Eighth and Ninth workshops on access to justice and administrative services for victims of the armed conflict in Ukraine

The Foundation delivers two workshops in the Cherkasy and Kirovohrad Oblasts

From 18-21 June 2019, the Max Planck Foundation conducted two workshops in Cherkasy (Cherkasy Oblast) and Kropyvnytskyi (Kirovohrad Oblast), respectively.

Experienced legal professionals and young legal aid lawyers participated in the workshops. The Head of the section dealing with IDP issues in the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights also took part and presented the work of the Commissioner to the participants. A Senior Research Fellow from the Foundation gave presentations on the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the concept of durable solutions for internally displaced persons. Two Ukrainian legal professionals equally covered a range of issues focusing on the national legal framework and various implementation deficits.

The workshop programme covered a wide spectrum of rights and their implementation. The trainers addressed the problem of stigmatisation and discrimination of IDPs, their access to pensions, civil documentation, housing as well as restitution and compensation. Furthermore, IDPs’ access to legal remedies was also been addressed in detail. Implementation challenges were discussed in working groups dealing with real-life scenarios. It has been pointed out that the legal and institutional framework should be improved to address some of the gaps in protection. At the same time, legal standards need to be implemented more effectively in order to facilitate IDPs’ full access to justice and administrative services. Since it remains a challenge to achieve sustainable solutions for IDPs in different regions of Ukraine, a substantial amount of time was devoted to discussing durable solutions for IDPs.