On February 18–19, the seminar «Inter-agency cooperation: models to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence, including situations of social disadvantage, at the regional level» will take place in Ekaterinburg.

The Council of Europe, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights in co-operation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are currently implementing the project «Co-operation on the implementation of the Russian Federation National Action Strategy for Women (2017–2022)». The project is funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe.

The project focuses on developing knowledge and skills in two areas of the Russian National Action Strategy for Women (2017–2022): preventing social disadvantage of women and violence against women and fostering women’s participation in public and political life.

Within the project the partners are organizing the second seminar which will look at how actors at regional level can better co-operate to prevent and combat violence against women (VAW) and domestic violence (DV), including situations of social disadvantage. The first seminar took place in April 2019 in Astrakhan. This second seminar will discuss implementation of the measures discussed in Astrakhan and promote local co-operation networks based on local needs.

More than 60 participants representing national and regional authorities, civil society organizations of different regions will discuss specific topics on VAW and DV and social disadvantage; analyze international country models; identify good practices for combating VAW and DV and preventing social disadvantage in the regions. The seminar will promote mutual learning among CoE countries.

The main speakers of the seminar:

Alexey VOVCHENKO, First Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Protection;

Oksana PUSHKINA, Deputy Chair of the Committee on family, women and children affairs of the State Duma;

Petr SICH, Head of the Programme Office of the Council of Europe in the Russian Federation;

Aleška SIMKIĆ, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union in the Russian Federation.

Information for journalists
Venue: Ekaterinburg, hotel Novotel (conference hall «Rodonit»), ul. Engelsa, 7
Registration of participants: 09:00—09:30 (18 February), 8:30- 9:00 (19 February) local time.
The entire conference will be open for press coverage.

Press communication with panelists of the Opening session starts on 18 February at 10:30 until 11:00.
Prior accreditation of media representatives is requested. It is done through the Council of Europe Programme Office in Moscow, contact person for accreditation: Maria BELYAK, Project Assistant (Maria. BELYAK@coe.int , tel. + 7 (495) 775 37 52).

Accreditation requests are accepted until 16:00, 17 February 2019 (Moscow time).