Human rights activists will promote the effective integration of ATO participants at the community level of Chernihiv region

A new project, which will be implemented by several partner public organizations, is aimed at ensuring that ATO participants and their family members can learn to independently defend their rights and solve psychological problems. The project will also contribute to the effective integration of servicemen at the community level.

According to official data from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, 205,864 servicemen and employees of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have received the status of a combatant since the beginning of the war in Donbas (data as of June 10, 2017).

However, official statistics do not include those individuals who encountered problems in the process of obtaining the status of a war veteran (including a war participant, a disabled war participant, a combatant) and still do not have a certificate.

Today, a situation has arisen in which ATO participants and their family members need comprehensive legal and psychological assistance. The Internet and the media contain a lot of information about the benefits of ATO participants, advice on their psychological and social rehabilitation, but the information is not structured, and doubts arise about its reliability. Returning from the ATO zone, demobilized servicemen are often in actual “isolation” from society.

Almost every community has ATO participants who cannot independently solve their problems, cannot establish cooperation with local self-government bodies and state authorities. It is impossible to solve all the problems of ATO participants at the state level, because veterans have specific needs at the community level.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to form in ATO participants a conscious and responsible attitude towards participation in community life, in order to solve their own legal and psychological problems, as well as the problems of other community members at the systemic level.

The initiative “Strengthening the legal capacity and socio-psychological integration of ATO participants and their family members at the level of territorial communities” was led by the public organization “Podilska Pravova Liga” (Khmelnytskyi).

In the Kharkiv region, the project activities will be implemented by the Chuhuiv Human Rights Group. Also, partner organizations that will participate in the project implementation are: the Kamianets-Podilskyi Lawyers Association, the Information Resource Center “Legal Space”, the Center for Community Growth, Legal Unity and

Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights

. The initiative is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation.

The project activities will be carried out in two directions – the provision of free legal aid and legal education.

The following measures are planned in the direction of providing free legal aid:

1) organization of field receptions in places of compact accommodation of ATO participants;

2) identification of priority problems of ATO participants and their family members at the community level and their group solution;

3) systematization of information on target programs in communities; sending requests about the availability and implementation of target programs; assessment and analysis of the effectiveness of programs, development of recommendations for their improvement.

The following measures are planned in the direction of legal education:

1) establishment of cooperation with local governments, state authorities, war veterans’ organizations, volunteers;

2) conducting one-day field trainings based on territorial communities in different regions of Ukraine (Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv,

Chernihiv

, Kharkiv, Kherson and Volyn regions);

3) organizing a school for public activists among ATO participants in the field;

4) developing roadmaps for ATO participants with the involvement of the most active of them in the process of developing the roadmap and distributing them among the target audience.

It is expected that as a result of the project, ATO participants and their family members will be able to learn to independently defend their rights, solve psychological problems, and the project will contribute to the effective integration of servicemen at the community level.