In Chernihiv, human rights activists and lawyers unite to ensure the legal needs of ATO participants

“Consolidation of efforts of providers of legal aid to ATO participants and their family members” – this was the slogan of the round table “Legal aid to ATO participants in Chernihiv region: problems and prospects for their solution”, which was held on July 14, 2015 in Chernihiv at the initiative of the Ukrainian Legal Aid Foundation and the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights.

Participants – lawyers, human rights activists, representatives of state centers for the provision of free secondary legal aid, public organizations, volunteer movements, and specialized government bodies – discussed the possibilities of cooperation in order to optimize the mechanism and process of providing legal aid to ATO participants.

Iryna Protchenko

, Director of the Regional Center for the Provision of Free Secondary Legal Aid in Chernihiv Oblast, addressing the participants with a welcoming speech, emphasized the interaction of stakeholders in organizing the process of providing high-quality legal aid to ATO participants: “The state encourages citizens to take an active part in protecting the state, and this means that attention should also be paid to the status of these people and how they can hope that the guarantees that are established can actually be implemented.”

Antonina Bondarenko

, Program Director of the Ukrainian Legal Aid Foundation, emphasized the need to focus efforts on improving the level of knowledge and practices of legal aid providers to ATO participants and their family members. “Our plans include the development and implementation of an All-Ukrainian training program for advocates and lawyers who provide assistance to ATO participants, as well as lawyers and lawyers of volunteer and public initiatives: from handling ATO participants’ cases in court to providing primary legal aid.”

Volodymyr Bobruyko

, director of the Chernihiv Local Center for Providing Free Secondary Legal Aid of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, presented the opening of 100 local centers and the opportunity to receive free secondary legal aid, in particular to ATO participants. Thus, since July 1, 2015, secondary legal aid has been available to ATO participants and their family members. The lawyer outlined the importance of cooperation in providing legal aid to ATO participants as follows: “Through the combatants, we reach out to ATO participants. If we talk about the assistance we provide, we are talking about representation in courts on procedural issues. Since 2013, we have had experience in Criminal cases. However, if we talk about the present time, a very important issue is assistance to war veterans, including ATO participants, in which there is one obvious nuance – we can provide it if the person has the appropriate documents certifying their status. Everyone knows how difficult it is to obtain the status of a combatant. Obviously, there will be such problems when such people apply to the centers who will indicate that they are combatants, but the registration of their status is in the process. Our goal is to help everyone. We need the support of all interested parties so that such people, due to the very necessity of complying with the requirements of the Law, are not left without legal assistance for a long time.

The round table participants presented their own experience of providing legal assistance to ATO participants and voiced the vision of the role of each potential partner in creating a network of providing legal assistance to ATO participants.

“In the context of the military conflict in Ukraine, it is extremely important that ATO participants and their families can freely exercise their rights, avoiding legal red tape. Therefore, in the spring of 2014, when the events in the ATO were unfolding, a number of public organizations with many years of professional experience in providing free legal assistance and belonging to the Network of Legal Information and Consultation Centers began to provide free legal assistance to military personnel and their families in three border regions: Kherson, Odessa and Chernihiv.

In the spring of 2015, the first wave of demobilization of military personnel who participated in the ATO took place. We expect the second in the fall. So far, the state has not been able to solve the legal and psychological problems of military personnel. Our plans are to ensure that state bodies responsible for the full implementation of laws regarding ATO participants act effectively. In order for the declared in the legislation to be implemented, appropriate changes should appear. We are open to cooperation with practicing lawyers and advocates who share our goals. We would like to have specialists working in each region, whom ATO participants and their family members could turn to if necessary. The more of us there are, the sooner we will achieve changes in the state,” said the head of programs of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights

Natalia Piddubna

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Igor Puzan

, a representative of the Main Department of the State Geocadastre in Chernihiv region, highlighted the problematic issues of allocating land plots to ATO participants.

“One of the priority tasks of the State Geocadastre in the Chernihiv region is to satisfy the applications of ATO participants for the provision of land plots, – noted

Igor Puzan

. – Since the beginning of the events in the East of the country, the State Geocadastre of the region has provided for over 600 plots of land for allocation to ATO participants. It should be noted that land resources authorities transfer ownership of agricultural land plots of state ownership. Management of communal land in settlements is carried out by village, town and city councils, respectively.”

Since the beginning of the anti-terrorist operation, the State Geocadastre of the Chernihiv region has received 2,160 applications from ATO participants for the provision of land plots. Most of the applications concern the allocation of land within the Chernihiv district, near the regional center. Because of this, certain conflicts and disputes occur. In particular, the conflict surrounding the allocation of land within the Ulyaniv village council near Chernihiv has become a major issue. Currently, this situation is still being resolved.

A representative of the State Geocadastre advised the heads of territorial communities that if there are boys in their villages who are in the ATO zone but have not yet applied for a land plot, the local council should temporarily reserve land for these people. After all, there are few free land plots in their village, so residents of settlements can get them, and boys from the village will not have time to get the desired plot near their place of residence when they return home.

Vadym Lilchytsky

, deputy military commissar of the Chernihiv regional military commissariat, spoke out in favor of unifying the work of providing assistance to the military. “Limiting only to legal or social assistance is not enough. The system should be comprehensive. A person should not run around looking for some services. There is a need to implement a program based on the principle of a “single window”, with a single phone number and a full range of services. If a serviceman turns to a certain public organization or state institution, specialists should fully support the soldier in resolving his issues.”

The relevance of cooperation between public organizations, state structures, and volunteer initiatives at this stage is obvious. The participants of the event spoke about their own experience and their vision of further cooperation, and also presented established practices and proven effective mechanisms for further cooperation. First, the participants agreed that the creation of a network of legal aid providers is a necessary step for the most effective assistance to ATO participants. The unique experience of each organization must be transformed into materials for distribution: create training programs and distribute information materials for ATO participants in the “fields.”

Summing up the results of the round table,

Natalia Piddubna

, noted: “The first step is the dissemination of information, the effective provision of legal aid, each organization sooner or later faces the fact that it can no longer do its work. By creating a network, we will be sure that organizations will not be overloaded. We suggest that activists and lawyers work together before the state can comprehensively, effectively and accelerate the process of providing legal aid.”

The round table was held within the framework of the project “Creating a network of free legal aid for ATO participants and their family members” with the support of .