The work has begun on an updated version of the manual “First steps to restoring justice”, prepared by specialists from the Eastern Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives.

EUCCI experts are working on a new version of the manual together with the colleagues from the Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation.

The need to update the book is dictated by the realities that emerged with the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion and changes in Ukrainian legislation. The new version of the book will contain an updated list of organizations and specialists that provide assistance to victims. Lawyers will complement the list of step-by-step instructions on how to receive a certificate of an IDP / a person who fell victim to trafficking in human beings / get or restore documents, get financial assistance for those who have been captured as a prisoner of war. The manual will be supplemented with advice from a psychologist and information on how to overcome stigma in the immediate environment and restore one's personal life.

"Unfortunately, our state recognized victims of sexual violence during the war only in words. To this day, there are no special state programs for financial support of survivors. Based on these realities, we are forced to abandon the old concept of the guidelines. Its essence is that since there are no special state programs for victims of the SGBV, we quote assistance programs available to them as IDPs, for those who survived captivity, who were subjected to forced labor, etc.”, - the initiator of the guidelines Volodymyr Shcherbachenko describes its concept.

Women and men who have survived SGBV are actively involved in the preparation of the guidelines. EUCCI has already held a series of consultations, during which the victims shared their vision of the updated version of the book.

"Such books are needed. They are necessary to realize that what happened to you was a special type of crime. You get used to what happens to you in captivity. And you are happy to break out. And the person who is being released does not realize the completeness of the crimes that have been committed against him or her. You do not understand that certain forms of violence were exactly SGBV. And when you read about it in the manual, everything becomes clear,” - said a participant at the meeting on improving the manual, who wished to remain anonymous.

The updated version of the manual is scheduled to be released in January 2023. The authors of the book plan to transfer part of the circulation to libraries and "points of invincibility" in the liberated municipalities. In addition, the manual will be distributed through the SEMA - Ukraine network of women-victims of sexual violence and other organizations that provide assistance to victims.