On February 8, the Special Advisor of the Council of Europe Secretary General for Ukraine, Regis BRILLAT, participated at the meeting organised by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government concerning the draft “Law on the temporarily occupied territory”.

In his statement before the Committee, the Special Adviser underlined that from a preliminary examination, this draft would significantly complicate the human rights situation of up to 4 million people living on the temporarily non-controlled territories of Donbas region, but also of the IDPs.

Therefore, the SASG drew attention of the members of Parliament to PACE Resolution 2133 (2016) which requests of the Ukrainian authorities to make easier the daily life of the inhabitants of the territories outside of their control and of the displaced persons from these areas by reducing administrative burdens in access to pensions and social allowances and by facilitating the inhabitants’ access to justice by adequately equipping and staffing the courts in government-controlled areas to which jurisdiction for the non-controlled areas has been transferred. In the light of these concerns, the Council of Europe would provide an opinion on this draft at the request of the Ukrainian authorities.

SASG statement 8 February