Name of the organization/initiative and year of foundation

Women’s Informational and Consultative Centre (WICC) was established in 1995.

Mission

Collection, analysis, and dissemination of information on the activities of women’s organizations and women’s initiatives in Ukraine and abroad and discussion on gender issues.

Actions and projects in the context of armed conflict

In its activities, the organization uses three main strategies: research, education, and advocacy.

The “Empowering Education” program, which was established by WICC in 1996, is based on the approaches of non-violence and culture of peace, and works in 12 countries: Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine. In 2012, WICC developed an unofficial Ukrainian translation of UN Resolution No 1325.

Long before 2014, WICC had been conducting research on resolving conflicts by peaceful means and does so now (“Transforming conflict by peaceful means: the Transcend Method” 1999, “Do not steal conflicts better help resolve them” 2000, “Do not steal conflicts better love them and let them go” 2015).

WICC has been systematically working with the security and defense sector since 2015. It developed and distributed the “soldier’s card” on gender equality in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the card on prevention of violence among military personnel. Memorandums of cooperation on gender issues were signed with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (2018) and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (2020).

Since 2015, WICC has been systematically working in the conflict zone – both on the territory controlled by Ukraine and on the temporarily occupied territories. In 2015, WICC, together with the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights, conducted the first expedition to the Donetsk region to document the facts of sexual violence related to the conflict. In 2018, they held meetings and trainings for women from the temporarily occupied territory and conducted two assessments of the needs of women and girls who live along the line of contact.

Since 2016, WICC has been a co-founder of the “Women Peace Dialogue” regional network, which began as a Ukrainian-Russian dialogue of women. The network includes Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Russia, the USA, and Ukraine.