COMBATING CORRUPTION IN LAND RELATIONS

As part of the event, the position of human rights defenders on the organization of the work of local authorities in the field of land turnover was presented, a review of recent land conflicts in the Chernihiv region was made, expert proposals were provided on the regulation of the legal framework and the prevention of corruption abuses during the allocation of land.

The participants of the event also voiced the position of the State Agency of Land Resources on the current state of affairs in the field of land relations in the Chernihiv region and the changes expected

in the field of land legislation in the near future.

Oleksiy Tarasov acquainted those present with the results of the monitoring, and also briefly touched upon the main points included in the publication “Public Monitoring of Local Authorities of Chernihiv Region: Prevention of Corruption in the Sphere of Land Turnover”: “The publication we have presented is a kind of analytical document, which summarizes information on problems that hinder the legal circulation of land in the Chernihiv region in the interests of the community and ordinary citizens, as well as on corruption vulnerability in this area.

The main problems that experts drew attention to when conducting the study are the following:

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uncertainty of the situation with the start of the new procedure for registering land ownership from January 1, 2012, the lack of regulatory support for the activities of the newly created State Registration Service;

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delays by local government bodies in considering citizens’ appeals regarding land allocation, lack of legislative opportunity for citizens to appeal such delays;

•

unbalanced approach of prosecutors when appealing decisions of local councils in the interests of the community;

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lack of regulatory consolidation of the distribution of jurisdiction in cases regarding land turnover, when the court of each specialization considers “land cases” to be its own jurisdiction;

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lack of regulatory consolidation of the possibility of changing the intended purpose of actually afforested lands, uncertainty of the status of trees growing on such areas;

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uncertainty of the status of field roads and forest protection strips, lack of possibility of renting the coastal strip of closed water bodies with an area of ​​up to 3 hectares,

etc.

“The presence of the above and other problems in the field of land turnover provides a basis for corruption,” emphasized Oleksiy Tarasov.

The representative of the Main Department of the State Committee for Land in Chernihiv region, Ihor Puzan, spoke about the main issues of legal regulation of land relations at the current stage, problems of land use in the region and the algorithm of actions of citizens in certain cases.

“Indeed, there are a number of urgent problems in the field of land relations that exist at the moment and require mandatory resolution at the highest legislative level. Therefore, experts hope that by the end of this year the problematic issues will be resolved,” noted Mr. Puzan.

The project is being implemented with the support of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and the CCC Creative Center