The protection of women veterans should become one of the priorities of veterans’ policy in Ukraine, said Vitalii Hersak, Head of the NGO "Free and Faithful" (Vilni ta Virni) and a volunteer soldier, during the international conference "Effective Veterans’ Policy in Ukraine: International Experience" held on 11 April in Washington, DC.
According to Hersak, more than 45,000 Ukrainian women are currently serving in the Armed Forces, which is more than the total number of armies in some European countries and this figure is constantly growing. Over time, we will have tens and maybe even hundreds of thousands of women veterans whom the currently applicable system of veterans’ policy simply cannot effectively protect. At the same time, we have a successful American experience of veterans’ policy that should be taken into account in Ukraine.
According to the organisers of the international conference, there is a gulf between the currently applicable system in Ukraine and the way this system works in the United States. But this is not like a sentence, but a temporary shortcoming that we must rectify, using effective foreign experience and advice from foreign experts who are friends of Ukraine.
NGO “Free and Faithful” remarks that the integration of American women into the military began 75 years ago, in accordance with the Women's Armed Services Integration Act signed by President Truman, and as for Ukraine, this process began only in 2018 with the adoption of the Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men in Military Service Act of Ukraine. It is quite obvious that our countries started at different times, changed at different rates and travelled different distances when developing the necessary regulatory framework. In the United States, more than a dozen federal statute laws have been adopted to protect women veterans, which is more than the entire existing legislative framework for veterans’ policy in Ukraine. In total, there are more than 55 federal statute laws in the United States to protect veterans.
American women veterans have access to the best and most developed network of healthcare providers, where the state takes care of their reproductive health, pregnancy and childbirth. Women veterans receive comprehensive preventive examinations, immunisation and treatment of chronic diseases. The vocational rehabilitation and employment programme helps them to continue their education, improve their skills and build a career in civilian life. To help women better take advantage of the many veterans' benefits, the Department of Veterans Affairs has established a special public-private partnership that funds organisations that provide aid to women veterans and their families, and research into the challenges they may face in the future. Isn't this a model of inclusive and human-centred state policy that Ukraine should follow?," the conference organisers are convinced.
The international conference "Effective Veterans’ Policy in Ukraine: International Experience", initiated by the NGO "Free and Faithful" and held on 11 April in Washington, DC, was aimed at taking into account the American experience in reforming the state veterans’ policy in Ukraine. Ukrainian and American politicians and experts took part in the discussion, including Piteh Husi, an analyst at The Hudson Institute, John Kilmer, founder of Valicor US, Colleen Denny, Regional Director for Europe at Spirit of America, Daniel White, an analyst, Oleksii Illiashenko, former Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine (2019-2022), Meaghan Mobbs, Persident of R.T. Weatherman Foundation, Phyllis Wilson, President of the Military Women's Memorial Foundation, Josh Marcano, CEO at Reach (Reach Tactical LLC.), and others. More than 50 participants took part in the discussion and 17 reports were presented.
Earlier, on 29 February, the first round of this international conference was held in Kyiv, where a wide range of issues related to social protection, medical care, psychological support and economic reintegration of war veterans and their families were addressed.