On the 15th of November 2016, the constituent meeting of the Working Group on Improving National Legislation on the Protection of the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons was held in Kyiv. The meeting was organized by the Ministry on Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine with the support of the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening the Human Rights Protection of Internally Displaced Persons in Ukraine”.

The Working Group was created by Mr V. Chernysh, Minister of Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine order from the 12^th of November 2016 aiming at improving the current legislation on IDPs. The vocations of the Working Group is to bring together representatives from the Ministry, other executive bodies, MPs, International Organisations and NGOs, involved in the protection of IDPs rights, in order to point out the existing gaps or inconsistencies in the legislation and to suggest ways of its improvement.

The working group was divided in five thematic sub-groups that will cover the following topics:

- Improving the legal status of IDPs and the mandate of state authorities and local self-government regarding IDPs

-  Confirmation of civil status and agreements, recognition of legal facts

- Protection of social and economic rights of IDPs

- Providing legal grounds for improving access to education

- Housing, restitution, compensation for property loss   

The Working Group will meet at regular basis in order to assess the progress made and the problems that still need to be addressed. It was agreed that meetings of the subgroups that are taking place during November – December this year will be supported by the Council of Europe Project.