“Ukrainian Women in Wartime” | An Evening with Oleksandra Matviichuk

The Ukrainian Institute of America is honored to present a special evening with Oleksandra Matviichuk, human rights defender and Head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine (Nobel Peace Prize 2022), in conversation with Oksana Mattiash, CEO of Teach for Ukraine and the first Obama Scholar from Ukraine.

The program will be followed by a light reception.

This event is free and open to the public. Pre-registration is requested. Donations are appreciated.

“Ukrainian Women in Wartime”

In wartime, women are called upon to maintain the fabric of their families and their communities in the face of extremely disruptive circumstances. The current war in Ukraine is no different. It has led to massive changes in the day-to-day life in cities and towns across the country. Ukrainian women have stepped up to the challenges and are supporting their families and serving their country in a variety of ways, from the frontlines to the dinner table. Not only are women taking on roles with responsibility in military institutions, but they are increasing their participation in humanitarian spaces, civil society and governance. During this Women’s History Month, our guests will discuss how the war is impacting traditional gender roles in military, civil society and government institutions, and how it might impact the future of Ukraine.

About Oleksandra Matviichuk

Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights defender who works on issues in Ukraine and the OSCE region. At present she heads the human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties, and also coordinates the work of the initiative group Euromaidan SOS. The activities of the Center for Civil Liberties are aimed at protecting human rights and establishing democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region. The organization is developing legislative changes, exercises public oversight over law enforcement agencies and judiciary, conducts educational activities for young people and implements international solidarity programs.

The Euromaidan SOS initiative group was created in response to the brutal dispersal of a peaceful student rally in Kyiv on November 30, 2013. During three months of mass protests that were called the Revolution of Dignity, several thousand volunteers provided round-the-clock legal and other aid to persecuted people throughout the country. Since the end of the protests and beginning of Russian aggression in Ukraine, the initiative has been monitoring political persecution in occupied Crimea, documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the hybrid war in the Donbas and conducting the #LetMyPeopleGo and #SaveOlegSentsov international campaigns to release political prisoners detained by the Russian authorities.

Oleksandra Matviichuk has experience in creating horizontal structures for massive involvement of people in human rights activities against attacks on rights and freedoms, as well as a multi-year practice of documenting violations during armed conflict. She is the author of a number of alternative reports to various UN bodies, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE and the International Criminal Court.

After the beginning of new armed aggression in February 2022, Oleksandra Matviichuk together with other partners created the “Tribunal for Putin” initiative in order to document international crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in all regions of Ukraine which became the targets of attacks of the Russian Federation.

In 2016 she received the Democracy Defender Award for “Exclusive Contribution to Promoting Democracy and Human Rights” from missions to the OSCE. In 2017 she became the first woman to participate in the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program of Stanford University. In 2022 Oleksandra Matviichuk was awarded with the Right Livelihood Award and recognized as one of the 25th influential women in the world by Financial Times. The same year Center for Civil Liberties which Oleksandra Matviichuk head’s for received the Nobel Peace Prize.

About Oksana Matiiash

Oksana Matiiash is the chief executive officer of Teach For Ukraine, a nonprofit organization that aims to ensure every child in Ukraine has access to quality education. As CEO, Oksana has developed partnerships with 30 schools serving 10,000 children in five regions in Ukraine. Since 2020, Oksana has worked with technology companies and foundations to raise over $2,500,000 and expand Teach For Ukraine’s teacher base tenfold. Instead of suspending operations at the start of the war, Oksana led the organization to launch urgent emergency responses. Partnering with UNICEF, Save the Children, and the World Bank, Teach For Ukraine provided emergency psycho-social and learning support to 25,000 children and 90,000 teachers. Still based in Kyiv, Oksana and her team provide tutoring, summer camps, and leadership programs to ensure that children continue to receive educational support during the war. Oksana hopes to use the Scholars program to develop her leadership abilities and scale her work to shape and rebuild Ukraine’s educational system after the war.

Oksana was featured in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in the category of Social Impact and is a recipient of the Peres Heritage Award by the European House Ambrosetti. She holds a master’s of public policy from the University of Oxford as the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholar and a master’s in international law from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.