2006 Conference:   World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations

By Natalka Popowych (Translated by Orysia Sopinka-Chwaluk)

Seventeen organizations were represented at year’s annual conference of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations, which took place in Kyiv on August 15-17.

Representing Canada were the Ukrainian Women’s Organization of Canada under the patronage of Olga Bassarab, Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada, Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada, and the League of Ukrainian Women. Also in attendance were representatives from the United States, Scandinavia, Germany, Australia, Estonia, Italy, Great Britain, Latvia, Czech Republic, Poland, Argentina, Poland and Ukraine.

Askold Lozynskyj, the President of The World Congress of Ukrainians delivered opening remarks. Subsequently, delegates from each organization presented reports.

At the conference, delegates were informed that a museum commemorating the Ukrainian Women’s Movement was being discussed in Kyiv, thanks to the efforts of Natalie Danylenko from the United States.  In addition, the Ukrainian Publishing Company, Univers, presented Antonina Demchyna’s book From East to West, which was published in Ukrainian with financial assistance from The World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations.

Also, an information session took place on the Holodomor or Famine of 1932-1933.   The main speaker was Professor Valentyna Borysenko, a Ukrainian historian, who is researching the Holodomor.  She pointed out that while many countries have recognized the Holodomor as a genocide directed against the Ukrainian nation, unfortunately, Ukraine has not done so, though President Yushchenko is working on this issue.  Professor Borysenko noted that her book Svicha Pamiati on the Holodomor will be soon printed under the patronage of Catherine Yushchenko’s Project Ukraine 3,000 Foundation.  In addition, Oksana Sokolyk, honorary president of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations and her husband, Yaroslaw, of Toronto, have donated 5,000 dollars for the publication of Professor Borysenko’s book. 

During the discussion, proposals were made to demand that Ukraine recognize the Holodomor as a genocide, that the Communist Party of Ukraine admit its guilt in allowing this horrific crime to take place and, finally, to call on the disbanding of the party.

Tragically, during the time of the conference, Nadia Svitlychna, who was a well-known human rights activist, Ukrainian Helsinki Group member and an editor of the magazine “News about Repressions in Ukraine,” passed away in Kyiv. The delegates paid their last respects to her and Marika Szkambara, president of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations, gave a speech in her honour.  Instead of buying flowers, delegates donated 100 dollars to the building of a Human Rights Museum, focusing on the human rights activists from the 1960s (shetydesiatnyky).  This project had been initiated by Svitlychna.

On the third day of the conference, meetings were held with representatives of women’s organizations in Ukraine.  The discussion revolved around the questions of safeguarding the Ukrainian language and culture, the contemporary status of the family and the fate of the working woman in the diaspora.

An interesting speech was presented by Lilia Gregorowych, a deputy in the Supreme Council of Ukraine who offered her perspective on problems in politics in Ukraine.  She stated that the appointment of Victor Yanukovych as Prime Minister was a big minus, while the signing of the Universal by all parties was a big plus.  Gregorowych urged the diaspora to support the President of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko and maintained that he is a patriot who can lead Ukraine through difficult political and economic times to a new level of national consciousness.  The same opinion was expressed by Daria Husiak, who was a former prisoner of Soviet labour camps and a member of the Ukrainian League of Women.

Most encouraging were the presentations made by Lida Salyvaniuk, a student from the Ostrozka Academy, Ludmila Kowalyk, a student of the Kyiv State University, bearing Taras Shevchenko’s name, and Irene Kovalewych, a graduate of the Ukrainian Catholic University.  They instilled a hope that a new generation has grown up in Ukraine– a generation that has Ukraine for a fatherland and not the extinct Union of Socialist Republics.