Ukrainians from the TOT are at risk of statelessness — Tetiana Pechonchyk at the premiere of the film “Stateless Person”

On 12 December, the Zhovten cinema in Kyiv hosted the public premiere of the short documentary film “Stateless Person”, produced by Babylon’13 in collaboration with the Right to Protection Charitable Foundation. The screening was followed by an expert discussion entitled “Being invisible: why for people in Ukraine this is not a superpower, but a cruel reality”, dedicated to the problem of statelessness, the rights and protection of such people, and the demographic context.

Photo: Tetiana Pechonchyk, Anastasiia Tykha, Andrii Li, Sofiia Kordonets

Tetiana Pechonchyk, Head of the Board of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, took part in the discussion. The film’s protagonist, Andrii Li, the film’s director, Anastasiia Tykha, and the head of the department for assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons at the Right to Protection Charitable Foundation, Sofiia Kordonets, also joined the discussion. The event was moderated by the executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties, Oleksandra Romantsova.

The film “Stateless Person” tells the true story of Andrii Li, a man who lived in Ukraine for over 30 years without a passport. He was born in Tajikistan and moved to Ukraine with his family in the 1990s. Due to the lack of documents and non-recognition by his country of origin, Andrii remained “invisible” to the state for years: he could not officially work, get an education or use basic medical services.

“Even if you are young, time flies very quickly. I regret that when I was 20, there wasn’t so much information about this, and there was no one around to help me. Now I understand that maybe I had time back then and, most likely, there were opportunities to resolve this issue earlier. So I only regret the lost time“, shared Andrii Li.

Photo: Oleksandra Romantsova, Anastasiia Tykha, Andrii Li, Sofiia Kordonets, Tetiana Pechonchyk

According to the Right to Protection Charitable Foundation, at least 236,000 people in Ukraine are at risk of statelessness and find themselves in situations similar to that of the film’s protagonist. Due to the war, this number may be even higher.

During the discussion, Tetiana Pechonchyk emphasised that in the context of the war since 2014, not only migrants but also Ukrainian citizens, particularly those who lived or live in the temporarily occupied territories, are at risk of statelessness.

“People who lived in territories occupied in 2014, namely Crimea and certain parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, are at risk of becoming stateless. This is because the archives relating to citizenship were not digitalised at that time“, she noted.

Photo: Tetiana Pechonchyk

According to Pechonchyk, unofficial data from human rights organisations indicate that by 2021, approximately 200,000 children from the occupied territories had not received Ukrainian documents and were also potentially at risk of statelessness.

She also drew attention to the systemic problem of access to civil documents for people from the occupied territories: “They (ed. – residents of the TOT) potentially face the risk of statelessness. The problem here is that Ukrainians from the occupied territories have to go through a judicial procedure to obtain civil status documents, including birth certificates for children born in the occupied territories. Their parents have to apply to the court to establish such facts, rather than through an administrative procedure”.

The film “Stateless Person” can be viewed here (in Ukrainian).

Photo credit: the Right to Protection Charitable Foundation

It should be noted that the Shadow Report complementing the European Commission’s 2024 Report on Ukraine, prepared by the Human Rights Centre ZMINA in cooperation with a coalition of civil society organisations, highlights the challenges associated with citizenship and the risks of statelessness, particularly for Ukrainians living in the occupied territories.