{"id":2602,"date":"2026-06-26T15:51:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/?p=2602"},"modified":"2026-06-26T15:51:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:51:52","slug":"women-peace-and-security-in-ukraine-addressing-conflict-related-sexual-violence-and-advancing-eu-integration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/2026\/women-peace-and-security-in-ukraine-addressing-conflict-related-sexual-violence-and-advancing-eu-integration\/","title":{"rendered":"Women, Peace and Security in Ukraine: Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Advancing EU Integration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Women, Peace and Security in Ukraine: Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Advancing EU Integration \n <\/h1>\n \n \n \n\n

By Yuliya Brin<\/a>\u00a0, <\/strong>University of Helsinki<\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Executive Summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has been a leading factor in the rise of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Ukraine. CRSV has a wide scope and is gendered in nature; it includes rape as a weapon of war, as well as sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, sexual torture, forced abortion, forced sterilization, forced marriage, and other similar acts of sexual violence and abuse, directly and indirectly linked to conflict and war. CRSV has primarily been perpetrated by the Russian military forces in occupied Ukrainian territories, including against women, girls, men, boys, civilians, detainees, and prisoners of war. This violence must be understood not only as a set of individual war crimes but also as part of a gendered strategy of domination that links occupation, militarized masculinity, and attacks on Ukraine\u2019s social and political order (Kratochv\u00edl & O\u2019Sullivan, 2023; OHCHR, 2023). This is one form of war crime that is clearly prohibited under international law. The war has also had the effect of exacerbating pre-existing domestic violence trends in Ukraine. Thus, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has had a dual effect: it has brought with it a sharp increase in CRSV being strategically carried out by Russian forces across the country, while also testing the domestic gender governance structures across the country as it relates to domestic violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major legislative reforms in the Ukrainian domestic legal system were introduced in June 2022, following the ratification of the Istanbul Convention. The reforms have aimed to ensure that Ukraine\u2019s legal system is in line with the European Union\u2019s standards regarding prevention and protection from violence against women. There are, however, gaps that remain and need to be addressed: further resources for investigating cases of violence; gender-sensitive training for police officers, prosecutors, and judges; improved coordination between institutions; sustainable funding for shelters and crisis centres; and stronger monitoring within the security and defence sectors. These reforms should also be read through Ukraine\u2019s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) commitments, particularly the protection and prevention pillars of the WPS agenda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read the full policy paper, please download the PDF at the button below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Download<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This policy paper examines the wide spread use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in Ukraine. Working for 2022 legislation, it studies how reforms can be read in line with Ukraine’s Women, Peace, and Security commitments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":2604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[171,1,37,83],"tags":[158,109,35,42,43,78],"class_list":["post-2602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mentorship","category-news","category-policy-brief","category-ukraine","tag-mentorship","tag-nato","tag-policy-brief","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2602"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2607,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602\/revisions\/2607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/eetn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}