On November 10, 2020, Catholic Law’s International Law Students Association (ILSA) presented Experience of Interaction Between the UN and Commission on the Status of Women with NGOs. The program featured guest speaker Svitlana Salamatova and her work as Head of The Ukrainian Women in the UN Project.

The United Nations (UN) defines Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) as a not-for-profit voluntary citizen’s group that is organized on a local, national or international level to address issues in support of the public good. Salamatova created The Ukrainian Women in the UN Project in an effort to expand the participation of Ukrainian women in UN activities and to harness the power of what women can accomplish when they work together. Salamatova spoke about the work she has been doing since the organizations founding in 2017. She spoke about gender balance, the importance of partnering with women, and ways in which the organization has received pushback. Salamatova then answered questions from the group.

Lydia Korostelova (1L), a member of ILSA who helped organize the event, shared, “It is important to invite people who have hands-on experience with such big organizations and enable them to share their stories. I am very grateful to Svitlana Salamatova for being able to present today, especially considering that she is participating in the local elections right now. I am also planning on organizing more events of this kind this upcoming semester with specialists from Eastern Europe who had experiences with international organizations in the field of law.”