IDP-Women Are More Economically Vulnerable Than Men: The Results of the Gender Analysis on the IDPs Rights Observance

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03.05.2018

Kyiv, May 3, 2018 - Internally displaced women are three times more likely than men to live in large families, almost twice as often in poor families and 9% more in families with difficult living conditions.

These are the results of a nationwide survey on the observance of the rights of internally displaced persons (IDP). The gender analysis conducted by the experts of the civil society organisation “GROUP OF INFLUENCE" assessed the how the rights of IDP women and men are observed and identified the specifics and special needs for the protection of their rights. The study also revealed how much the principle of equal opportunities for women and men in the field of realization of their rights is respected.

The results of the study were presented during an expert discussion at the Ombudsperson Office. Welcoming guests, the Representative of the Parliament Commissioner on children's rights, non-discrimination, and gender equality, Aksana Filipyshyna noted: "Recently, due to the conflict in the East of Ukraine, a new category of women appeared, which we treat as a vulnerable category – women - IDPs. Unfortunately, the data indicate that the ability of women to exercise their rights is much worse than men’s".

Svitlana Kolyshko, UNDP Human Rights Team, Project Manager of the UNDP project "Strengthening the Capacity of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights" emphasized: "This analysis confirmed that the recommendations received by Ukraine within the CEDAW and UPR are very much correlated with the results of the study. In turn, these recommendations and international obligations must be respected and implemented appropriately".

Gender analysis has shown that women-IDPs are more economically vulnerable than men: they often lack money and are forced to save even on food, they often financially dependent on men and family members and hold up children more often than men. The study showed they have much more responsibilities as they have to take care about underaged children: 41.6% of women live with children under 18 comparing to 21,7% men.

Women also experience employment problems more often than men - the gender gap here is more than 10%. Among all respondents, less than half (40.7%) said they have a job / employed, namely 46.1% men and 35.9% women. Twice fewer women from IDP could establish their own business.

While addressing for administrative services women more often experience difficulties. Women more often inform on the lack of clarifications, inaccessibility of information on procedures and violation of service provision terms. When appealing to a court, men more often managed to defend their rights in court.

Gender analysis on the compliance with the rights of IDP has confirmed that the gender roles and stereotypes exist in Ukraine: taking care of children and other relatives remains for women one of the primary responsibility, and the bread-making function is set for men.

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The survey was conducted by the Ukrainian Institute of Social Studies in honor of Alexandr Yaremenko during  27 September -  24  October 2017 in 24 regions of Ukraine and in Kiev. In total, 2002 respondents were interviewed. Standard deviations with a reliable 95 percent and the ratio of variables from 0.1: 0.9 to 0.5: 0.5 make up 1.34 - 2.24 percent.