Following months of sustained advocacy, the Global Survivors Fund (GSF) welcomes the specific inclusion of reparations as a viable use of funds from the European Parliament’s support loan package for Ukraine, approved this week. Whilst modest, this important reference opens the door to ensuring that EU funding will be used to secure reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence, torture, forced disappearance, and other grave crimes.
Details of the expenditure priorities for this loan will be negotiated over the coming weeks, through the development of the Ukraine Financing Strategy and subsequent discussions with the EU.
We urge the Government of Ukraine to ensure that financing is allocated to implement the Bardina reparations law, directly addressing the harms that survivors of conflict-related sexual violence have suffered, including those dating back to 2014. We also encourage earmarked funding to broader domestic reparation programmes for other categories of victims and to support relevant international mechanisms, including the Claims Commission. Survivors’ needs are urgent, and they should not wait any longer for the reparations to which they are entitled.