PRESS RELEASE : UK supports most vulnerable women and girls in Ukraine [March 2024]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 4 March 2024.

The UK has allocated £1.5 million for International Planned Parenthood Federation which has provided sexual and reproductive health services for vulnerable women and girls in Ukraine.

The UK has allocated £1.5 million for International Planned Parenthood Federation which has provided sexual health and reproductive health services for the most vulnerable women and girls in Ukraine.

These services have helped protect the most at risk by ensuring they have access to vital sexual and reproductive healthcare, including mobile clinics and access to safe abortion care. This funding has supported over 20,000 people to access vital medical care since July 2022 and provided sexual health information to over 100,000 people.

The UK has already pledged over £4.7 billion in non-military support to Ukraine, including £357 million in humanitarian assistance since the start of full-scale invasion. This vital funding includes activities addressing the specific needs of women and girls living in conflict zones, including life-saving assistance to help tackle gender-based violence, safe spaces, mobile medical clinics, and sexual and reproductive health services.

As part of her work as a champion of the UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative, and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, the Duchess of Edinburgh spoke via video message at the Restoration of the Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Survivors’ Rights Conference, alongside First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska. Her Royal Highness called for survivors to receive holistic support, for their voices to be heard and for survivors’ rights to remain at the heart of international work to eradicate conflict-related sexual violence and ensure justice and accountability.

Addressing the conference via video, the Duchess of Edinburgh said:

Survivors here and around the world have spoken out so bravely about their experiences. They are the most powerful advocates who remind us all that we must not turn our backs on the horrors of this crime, we must never forget the survivors.

Rather, we must stand shoulder to shoulder with all survivors to secure justice and holistic redress and ensure that this crime isn’t an accepted part of conflict. Their rights and their voices must be at the heart of all our efforts to consign conflict-related sexual violence to the history books.

The UK is working with international partners to hold those responsible to account. In addition to providing financial and technical assistance to the International Criminal Court, we have deployed specialist UK war crimes and conflict related sexual violence experts to the region, and created an expert Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group with the EU and US.

Speaking at the Conference via video, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon is expected to say:

The commitment of our Ukrainian colleagues and the courage demonstrated by ordinary citizens in the most challenging of circumstances are truly inspiring.

The UK will continue to support them, including through the Office of the Prosecutor General, to secure accountability for the perpetrators, and  justice for survivors.