Key problems of protection of rights of war-affected people – solution from human rights defenders

Since 2014, the coalition of NGOs that take care of the protection of the rights of people affected by Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine has been solving problematic issues in the field of protection of the rights of Ukrainians affected by the Russian aggression.

Illustration: Group of influence

However, after Russia’s full-scale aggression started, the number of problems that we as the Coalition solve has increased manifold.

Currently, the Coalition defines the following key issues for itself:

• Absence of a comprehensive system of the evacuation of the civilian population from the combat zone and adjacent territories
• Lack of proper accounting of IDPs and study of their needs both in the host communities and at the national level
• Lack of a formed model to solve housing issues of victims, in particular IDPs and persons whose housing was destroyed or damaged, in the long term
• Problems of enrollment in higher education institutions in the absence of documents, as well as difficulties with confirming educational qualifications
• Problems of the issuance of documents, in particular, the complexity and length of the procedure for establishing an identity, identification of a person who has never had a passport
• Need for significant improvements to digital services for IDPs
• Support for Ukrainian citizens who were deported, forcibly relocated, or found themselves in the territory of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus as a result of the actions of the aggressor state
• Lack of a defined status of the territories that came under the control of the Russian army after February 24, 2022, and the mechanism for recognizing the territory as “de-occupied”
• Absence of a coherent informational position of the state on the situation of citizens of Ukraine in the territories temporarily controlled by the aggressor state, as well as persons affected by the armed aggression
• Need to systematize information on IDPs, update it regularly, provide it in full and take into account the regional context

Solving these issues requires the active participation and cooperation of all stakeholders. Please find the detailed description of key problems and ways to solve them in the following document:

• in Ukrainian at the link
• in English at the link

Currently, the Coalition includes the NGO “Public Holding “INFLUENCE GROUP”, NGO “Donbas SOS”, NGO “Crimea SOS”, Charitable Foundation “The Right to Protection”, Charitable Foundation “East SOS”, Charitable Foundation “Stabilization Support Services”, NGO “Human Rights Centre ZMINA”, NGO “Crimean Human Rights Group”.