International Women’s Day (March 8th), officially established by the United Nations in 1975 during the International Women’s Year, is a globally recognized event. This significant day has its roots in the extensive history of women’s struggle for their rights. In the summer of 1975, the First World Conference on Women’s Status was held in Mexico in honor of the International Women’s Year. Subsequent global conferences took place in 1980 (Copenhagen), 1985 (Nairobi), and 1995 (Beijing).
The Beijing Conference is particularly crucial as it led to the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic roadmap signed by the governments of 189 countries. This document envisions a world where every woman and girl has the opportunity to make choices, whether it’s participating in politics, receiving education, or most importantly, living in societies free from violence and discrimination.
The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union joins the international human rights community in commemorating this date and offers an interview with gender expert Tamara Martsenyuk as part of the project “Human Rights Defenders Changing Ukraine,” along with a conversation with human rights defender and journalist Olga Vesnyanka. Olga Vesnyanka has spent many years working in Ukraine to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men.
Olga Vesnyanka is a human rights defender, journalist, editor, and trainer. She studied at the Ukrainian School of Political Studies and completed the “Digital Future Journalism” course at Kyiv-Mohyla School of Journalism. She has been working in media since 1998, including at TRK “Era,” Channel 5, Radio Svoboda, Deutsche Welle, Insider, and Hromadske Radio. Her materials on combating sexism, equal rights, and other human rights issues have been recognized in various journalistic competitions, including the “Honor of the Profession” and European Media Neighbourhood Awards. She is the author of critical materials addressing sexism in Ukrainian politics and society (for example, about sexist statements by Yanukovych in Davos (winter 2011), Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu’s sexist comments (summer 2011), and more), as well as human rights topics.
For several years, I organized screenings of documentary films on social topics, including domestic violence, gender equality, and women’s activism. Olga Vesnyanka is one of the initiators of the “Belarusian Spring” festival in Ukraine and a co-initiator (along with Olexandra Bynert) of the “Ukrainian Film Club in Berlin.”
She coordinated her own project, the Kyiv Media Film Club, and previously managed a film club on Andriyivsky Descent. She collaborates with leading women’s organizations in Ukraine, including the “Women’s Consortium of Ukraine”, “Ukrainian Women’s Fund”, and the Roma women’s “Chirikli” Foundation. She was also a participant of the “Olga Kobylianska Women’s Hundred” during the Euromaidan protests.
She is a co-founder and activist of the campaign “Respect. Campaign against Sexism in Ukrainian Politics and Media”, an expert for the Coalition Against Discrimination in Ukraine, a trainer for the course “Tolerance and Non-Discrimination in Police Work,” and a member of the supervisory board of the NGO “Anchor Point.”
Additionally, Olga Vesnyanka is a guest lecturer for the online course “Women and Men: Gender for Everyone” on the Prometheus platform. She has lived and worked in Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Odesa, and Stuttgart.
Please share your story of involvement in the human rights movement in Ukraine. Why did you decide to work in this field?
I believe it started in my childhood and youth. On one hand, we had a substantial library at home, including Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago,” various reprinted editions, works of philosophers, and compilations from the “Novy Mir” magazine. Especially after 1991, there were the first almost self-published editions of literature from the “Executed Renaissance” movement. Even in school, I disagreed with the Soviet presentation of materials, for example, about Gorky. I brought his “Untimely Thoughts” from home, and I was appalled by the totalitarian system that oppressed individuals and their freedoms, which I learned from literature and stories from my parents.
On the other hand, I have Bashkir origins, and when I was a teenager, I encountered everyday xenophobia. I wanted to stand up against it and saw the injustice in it. I read, for example, Lev Gumilev’s “Ethnogenesis” and “The Biosphere of Earth.”
I grew up in the 1990s when there was a lot of gender-based violence on the streets of industrial Zaporizhzhia. I myself experienced it, as did other girls aged 13-15. I once befriended a girl in the hospital who talked about experiencing such violence, even group violence, when she was 9 years old. Of course, all of this went unnoticed by law enforcement at that time. So when people now make jokes about gender-based violence, saying it’s when a woman “scolds” me, I don’t find it funny.
Later, in Kyiv in 2003, I joined Amnesty International. This is because it involves combating torture, xenophobia, international solidarity, domestic violence, and provides a space for my own activities and involving others. We used to build the youth network of Amnesty together with Galina Bocheva (now working in the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission), Julia Nuzban (currently at the International Criminal Court in The Hague), and Julia Lisova (a lawyer in Odesa). We organized actions, campaigns, film screenings on human rights topics, wrote petitions, and collected signatures.
