War against Ukraine: Diana Riba calls for better access to SRHR for women fleeing war.

EFA MEP Diana Riba intervened in Plenary today to demand more support for gender-based violence services and access to all sexual and reproductive health services (SRHR), for those women fleeing Ukraine. 

Since the war against Ukraine started 12 million people have reportedly left the country, over 90% of those are calculated to be women and children. In the last weeks, unofficial reports from internal intelligence and survivors about torture, sexual harassment, human trafficking and rape have been alarmingly growing. Including unofficial reports about the Russian army using violence against women as a weapon of war.

Diana Riba raised the urgency and the need for access to sexual reproductive and health rights, without forgetting about women and children from minorities. 

FEMM Co-coordinator and Parliamentary ERC spokesperson, Diana Riba i Giner said: 

“In Ukraine, we are once again confronted with a devastating reality: war has always had a woman's face. Girls and women in theatres of war are objectified, blatantly instrumentalised and almost always systematically omitted from decision-making.”

‘This violence, which disproportionately affects women and girls, is exacerbated when different forms of discrimination are combined: being a Roma, stateless, disabled, migrant, racialised or LGBTIQ+ woman exacerbates vulnerability.”

“ We see this with particular concern in the case of transgender women for whom the recognition of their identity may mark, among other things, the possibility, or not, of fleeing Ukraine.’

“That is why we are not content to call for a humanitarian response in generic terms.”

“ Women in Ukraine are fighters and caregivers, leaders of their communities and providers. Just a few days ago they were also teachers or journalists, civil servants or housewives, urban or rural. That is why we claim the pre-eminence of their role, but above all their capacity as agents of change.”

“ Without women's voices, there will be no peace or reconstruction.”