Rural Women Learn to Enforce Their Rights
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Hanna Skarha, the Head of the Poltava Regional Chapter of the Union of Rural Women of Ukraine, opens a legal seminar.
Photo Credit: ABA-ROLI |
Oleksandra Kyrychenko, the Head of the Veterans' Union, is a highly respected and well-known elderly woman in her village of Lyutenski Budyshcha, in the Poltava region. Although her neighbors look up to her, but her husband does not. For many years, Kyrychenko would return home not knowing how she would be greeted by her husband, or where she would spend the night – at her own home or at her sister’s. Over time, Kyrychenko had lost hope, but the tide finally turned when her friend, Hanna Skarha, invited her to participate in a seminar to learn about legal rights and protection.
The lack of legal protection for rural residents, and women in particular, is one of the most alarming and frequently overlooked problems in Ukraine. Rural women’s rights to have access to employment, equal pay for equal work, and an equal access to education, information, and medical services is continually and widely violated. Although legally entitled to ownership rights in land plots, women–of whom elderly women comprise the absolute majority–cannot or do not know how to enforce their ownership rights. And, even if they are among the fortunate who own land, they often face legal obstacles related to land use and operation rights for agricultural activity. The fact that women and children are the most frequent victims of domestic violence during difficult economic times further diminishes their capacity for self-advocacy.
For many years, Skarha has dreamed of helping rural residents, especially women, address these problems. As Head of the Poltava Regional Branch of the Union of Rural Women of Ukraine, she was vocal in protecting the rights of women like Oleksandra Kyrychenko at the Public Women’s Parliament of Ukraine and in the Public Councils on Gender and Agrarian Issues. A veterinary technician by profession, Skarha had always hoped to become a lawyer. After seeing a call for applications from USAID’s American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA-ROLI), she seized this opportunity to advocate for the rights of rural women. Skarha “put all her heart into the project,” and her efforts have achieved results.
With financial support received from USAID’s ABA-ROLI, Skarha held seven seminars on land law, domestic violence, and other issues, in which 525 residents from 10 villages learned about their rights and the legal avenues available to protect and enforce those rights. A total of 115 of those villagers are now certified by the Poltava Regional Branch of the Union of Rural Women of Ukraine as public defenders and can provide consultations and advice on many of the most pertinent and pressing issues impacting rural life, and advocate for those issues before judicial, executive, and local governmental bodies.
Skarha points to the empowerment that these women experience once they are able to take control of their lives and advocate for their rights as her ultimate reward. However, a more tangible result has been the creation of the Legal Protection Center in Zin’kiv district in Poltava Oblast. The Center serves as a hub for training and supporting public defender offices in the 10 most distant villages of the district. These same 10 villages have also received specialized legal libraries and computers as additional resources available to them. The lawyers of the Center provided 632 legal consultations on a pro bono basis. Eighteen cases have been won in the courts, and 16 cases advanced through state executive bodies.
Oleksandra Kyrychenko came to one of these seminars as a battered woman. Now, due to the information and support she received through the Union of Rural Women of Ukraine, the local militia have begun to take her complaints more seriously, and she finally has peace at home. Her husband has renewed respect for her and may be a bit awed by the newly self-assured woman in their home.
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