this field should be deepened, because interest to equal rights and opportunities in the survey was articulated.

Also, some female and male employees of UHHRU said that they did not attend any of the three proposed gender training sessions, primarily due to lack of time and workload. Thus, it would be appropriate to include gender aspects into other educational and training programs for staff to further inform them about the UHHRU’s Gender Policy.

Besides, in autumn 2016 UHHRU launched a specialized project “Women human rights defenders who change Ukraine” (link is in Ukrainian), being a series of interviews with female human rights activists working in different spheres of social life. These interviews are placed at UHHRU’s website twice a month.

The report can be found by this link