For the first time in 10 years: the Ombudsman presented the Concept for victims to receive compensation for losses due to the aggression of the Russian Federation, and the lawyers of our NGO analyzed it and found numerous parallels with our analytical report.
The Concept of improving the national system of legal remedies and support for victims of armed aggression against Ukraine contains specific steps and recommendations to resolve this issue. The basis of the document is the development of the field meeting of the working group on the preparation of proposals for compensation for damage to persons who suffered from the aggression of the Russian Federation. The working group was created by the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine in September 2023. The Ombudsman of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets believes that the presented Concept should become the basis for the development of the Government Strategy for the support of persons affected by armed aggression against Ukraine and the plan for its implementation. The Ombudsman emphasized that it is extremely important to do this , as citizens have the right to compensation.
Also, the Commissioners were given an example of how the Ukrainian army liberated Slovyansk 10 years ago. At that time, in 2014, more than 5,000 apartments, 1,700 private houses, and 240 apartment buildings were damaged in the city. And, unfortunately, almost nothing was compensated to the victims within the framework of state programs or strategies. Even more: neither a mechanism nor a tool for recording losses was developed.
That is why the Office of the Ombudsman started this large-scale work on the development of the Concept. You can familiarize yourself with it, as well as all the recommendations of the Government, at the link.
The Legal Department of the NGO "Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin" analyzed the Compensation Concept of the Ombudsman of Ukraine and identified numerous common provisions of the concept of Dmytro Lubinets from our analytical report and the recommendations developed on its basis improving the work of specialized state bodies and institutions.
In particular, the following points that we have been advocating for civilian prisoners for a long time turned out to be common, in particular:
Regarding the commission, we consider it obligatory and expedient to add: the refusal to recognize the fact of illegal imprisonment must be motivated, this is provided for by the Constitution.
If the refusal was motivated, the applicant should either accept the commission's arguments or take them into account and submit the application again. In the case of a court appeal, the court obliges to consider the application again and, in case of refusal, to indicate its motive (reason. Therefore, we do not consider that the court appeal is ineffective, judicial practice indicates a problem in the procedure, which is systematically (always) not followed by the commission.
To solve these and other problematic issues, the Concept offers solutions that were also proposed a year ago by lawyers and analysts of the NGO "Union of Relatives of Political Prisoners" after the creation of a monitoring report on the real state of social protection of civilian prisoners. Further points of the Ombudsman's Concept correspond to ours vision of the problem - the NGO supports the need to solve problematic issues related to the provision of assistance to civilians who were illegally deprived of personal freedom.
1. To conduct an audit of the mechanisms and procedures for identifying persons belonging to the categories of victims, which is available in the national legislation of Ukraine, which will ensure the identification and correction of the shortcomings of these procedures.
2. Work out the issue of the possibility of providing additional social services and other forms of support for persons who have suffered damage to their physical and mental health as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine, until the moment when they are assigned a disability group and in the event of their lack of financial capacity provide for oneself.
3. To introduce a system of urgent interim reparation measures for persons who suffered the most as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine, in particular, became victims of international crimes.
4. Develop a procedure for accompanying persons injured as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, in particular, among those who require prosthetics or long-term rehabilitation.
5. Revise the Law of Ukraine "On Social Services" by introducing categories of persons who suffered as a result of armed aggression. Provide an opportunity for the specified category of persons to receive social services (taking into account the financial and property status, strengthening of targeting) (this is stated on page 31 of the Ombudsman's Concept).
6. Implement the Register of Victims of War Crimes, which will accumulate structured data on victims of the EDPR and will be interoperable with other databases and registers, taking into account the legal provisions on access to information and other requirements, including in the case of creating a state register of persons affected as a result armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine (this is discussed on page 49 of the Ombudsman's Concept).
Regarding other provisions: according to our lawyers, it is extremely important to take into account the complex context of victims of war: for example, that the persons who were in captivity suffered not only from this crime, but also suffered torture, sometimes mutilation, were in inhumane conditions, some experienced sexual violence, most IDPs.
And we support the Concept in terms of the fact that the injured person should receive all necessary documents and complex medical, psychological and financial assistance as soon as possible in civilized conditions, and not have to apply to a whole series of numerous separate commissions and each time receive retraumatization and only worsen his physical and moral state.
After all, if there is a gradation of victims of war, then the category of illegally deprived of liberty is one of the most difficult.
We will remind you that in September, the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin started work on an important direction: we are creating an algorithm for faster recognition of the fact of illegal imprisonment for Ukrainian civilians who were renewed by the occupiers and released independently, not according to the so-called "exchange" (simultaneous dismissal). We are working on the project with the support of the "Renaissance" International Foundation.
The goal of the project: to improve the effectiveness of the mechanism for proving the fact of illegal detention of Ukrainian civilians deprived of their personal freedom as a result of Russian aggression. We are also developing relevant proposals for changes in legislation. Unfortunately, at present, most civilian prisoners who have released themselves have had serious difficulties in this process.
This post was prepared with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation, it conveys the view of The Legal Department of the NGO "Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin" and does not necessarily reflect the position of the International Renaissance Foundation.
