Communities in the north of Chernihiv region organize a system of providing free legal aid

A roundtable discussion was held in the city of Mena, Chernihiv region, on cooperation between local governments, local centers for the provision of legal aid and public organizations to ensure access to legal aid in local communities.

The event, which took place on May 31, 2016, was attended by the Director of the Regional Center for Free Secondary Legal Aid in Chernihiv Oblast

Iryna Protchenko

, Director of the Mensky Local Center for Free Secondary Legal Aid

Anatoliy Yermolenko

, Representatives of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights

Viktor Tarasov

and

Natalia Piddubna

, Representatives of local governments, public organizations and the media.

Opening the meeting, the Chairman of the Mensky District Council

Oleksandr Mysnyk

, emphasized the importance of holding joint events of the local center for the provision of free secondary legal aid and public organizations with representatives of district councils and state administrations in order to solve the problems of protecting the rights of local residents.

“Today, the situation is such that out of 26 communities in the district, only the Mensk City Council has employees with higher legal education who can advise people seeking legal assistance and suggest them to contact one or another organization, or redirect a person to the possibility of receiving legal assistance. There is little information in the district about where a person can receive free legal assistance and protect their rights,” the head of the district council complained. “And the further from the district center, the less information residents have and the fewer opportunities to receive assistance.”

Director of the Regional Center for the Provision of Legal Aid in the Chernihiv Region

Iryna Protchenko

told those present about the current process of reforming the justice system.

“From September 1, 2016, legal aid bureaus should begin their work, which will have functions, in particular, to provide primary legal aid, – noted Ms.

Protchenko

. – According to statistics, today 30% of applications to legal aid centers are secondary legal aid, and 70% are the need for primary legal aid.”

The Director of the Mensky Local Center for the Provision of Free Legal Aid

Anatoliy Yermolenko

spoke about the specifics of the work and the assistance that the center’s employees and lawyers provide to residents of 7 districts of the north-eastern Chernihiv region, as well as to residents of Snovsky (Shchorsky), Koryukivsky, Mensky, Sosnytsky, Koropsky, Semenivsky, Novgorod-Siversky districts and the city of Novgorod-Siversky, which fall under the Law of Ukraine “On the Provision of Free Legal Aid”.

According to the head of the local center, the categories of those entitled to free legal aid are expanding, the number of applications from residents is increasing, as the amount of information about the Center’s activities has increased. Thus, in the last 6 months of 2015, local lawyers were given 16 assignments, and in the 5 months of 2016, 50 assignments (but 43 of them were in the Mensky district, and 7 assignments in the other 6 districts covered by the Mensky Center of the Legal Aid Service).

“These statistics indicate the need to adopt local programs for providing legal aid, as this will provide more opportunities for visits to small, remote settlements and reach more residents, especially those who are unable to reach the Center on their own,” said the director of the Mensky local center. “Today, the Program for Providing Free Legal Aid to Community Residents in the Koropsky District has already been approved. In the near future, a similar program will be adopted in the Novgorod-Siversky District.”

Head of Programs of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights

Natalia Piddubna

noted that public organizations are actively working in all areas of providing legal aid and protecting human rights and provide assistance to all citizens who turn to them.

“The situation with respect for human rights is quite difficult in the state, reforms are constantly taking place, therefore, in order to provide free legal aid in communities, it is necessary to join the efforts of both local centers for the provision of legal aid, as well as local self-government bodies, public and volunteer organizations. Since not all categories of citizens can receive assistance in local centers for the provision of legal aid, the Law does not provide the opportunity to receive legal aid to all citizens, but only to certain categories. Therefore, the adoption of relevant programs at the level of local communities will provide an opportunity to provide legal aid and information to local residents,” emphasized

Natalia Piddubna

.

During the roundtable discussion, the issues of the impossibility for all citizens to receive free qualified legal assistance were raised, the problems of legal awareness of the public, namely residents of remote northern districts of Chernihiv region, were discussed, and those present tried to find ways to solve them.

One of such ways is the creation of a system of providing free legal assistance in communities. The issue of the feasibility and possibility of adopting district Programs for providing free legal assistance turned out to be interesting and necessary. The head of the Snovsk (Shchorsk) District State Administration, Ruslan Kravets, was interested in the program and promised to discuss this issue with the leadership of the Snovsk district. And the head of the Mensk district council, Oleksandr Mysnyk, noted that he would familiarize himself in detail with the program for the population of the Menshchyna region and submit it for consideration by the relevant council commission.

The event was organized by the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights in cooperation with the Mensky Local Center for the Provision of Free Secondary Legal Aid within the framework of the project “Integration of Primary and Secondary Free Legal Aid at the Level of Territorial Communities of Chernihiv Oblast” within the framework of the Project “Affordable and Quality Legal Aid in Ukraine”, which is implemented by the Canadian Bureau for International Education with the support of the Government of Canada and the Human Rights and Justice Program Initiative of the International Renaissance Foundation.