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

The Foundation delivers two workshops in the Odessa and Kherson Regions

From 3-6 September 2019, the Foundation conducted two regional workshops in Odessa and Kherson, Ukraine. The focus was on the protection of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in international and domestic law. The participants included legal professionals from legal aid centres in the Odessa and Kherson Regions.

Two Ukrainian legal experts, the Head of the IDP Section of the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights and a Senior Research Fellow from the Foundation presented on several topics of relevance such as the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, the concept of durable solutions for IDPs, the problem of restitution and compensation as well as IDPs’ access to justice institutions and administrative services. The Head of the IDP section in the Commissioner’s Office presented on how their work relates to IDP protection and discussed the current challenges with participants. The issue of stigmatisation and discrimination of IDPs was also discussed. Furthermore, in several working groups, the participants discussed housing issues, access to civil documentation as well as the requirements of an effective access to legal remedies for IDPs.