In March - July 2016 the monitoring visits of Ms Zhanna Lukyanenko, Representative on IDPs of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, have been conducted to Kyiv (29 March-21 April), Donetsk (18-22 April) and Luhansk (18-22 July) regions. Activities were initiated by the Ombudsperson office and fully supported by the Project “Strengthening the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Ukraine”.
More than 50 departments of social protection and units of Pension Fund of Ukraine have been visited. The monitoring teams included Ms Zhanna Lukyanenko, Representative on IDPs of the Ombudsperson, and specialists of the Unit on human rights protection of IDPs of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.
During the visits the teams were accompanied by Ms Ganna Khrystova, Senior Project Officer (Kyiv).
The visits to Kyiv and Donetsk regions were focused on studying the practice of annulment of registration as IDPs for persons and the process of restoration of social payments for IDPs. The visit to Luhansk region was devoted to observing the capacities of departments of social protection and Pension Fund units in terms of implementation of the Cabinet of Ministries Resolution # 365 which implies, among others, the need to verify and confirm the “place of living” for IDPs. Besides, the visits were aimed at communication with heads of local social services and exchange of views on improving the legal framework for social payments to IDPs and optimisation of activities of social workers.
In Donetsk and Luhansk regions apart from the monitoring, the Ombudsperson’s Representative had meetings with activists of non-governmental organizations working with IDPs in the field (21 April in Kramatorsk and 21 July in Severodonetsk). Such meetings served as a platform for dialogue, sharing practices, challenges and concerns about violations of IDPs rights in the regions.
Each of monitoring visits in three regions was finalized by follow up round table (Kramatorsk – 22 April, Kyiv – 28 April, Severodonetsk – 22 July) with the objectives to sum-up and discuss the results of the visits, to provide a feedback on advancing application of current legislation related to IDPs and to elaborate recommendations on improving existing legislation and mechanism in the part of restoring of social payment to IDPs. Participants of round tables were the heads of local and regional departments of social protection, Pension Fund units as well as representatives of local authorities and regional state administrations.
Held activities increased the knowledge of the Council of Europe standards towards IDPs by regional and local social services and authorities, clarified the current situation of social payments to IDPs, identified some legislative gaps in protection of IDPs social rights which need adequate response from responsible bodies. As a result of the activities, participants have strong expectations regarding their voices to be heard through the following activity of the Ombudsperson’s Representative on national level.
