The report provides a summary of the monitoring of ensuring the protection of human rights in the area of access to justice of internally displaced persons and residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. This monitoring activity was implemented in the framework of a mentorship programme for Ukrainian human rights defenders funded by OSCE ODIHR. The opinions and information expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the policy and position of ODIHR.

1. The report provides a summary of the
monitoring of ensuring the protection of
human rights in the area of access to
justice of internally displaced persons
(hereinafter - IDPs) and residents of the
temporarily occupied territories of
Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts
(hereinafter - occupied territories).
As a result of the armed conflict, certain
areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of
Ukraine became occupied and Ukrainian
justice ceased to function in the
occupied territories. The armed conflict
in eastern Ukraine has led to numerous
human rights violations, which have
primarily been experienced by IDPs and
residents of the occupied territories of
Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
The emergence of such categories as
IDPs and residents of the occupied
territories has been caused by the armed
conflict. Accordingly, they should be
tried in accordance with international
standards in the field of war justice.
According to international standards of
equality and fair trial, the state has a
duty to guarantee unhindered access to
justice for all, regardless of individual
status. In the context of Ukraine, this
means that national legislation and
institutions must ensure effective access
to courts not only for citizens displaced
by the conflict but also for persons
residing in the occupied territories.
The study was conducted during October 2019 - February 2020 by the monitoring group
consisting of Nataliia Hrytsenko and Svitlana Pantiukhina. 148 respondents were
interviewed, including IDPs, judges, lawyers and human rights defenders, employees of the
free secondary legal aid centers and public authorities.
This monitoring activity was implemented in the framework of a mentorship programme for
Ukrainian human rights defenders funded by OSCE ODIHR. The opinions and information
expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the policy and position of ODIHR.
MONITORING REPORT
Ensuring the right to access to justice of internally displaced persons
and residents of the temporarily occupied territories
of Donetsk and Luhansk regions
2020

2. 2
IDPs and residents of the occupied
territories need proper access to justice,
particularly in the Luhansk and Donetsk
regions, where the largest number of
displaced persons reside and exercise
their rights. According to the Ministry of
Social Policy of Ukraine, the majority of
IDPs are registered in the Donetsk oblast
- 505 853 persons, as well as in Luhansk
oblast - 278 689 persons1. IDPs and
residents of the occupied territories are
particularly vulnerable groups who need
access to justice in the aftermath of the
armed conflict. The obstacles faced by
them during access to justice undermine
the right to a fair trial and most of the
substantive rights guaranteed by
national law.
The main problems are the lack of legal
certainty regarding the payment of
court fees and the remote territorial
jurisdiction of court cases.
Court cases directly or indirectly related to the armed conflict can be conditionally
distinguished as having to do with:
Establishing facts of legal value Resumption of payment of
pensions and arrears of payments
Compensation for damage Tax and labor disputes
to life and property
1
Letter of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine #
2/0/108-20 of 02.01.2020, in response to the
monitors’ request.

3. 3
A material
guarantee of the
exercise of the right
of access to justice
is, among other
things, the
reasonableness and validity of the costs.
For individuals who are not exempt from
the court fee, its size may be an obstacle
to the exercise of the right to a fair trial.
Some IDP groups and residents of the
occupied territories are in a difficult
financial situation due to forced
relocation, job search, low social
payments, the economic blockade of the
occupied territories, many businesses
and budgetary institutions being shut
down, and other factors. Moreover, in
certain categories of cases, these
individuals would not be compelled to go
to court and pay court fees if there were
no armed conflict.
For example, IDPs and
residents of the
occupied territories are
forced to go to court to
register birth or death in
the occupied territory,
as well as in the
widespread practice of
the Pension Fund of Ukraine to deprive
IDPs of pensions because of the alleged
suspicion of residing in the occupied
territories2. If the court refuses to reduce
or allow exemption from payment of
court fee, the persons are faced with the
choice of paying the court fee or going to
court again, which demands additional
time and expense.
The remote
location of the
courts from the
areas adjacent to
the demarcation
line significantly
limits the exercise of the right of citizens
to access the court. In the fall of 2014,
the territorial jurisdiction of the courts
of the occupied territories of Donetsk
and Luhansk regions was changed to the
respective courts in the territories
controlled by the Government of
2
See Report on the Human Rights Situation in
Ukraine: 05/16/2019 - 08/15/2019 / Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights. Para. 40. URL:
Ukraine. Following a series of legislative
changes, courts with changed
jurisdiction today are located in Donetsk,
Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya
and Kharkiv oblasts. The territorial
jurisdiction of cases affects the ability to
protect violated rights for those who
reside in the immediate vicinity of the
demarcation line or in the occupied
territories and has no financial capacity
to travel to the remote settlement
where the court is located.
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/
ReportUkraine16May-15Aug2019_UA.pdf.

4. 4
Thus, residents of the occupied
territories, for a personal appeal to court
and filing of documents, must go to the
territory under the control of the
Government of Ukraine to
the nearest post office3
or
directly to the court under
certain jurisdiction. Such
persons are also forced to
consider the workload of
judges due to a large
number of appeals to
courts in the Donetsk and
Luhansk oblasts. If a
person has a necessity or will to take part
in the lawsuit personally, residents of the
occupied territories and those residing
near the demarcation line are forced to
spend money, time and effort (related to
the travel and overnight expenses) to
pass the checkpoint, travel to court and
return home.
The interviewed judges noted that the
transfer of jurisdiction from the courts of
the occupied territories has increased
the burden on courts located in the
Ukrainian-controlled territories of
Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. This
burden is partly due to the armed
conflict: problems with lost in the
occupied territories documents, lack of
reserve staff and threats to physical
security in some court cases. Despite the
increase in workloads, the staff of the
courts is understaffed and the courts
lack courtrooms, which complicates the
administration of justice. The situation is
also complicated by the long process of
qualifying judges and concurrent
competitions with newly created courts,
which is inherent in courts in Ukraine.
In order to reintegrate the
occupied territories, it is
necessary to ensure access to
justice of IDPs and residents of
the occupied territories:
procedures that require considerable
effort and expense of time and costs
force residents of the occupied
territories to refuse to defend their
rights in Ukrainian courts. As a result, it
is likely that the number of deaths and
births registration in the
occupied territories will
increase, as well as real estate
that will not be registered
under Ukrainian law. In the
future, this may lead to the creation of a
"legal vacuum" in the interaction
between residents of the occupied
territories and the Ukrainian authorities
and increase the number of appeals to
institutions of the so-called "LPR"/"DPR".
3
“Ukrposhta” does not carry out postal deliveries
in the occupied territories.
Icons Source: https://www.flaticon.com. Authors: Icongeek26,
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