New challenges in protecting the rights of internally displaced persons

Thousands of internally displaced persons throughout Ukraine have already received free legal assistance in the network of legal clinics of the All-Ukrainian Coalition for Legal Aid, including in Chernihiv region.

The project is implemented with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in cooperation with in 10 regions of Ukraine.

As part of the project, internally displaced persons from occupied territories and combat zones, ATO participants and their family members are informed through the media about their legal rights, legal remedies and the availability of legal services. Qualified lawyers also provide primary and secondary legal assistance: they consult, in particular, via Skype, prepare the necessary procedural documents and, if necessary, represent people’s interests in courts.

The main target groups of the project are internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were forced to leave the occupied territories and the combat zone, as well as public activists who deal with the problems of internally displaced persons, or who themselves have been persecuted due to their public or professional activities in the occupied territories.

“The problem of legal protection of internally displaced persons for almost a year and a half of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine remains as acute,” says Viktor Tarasov, head of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights – a project partner in the Chernihiv region. – Every day, several dozen people who were forced to flee the horrors of armed confrontation come to the network of legal clinics. In a new place, they are all under stress, have great difficulty adapting and establishing social ties. They do not know where to turn for legal help, and very often face problems in resolving even the simplest legal situations. In this situation, legal aid is the lifeline that helps displaced people overcome despair, depression, and better adapt to life in new realities.”

An important component of the project is providing legal and resource support to public activists who have left their regions due to persecution and threats of repression, or whose lives are in danger, as well as to lawyers and human rights defenders from all regions of Ukraine who provide legal assistance to internally displaced people and victims of persecution.”

The project “New Challenges in Legal Support and Protection of Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Ukraine” is being implemented in Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Rivne, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernihiv regions.

To receive free legal assistance and other information regarding their status, ATO participants and their family members, as well as internally displaced persons residing in the territory of Chernihiv region, can contact

Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights

at the address: 57/1 Gorkogo St., Chernihiv, 14000, hotline number:

612-532

.