I consider myself an “Amnesty child,” an activist raised on the values of human rights and international solidarity. This is what unites me with many people around the world. I’ve later met university professors in Europe and members of the Bundestag like Barbel Kofler who have similar experiences.
Later, Amnesty International Ukraine invited me to work and monitor incidents of xenophobia and racism. This involves hate speech and hate crimes. Parallelly, I worked in the media, frequently addressing human rights issues. So, it wasn’t a conscious decision to work in this field; it just evolved, and at times, human rights activism became my work.
Where did you acquire your education and knowledge in the field of human rights?
Primarily, it’s through my activism with Amnesty International (which involved various educational events). Additionally, I should mention the human rights school organized by Kharkiv Human Rights Group in 2007. This is an annual school, and recently, we held an advanced level school for those who graduated earlier.
Furthermore, I attended a school for organizers of human rights schools (Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Norwegian Helsinki Committee) a long time ago. From there, I participated in the “Understanding Human Rights” program, where we developed educational programs, together with Olexandra Matviichuk and Kostiantyn Reutskyi.
This includes training, such as from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the OSCE, focused on “Hate Crimes.” Training that proved useful during my time as an organizer of film screenings on human rights topics in the program “Cinema without Borders” (Amsterdam, during the Amnesty International Film Festival) around 10 years ago.
Much insight comes from trips to learn from the experiences in other countries. For instance, I visited Sweden to learn about “Economic Benefits of Gender Equality” and Germany to acquaint myself with the local women’s movement.
What areas of human rights activism do you work on?
I work on issues related to non-discrimination, hate crimes, hate speech, combating gender-based violence, women’s rights, and the protection of human rights for the Roma population.
Regarding discrimination, it involves the restriction of rights based on various characteristics. I’m currently interested in joining a project with the working title “Labor Inclusion,” in partnership with the Center for Employment of Free People, continuing the excellent work in this direction initiated by my colleagues at Charitable Foundation “Point of Support”.
I’m confident that I will continue collaborating with the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine. We worked on recommendations to counter xenophobia against the Roma people in Ukraine. It will be great if we can achieve something necessary in collaboration with colleagues in the human rights movement. And not only within the human rights movement, but also broader understanding is needed – from educators, local authorities, police, migration services, media, and more.
I hope that the campaign “Discrimination Limits! Resist It” will continue, and the “Discriminator of the Year” anti-award will keep being presented.
I had the honor of being a trainer for the course “Tolerance and Non-Discrimination in Police Work” in Kyiv, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia. I work on this issue not only as a human rights activist, activist, or trainer in cooperation with women’s, Roma, or media organizations like the Institute for Regional Press Development, but also in the media as a journalist and editor. This includes my work at Hromadske Radio and programs on Roma Radio Chiriklo.
I’d also like to mention some human rights-friendly institutions and organizations: Human Rights Information Center, and the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.
Have you worked on women’s rights issues?
Always. I can’t recall a day since my involvement in civil society when I haven’t taken at least a small action towards equality and women’s rights. Aside from raising awareness and education through media, journalism, and film screenings, I’m also actively engaged in campaigns.
Taking the opportunity to talk about film, I invite everyone to the screening of the documentary film “Migrant Path” by Olena Fediyuk on March 13 at “Kinopanorama.” We will discuss migration afterward, including the topic of women’s labor migration. Also, the fantastic Docudays UA Film Festival, which starts in Kyiv and then travels throughout Ukraine. On March 29, I’ll be participating in a discussion on gender-based street violence.
I have a memorable experience from the training sessions on “Concepts and Forms of Gender-Based Violence in the Context of the Armed Conflict in Eastern Ukraine: Principles of Journalistic Response.” We conducted these sessions with the Ukrainian Women’s Fund and UNFPA. When we launched the work of mobile brigades, we traveled to all five regions most affected by the military actions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, and Kharkiv. I spoke with colleagues who work with women suffering from gender-based violence, and their stories are horrifying. However, in the context of usual impunity and silence, there is still hope.
There is hope where assistance is provided to survivors. But such assistance is still insufficient. Shelters for survivors are needed, and local deputies can advocate for them in their cities and regions. Here, there is hope in local deputy associations for “Equal Opportunities.” Despite the criminalization of domestic violence, the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence has not yet been ratified.
