Free legal aid: new realities and challenges of the time

In Ukraine, servicemen in the ATO zone, their families and displaced persons need legal assistance. Representatives of volunteer movements in the border regions – Kherson, Odesa and Chernihiv regions – told us about the issues they most often turn to lawyers at the reception desks of public organizations.

Paperwork

Most of all, servicemen from the ATO zone are concerned about the issue of registering the status of combatants, notes Nataliya Kozarenko, head of the reception desk of the Kherson Regional Charity and Health Foundation.

“After all, they have to collect documents on their own. During short-term leave, servicemen physically cannot cope with this problem. Often they do not know what exactly to submit. Therefore, it is very good that lawyers, such as the Facebook group “Legal Hundred”, which develops booklets, methodological guides with the specified set of all necessary documents for this, have joined this work on a volunteer basis throughout Ukraine. Such materials are distributed by our reception centers”

,– she notes.

The situation is also complicated by the fact that full-fledged combat operations are underway in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. However, by status they are qualified as ATO.

“Therefore, problems arise with those who were captured by militants, since international military conventions do not apply in such a status of a military conflict. Therefore, they cannot be considered prisoners of war, which complicates the procedure for their release”

, — adds Nataliya Kozarenko.

And the head of the reception office of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, Nataliya Piddubna, believes that according to the regulations governing the ATO, military personnel cannot participate in an anti-terrorist operation for more than 45 days.

“Only traffic police officers adhere to such norms. All other military and police units, where fierce fighting is going on 24 hours a day, spend 5-6 months in the so-called ATO zone

, — she continues. –

Despite this, it is very difficult for them to obtain the status of a combatant today, since each battalion issues different certificates. Only recently did the Cabinet of Ministers approve the form of such documents and the procedure for their issuance. Only the commander of a battalion or military unit can submit an application for the status of a combatant for those who are fighting”

.

On the one hand, it is clear that if every fighter starts applying to the authorities with documents, this will significantly complicate their functioning. After all, more than 7 thousand people were mobilized from the Kherson region alone. About four thousand are in the ATO zone. However, can the current procedure, according to which a higher-ranking officer decides which of his subordinates to submit documents for to receive the status of a combatant, be called perfect? ​​After all, the subjective factor is of great importance here, which is not always in favor of ordinary soldiers who risk their lives every day, every minute in this undeclared war, defending our country.

Bank extortion

In addition to these problems, our military has difficulties with banks, since many took out loans, including foreign currency loans, in peacetime. After all, people could not even imagine then that there would be a war in Ukraine.

– Now they have been mobilized to defend our country from the enemy, but banks, despite the government’s instructions, do not adequately address the situation with loan repayments. Therefore, we help our military in resolving such issues. Because, having left a high-paying job to join the army for a military salary of two and a half thousand hryvnias, they simply cannot fulfill their loan obligations. And this is not their fault. Bankers should understand this”

, — says the deputy head of the Odessa regional organization of the NGO “Committee of Voters of Ukraine” Ihor Brynosh.

In general, all military personnel and their families can receive the necessary legal advice on the “Legal Space” portal, which collects information throughout Ukraine and provides legal assistance.

“On this portal we are developing free services for people who need legal assistance but do not have the funds to pay for it”

, – explains the head of the Information Resource Center “Legal Space”, coordinator of the Kherson Volunteer Center for Assistance to Military Personnel Natalia Bimbarayte.

Problems of IDPs

Such people include IDPs from Crimea and the ATO zone, of whom, according to the UN, as of November 6, 2014, there were 450,352 in Ukraine (19,157 from Crimea and 431,195 from the eastern regions of Ukraine). Most of them apply for free legal assistance to restore documents lost in Donbas or seized by militants at an enemy checkpoint during the move to a safe territory. After all, the law “On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Internally Displaced Persons”, which regulates these procedures, was adopted only 7 months after the start of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Since then, thousands of internally displaced persons have turned to volunteer lawyers for help, wishing to apply for subsidies, pensions and other social benefits at their new place of residence.

– Which creates considerable problems. After all, the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 505 of October 1, 2014 “On Providing Monthly Targeted Assistance to Persons Relocating from the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine and Areas of Anti-Terrorist Operation to Cover Living Expenses, Including Housing and Utilities” although it provides for the payment of material assistance to internally displaced persons within 10 days, in practice the procedure for its application is stretched for months. How and for what people should live in a foreign territory at this time is unknown. Therefore, in the Kherson region, we are trying to help them collect all the necessary certificates and provide comprehensive legal advice on a volunteer basis,”

, — notes Natalia Kozarenko.

In the Odessa region, IDPs from the ATO zone were also concerned about problems with obtaining the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

“If the Crimeans had already figured out this issue during the presidential elections, then the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk had to confirm their status as forcibly displaced persons with a housing lease agreement or other documents. However, even after that, they could only vote according to party lists. It became impossible to cast their vote for a majoritarian candidate at their place of residence, since according to their registration, the IDPs are assigned to other majoritarian districts, in which elections were not held due to military operations,”

, — said Ihor Brynosh.

Volunteers’ proposals

To make their work more effective, volunteers call on all caring lawyers who provide legal assistance to military personnel and IDPs on a free basis to unite. Such assistance to IDPs and military personnel from the ATO zone is provided, in particular, by public reception centers of the Ukrainian Human Rights and Human Rights Organization (UHHRU), which are located in all regions of Ukraine. At the same time, volunteer lawyers call on state authorities and security forces, which are only taking the first steps in this direction in the border regions, to join them.

The volunteers also formulated a number of proposals for a way out of the crisis situation in which Ukraine finds itself. In particular, they advise adopting regulatory acts that would guarantee the same level of social protection for all ATO participants, regardless of the subordination of the units in which they are located, and adopting all by-laws necessary for the implementation of the provisions of the law “On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Internally Displaced Persons.”

Only under such conditions, in their opinion, is it possible to resolve the problematic issues that arise today as a result of the occupation of Crimea and military actions in Donbas.