Urgent legal assistance to ATO participants and their families

Since February 2015, lawyers from the Legal Information and Consultation Centers from five regions have joined forces to help military personnel and their families. Successful examples, instructive stories and legal consultations are constantly highlighted on the portal “Legal Space” in the sections “Helping Military Personnel” and “A Lawyer Advises”. Also, on the site, each visitor can receive online and offline legal consultations, find hotline numbers.

The project “Improving the Level of Legal Protection of Military Personnel, ATO Participants and Their Family Members by Providing Legal Assistance and Monitoring” operates in five regions: Kherson, Volyn, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Chernihiv. Its main goal is to help the maximum number of people returning from the anti-terrorist operation zone and in need of legal assistance.

The project is designed for six months, but the scale of assistance to the military is not limited by this period: both before and after it, the problems of ATO participants were and will be even more relevant. From the very beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, it responded to the challenges of the time and was one of the first to begin providing assistance to the military. The results of the accumulated experience were, in particular, in November 2014.

– The centers have been providing primary legal assistance to ATO participants and their families for several months. And also, if necessary, they travel to the places of deployment of the military to provide consultations “in the fields”

,- says the project manager, volunteer, editor-in-chief of the Information Resource Center “Legal Space”

Natalia Bimbarayte

. –

There are many problems. And they must be resolved immediately. Until now, we have been faced with facts when social benefits guaranteed by the state are not provided. For example, we have many appeals that the status of an ATO participant is illegally granted only after being released from military service as a result of serious injuries, there is no procedure for free treatment of soldiers released from captivity. As a result, people are left alone with their problems.

The most urgent problems of the military

The appeals show the real legal problems that defenders (including volunteers, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) and their relatives face. Even before the start of the project, lawyers analyzed and identified the five most painful issues – travel, material support, food, salary, compensation for business trips, unused vacation. During the project, the data is confirmed.

– In most cases, relatives: mothers, wives, relatives, friends

, – explains the project coordinator, head of the Bila Tserkva Central Military District

Olga Nastina

. –

The ATO participants themselves, military personnel, call hotlines more often, come in person less often. It is probably more convenient for them to contact in absentia, besides, some of such appeals come from places of service

.

Where and how to get help

Visitors to the Legal Space portal can use legal services by asking questions in the chat and/or the “Get Help” section/.

The database of legal consultations collected on “Legal Space” is also relevant, where you can familiarize yourself with examples of appeals and requests. They can be found in the rubric and in the section, which are constantly updated. For example, the most popular materials:

Hotline numbers in the cities where the project operates:

Chuguiv city:





097-1793822.

Chernihiv city:





(0462) 612532

Kherson city:





093-1477303,





099-4683848

Kovel city:





095-6234011

Bila Tserkva,





096-7023747

The project is atypical in that many organizations provide free legal assistance to military personnel. However, in addition to consultations, the heads and lawyers of the Centers also monitor the legislative framework and the real situation in their five regions. The project’s lawyers study gaps in the legislation by submitting requests.

To date, all organizations involved in the project have sent requests to:

• regional departments of social protection of the population regarding the status of social protection of ATO participants and the issuance of certificates of combatants;

• military commissariats regarding the number of applications for the procedure for processing one-time cash assistance to servicemen wounded in the ATO (number of applications, decisions on applications, reasons for refusal, etc.);

• territorial departments of the State Land Agency, city, village, district councils regarding the number of applications for obtaining land plots (content of applications, decisions made on them, reasons for refusal, number of satisfied applications, etc.);

• departments of local government bodies regarding the registration of persons in need of improved housing conditions in terms of the number of applications for housing, the content of petitions, decisions made, the number of housing application forms provided by the body and consultations provided, etc.

• city, district and appellate courts regarding the choice of punishment when considering a case on charges of committing war crimes, the number of proceedings on charges of evading military service.

Partial responses to the requests have already been received in Chuguiv and Kovel. In addition, a lawyer from the Kherson Central Military District submitted a request to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine regarding the provision of uniforms for demobilized servicemen and payment for their travel. During the week, 5-7 more requests will be submitted.

Based on the results of monitoring, project participants will develop recommendations on typical problems in the legislation and ways to overcome them.

– Monitoring will make it possible to see problems in the implementation of the rights of servicemen and their family members, and generalizing the results, developing recommendations for changes to local and (or) national regulatory legal acts will help avoid violations of such rights in the future,

– emphasizes

Olena Matviychuk

, head of the Volyn regional NGO “Legal Aid Center”.

The results and conclusions of the project will be made public at the final press conference. And the experience gained during six months of work will be shared among other regions of Ukraine. Of course, this will contribute to increasing the level of protection of servicemen, ATO participants and their family members in other regions and reducing social tension.

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