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Gender-Based Violence in Ukraine

Mental Health

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Nelya Melnitchouk, MD, MSc, FACS
Author
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Vanessa Welten, MD, MPH
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Read in Ukrainian
If you fear for your immediate safety, have been injured, or are thinking about harming yourself:

• Call 112 (if available in your community) or your local police station
• Go to a hospital emergency unit

What is Gender-Based Violence?

Gender-based violence (GBV) is violence that is committed against someone based on their gender identity, gender expression, or perceived gender. Women and girls are at a significantly increased risk of being victims of GBV. GBV can be both physical and non-physical. It includes a range of behaviors, including everything from coercion, threats, and unwanted sexual attention, to physical and sexual assault.
The most common forms of GBV are:
  • Family violence, including intimate partner violence
  • Sexual violence, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sex trafficking.
Family Violence
Family violence is any use of force, actual or threatened, within a relationship. It includes intimate partner violence, which is violence perpetrated by a current or past partner. Family violence also includes child abuse and elder abuse.
In Ukraine, 1 in 4 women experience physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
Sexual Violence
Sexual violence is any action committed against someone’s sexual integrity without their full consent. It may or may not involve physical contact. The perpetrator may be someone known or a complete stranger.
Sexual violence includes:
  • Sexual assault – any unwanted act of a sexual nature that is imposed on another person without their consent, including kissing, touching, vaginal penetration, anal penetration, or oral sex.
  • Sexual harassment – any unwanted comment, gesture, or action (e.g. whistling) that is sexual in nature and makes a person feel unsafe, degraded, or uncomfortable.
  • Sex trafficking – recruiting, transporting, or holding victims for sexual exploitation, that is, forcing victims to provide sexual services through different forms of coercion.

Recognizing Gender-Based Violence

Sexual abuse – saying things or making gestures that make you feel unsafe, degraded, or uncomfortable; forcing you to be touched or kissed, or to have sex without consent; making you dress in a sexual way
Physical abuse – hitting, punching, kicking, biting, or scratching you; pulling your hair; throwing things at you or hitting you with things; using or threatening to use a weapon
Verbal abuse – name-calling; yelling or swearing at you
Emotional or psychological abuse – making fun of you or your loved ones; threatening to hurt or kill you or your loved ones; threatening suicide; threatening to take the children if you leave
Financial abuse – limiting your access to money, bank accounts, or credit cards; preventing you from working; running up debts in your name; destroying your personal property
Spiritual abuse – making fun of your beliefs; preventing you from taking part in spiritual practices
Control, forced isolation or confinement – controlling whom you talk to, what you do, or where you go; controlling your access to health care or food; locking you in a room or a house; abandoning you somewhere
Stalking – following you around and watching you at home or at work; sending you unwanted texts or emails; contacting your family, friends, or co-workers

What to do if you are a victim of Gender-Based Violence

If you have experienced or are experiencing any form of GBV, there are things that you may be able to do.
  1. If you, your children, or your loved ones are in immediate danger or are seriously hurt, contact your local police or 112 for urgent assistance.
  2. If it is safe and you are able to do so, move to a safe place out of danger as soon as possible. If you are unable to do this yourself, consider reaching out to someone who you trust to help you. If you do not have any trusted support persons, contact the police. 
  3. Consider going to the nearest hospital, emergency room, or clinic for immediate medical assistance. Health care providers can:
    • Examine you for injuries.
    • Provide medical care, including emergency contraception, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, HIV prophylaxis therapy, if applicable, among others.
    • Conduct a medical forensics exam if you have been sexually assaulted*.
    • Help you report the case to the police if that is something that you wish to do.
    • Connect you with additional resources, such as social workers, counselors, shelters, or financial assistance.
*  If you have been sexually assaulted, once you are in a safe place, do your best to not change your appearance. Although you don’t have to decide right away whether you want to report the assault to the police, it is important that any evidence that is on your body can be collected by health care providers. In most cases, once you have been medically examined, you will be offered an opportunity to shower and will be provided with a change of clothes.

Options if you are pregnant

  1. Parenting – continuing with your pregnancy, giving birth, and raising the child yourself.
  2. Adoption – continuing your pregnancy through birth, then giving the baby to another person or family permanently.
  3. Abortion – seeking a physician who can prescribe you medication or who can perform a medical procedure to safely and permanently end the pregnancy.
  • It is important to note that abortion does not affect your future fertility. Research has shown that having an abortion does not affect your ability to get pregnant in the future, nor is it associated with any pregnancy complications.
  • Injury to the uterus or infection may occur as complications of an abortion and may affect future fertility. However, the risk of these complications is extremely small if the abortion is performed in a medical setting by a trained physician.
Once you find out that you are pregnant, you may need time to decide whether you want to continue with your pregnancy. It is important to think about yourself, as well as your family relationships, health, safety, school, work, finances, values, and goals. Discussing your options and choice with a trusted family member, friend, or member of the community may be helpful.
It is important to take the time that you need to make the right decision for you. While this decision should not be rushed, you should keep in mind that certain options may become limited the longer you wait. In particular, it may become more difficult to get an abortion if you are more than 12 weeks pregnant. On the other hand, if you are planning to continue with your pregnancy, it is beneficial to seek prenatal care as soon as possible to ensure a healthy pregnancy.
Regardless of your choice, once you learn that you are pregnant, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible to ensure timely care and discussion of the different options.

Resources

  • Centre for Social Services for Families, Children and Youth
  • La Strada Ukraine
  • National Toll-Free Hotline for domestic violence, human trafficking and gender-based discrimination: 0 800 500 335 (from landlines) or 116 123 (from mobile)

References

  1. Government of Canada. Gender-Based Violence Knowledge Centre. Government of Canada. December 20, 2021. Accessed June 20, 2022. https://women-gender-equality.canada.ca/en/gender-based-violence-knowledge-centre.html 
  2. Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. Domestic Violence. Government of Ontario. August 20, 2021. Accessed June 20, 2022. https://www.ontario.ca/page/domestic-violence
  3. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Well-Being and Safety of Women: OSCE-Led Survey on Violence Against Women. 2019. Accessed June 20, 2022. https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/9/2/413237_0.pdf   
  4. Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Pregnancy Options. Planned Parenthood. 2022. Accessed June 20, 2022. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/pregnancy/pregnancy-options#:~:text=People%20who%20are%20pregnant%20have,another%20person%20or%20family%20permanently.
  5. Provincial Health Services Authority. Violence Against Women. BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre. 2022. Accessed June 20, 2022. http://www.bcwomens.ca/health-info/violence/violence-against-women#Partner–Violence
  6. UN Women. Rapid Gender Analysis of Ukraine: Secondary Data Review. 2022. Accessed June 20, 2022. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/RGA%20Ukraine-SDR%20Full%20Report_0.pdf 
  7. Vayssière C, Gaudineau A, Attali L, et al. Elective abortion: Clinical practice guidelines from the French College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF). Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2018;222:95-101. doi:10.1016/j.ejogrb.2018.01.017