I remember the promotion of ideas about gender political quotas. They seemed to emerge, but the resistance of the system and misunderstandings are still felt, both as before in the Central Election Commission (CEC) and from political forces. If a certain group of people is not represented in the elected bodies of power, then the problems of this group remain unresolved. From this, I see the necessity of promoting equal opportunities, specific temporary measures to support women in politics. After all, when it comes to this indicator, Ukraine has not yet achieved the Millennium Development Goals, and now there are new ones – Sustainable Development Goals. That is, you achieve one step forward, and you need to constantly defend it so that people know, use, and understand it. And after the first step, there is the next one.
The same applies to gender segregation in the labor market. But you might ask, what does this have to do with human rights? In practice, it’s not just about stereotypes or biases, but also about specific cases of discrimination based on gender and family status, as well as instances of sexual harassment. During these days, there is a global campaign in support of the ILO Convention against Gender-Based Violence at Work (#23Days #StopGBV). I’m glad that in Ukraine, it is supported by the Independent Media Trade Union and the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine.
There is progress, small but noticeable, in expanding positions within the Armed Forces for women and professions that women can hold. Again, besides striving for changes, daily action is necessary to ensure these changes don’t remain just on paper or become modern versions of Soviet rhetoric.
Women in science, security, politics, and economics often have fewer opportunities, not only due to institutional barriers but also because society as a whole is accustomed to male leadership. Therefore, women should be made visible in all processes. Cinema and media, as well as campaigns, contribute to this visibility. The slogan “women’s rights are human rights” is precisely about visibility.
Similarly, in the field of human rights, attention should be given to the needs of women facing multiple forms of discrimination. This includes those who find it difficult to speak out because they are in the spotlight, such as political scientists and political bloggers, including ministers. It should not just be about women who live in the “grey zone” and lack proper access to healthcare, or Roma women in Zakarpattia who live where there’s no access to clean water. Even people without citizenship, such as women in Odesa who don’t know how to obtain identification documents, are part of this issue. The system is inflexible. Sometimes, it feels like there are two realities – the first where affluent people live, downloading apps on iPhones and getting outraged over politicians quarreling over seats, and the second where people are struggling to survive, women are raising children single-handedly, earning their bread, and taking care of the elderly.
In your opinion, what are the major achievements of the human rights movement in Ukraine?
Let’s start with the abolition of the death penalty. Next comes effective human rights defense. The work of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, numerous organizations and initiatives, as well as knowledgeable legal experts, advocates, and lawyers, is notable. The fact that so many cases from Ukraine are brought to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) indicates a good understanding of this opportunity and an awareness of injustice.
There is a law against discrimination, domestic violence is criminalized, and there is a “Roma Strategy”. They might not be the best or comprehensive, but they exist.
As I work in non-formal education, many human rights courses have been developed for different audiences. In many cases, when their rights are violated, people complain not to the judicial system but turn to media and human rights defenders. There is trust, knowledge, and experience.
Those who make decisions and experienced human rights defenders (Katerina Levchenko, Arkadiy Bushchenko), are gradually being taken into account. They go to make decisions. They document human rights violations in Donbas.
What challenges does the contemporary human rights movement in Ukraine face?
The current Ukrainian political agenda, or rather its politicization, pushes human rights values to the margins, which could normalize extrajudicial violence within society, including among law enforcement agencies. Criticism from human rights defenders might be seen as plain embroidery on white fabric. We need to stand up, cooperate with authorized individuals and institutions who understand that human rights values are the foundation of democracy. And it’s democracy that we’re seemingly building.
In your opinion, does the human rights movement pay sufficient attention to gender issues?
I believe it’s insufficient, but progress is being made. The Coalition “Justice for Peace in Donbas” has investigated sexual violence against those who were in captivity. The La Strada-Ukraine Center is active.
In the anti-discrimination context, there is an increasing focus on gender equality and related issues. However, I won’t deny that sometimes I hear inappropriate jokes about gender-related topics, often more from analysts than those who provide “in the field” consultations.
Gender-based violence is a serious issue, particularly in Ukraine. In your opinion, what should be done to change the situation for the better?
The Istanbul Convention should be ratified and effectively implemented. It encompasses an entire system of addressing gender-based violence.
Education and monitoring of the work of the judiciary and judges, as well as the police. Shelters for victims should be easily accessible, providing comprehensive support during a specific period.
Information campaigns should continue, emphasizing that violence is not normal and providing information about where to seek help.
What or who inspires you the most in your human rights activism?
Let’s name all those who have chosen human rights as their values. And those who didn’t choose, but simply acted – helping, saving lives when others were beating or selling their belongings or their dignity. And those who are currently giving a voice to the unheard.
Interview with Olga Vesnyanki, an expert from the “Chirikli” Foundation
