This opinion was expressed by Sabine Freizer Gunes, UN Women Representative in Ukraine. She believes that attention to gender equality issues in Ukraine helped the country to respond promptly to the problem of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and to counter it.

Iryna Zalialova is a police colonel in the Ukraine National Police service. She leads the Department for Monitoring Gender Equality and efforts to combat domestic violence under the Human Rights Compliance Department. Until 2014, Zalialova lived in Horlivka and worked at the Donetsk Law Institute. When pro-Russian militants entered the Donetsk region, Zalialova and her family were forced to flee to Kyiv. Already in the capital of Ukraine, she decided to try out for the National Police: she passed the competition and got a job as a precinct officer.

Valentyna Dobrydina is a representative of the Government Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Chernivtsi Regional State Administration, in western Ukraine. She also heads the non-profit public organization, “Leader: the Chernivtsi Regional Organization of People with Disabilities.”

Natalia Tiuniahina is the Regional Coordinator of the charitable organization “Positive Women” and founder and Board member of the public organization “Positive Women Kherson” in southern Ukraine.

Christina Bilous is a Roma civic activist. She is also leader of a Self-Help Group in the community of Toretsk, near the frontline in the conflict-affected Donetsk region of Eastern Ukraine. As an active community member, Bilous heads up the Roma non-governmental organization, Sumnakuno Petalo, advocating for the rights of Roma women and girls.