Registration has opened for residents of Kyiv’s Obolon district to take part in the citizens’ assembly, which will be held in April–May 2026 with the comprehensive support of the Council of Europe project “Strengthening multilevel governance and local democracy to support Ukraine's recovery”.
The topic of the Assembly is important not only for the district or the city, but for the whole of Ukraine: “How can we support veterans and their families?”
The active preparation phase for the Citizens’ Assembly sessions is currently underway, scheduled for 18–19 April, 2–3 May, and 16–17 May 2026. Invitation letters were sent to 6,000 randomly selected households, with two adult representatives from each household invited to register for participation. The information campaign is also ongoing in the Obolon district. All interested residents can register by phone, by completing an online registration form, or by visiting the Obolon District State Administration in Kyiv in person. Registration is open until 12 March 2026.
Among the registered candidates, 45 participants will be randomly selected to reflect the demographic composition of the Obolon community in terms of age, gender, education, place of residence, and other key characteristics. Over three weekends, assembly participants, with the support of experts, veterans, and other stakeholders, will study the topic, discuss it in small groups, and develop recommendations for public authorities, which commit to considering and taking them into account in their further work.
Citizens’ assembly is a tool through which randomly selected residents of a community, reflecting its demographic composition, come together to explore an important issue in depth, hear the perspectives of experts and stakeholders, discuss different approaches, and jointly develop recommendations for public authorities through meaningful and informed dialogue. In Ukraine, the first citizens’ assemblies were held in 2024 in the Zviahel and Slavutych communities with the support of the Council of Europe. These assemblies became the first citizens’ assemblies in the world to be conducted during wartime.
More information about the citizens’ assembly in Kyiv’s Obolon district is available on the website of the Obolon District State Administration.
The Council of Europe project “Strengthening multilevel governance and local democracy to support Ukraine’s recovery” provides comprehensive expert and methodological support for the organisation and implementation of citizens’ assemblies in the Rivne community, the Obolon District of Kyiv, and the Lviv Agglomeration in 2026. In October 2025, the respective Memorandums of Understanding were signed in Strasbourg.
Registration is also ongoing for participation in the citizens’ assembly in the Rivne community, scheduled for March–April 2026.
The preparation and implementation of the citizens’ assembly take place within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026 and the project “Strengthening multilevel governance and local democracy to support Ukraine’s recovery”, implemented by the Council of Europe Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
