Two-day training brought together more than 60 representatives of the Centers of Legal Information and Consultation (CLIC) from all over Ukraine. In general, a network of organizations, which provide free primary legal aid with support of UNDP and International Fund "Renaissance", contains more than 40 centers.

 

The first day of the training was rich in exchange of experience and communication between participants. Welcoming remarks were made by Roman Romanov, Director of the "Human Rights and Justice" Programme of the International Fund "Renaissance", Vasyl Romanyuk, Coordinator of the UNDP project "Democratization, human rights and development of civil society" and Miroslav Lavrynok, Deputy director of the Legal Aid Coordination Center.

 

Poland's experience in the development of the legal aid system was presented by the head of the Volyn Regional Public Organization "Center for Legal Aid" Olena Matviychuk.

 

Lawyers from three cities Vasyl Kasyanov from Kherson regional organization CVU, Andriy Maletyn from Carpathian region, "Stanislav human rights group" and Denys Grechko from the All-Ukrainian Charitable Fund "Horyeniye" shared tips on successful collaboration of centers with municipal authorities. Specifically, Denys described typical examples of the participation of human rights defenders in assisting IDPs from Dnipropetrovsk region, who are facing numerous violations of their rights connected with obtaining documents, employment, health and social care, etc.

 

Lyudmyla Kovtun from "Dvorechanschyna Rural Communities Fund" and Olena Ryabova from Sumy region, "Conscious Choice people" told about preparing paralegals (i.e., legal advisors) in rural areas. Participants also actively discussed whether it is reasonable to teach village heads, and how it helps people in villages, which are far from big cities.

 

Due to the most recent events in the country the Centers engaged in new activity – providing legal aid to mobilized persons, soldiers, ATO participants and their families. Nataliya Piddubna from Chernihiv Civic Committee for Human Rights and representatives of Kherson Regional Charity and Health Fund Nataliya Bimbirayte and Dmytro Uhlach shared their experience in the above activities. Participants also learned about the work of lawyers and volunteers developed atypical ways of assistance to internally displaced persons and the defenders of the territorial integrity of Ukraine in the conditions of undeclared war.

 

The audience was impressed by the reports of Centers that are trying to provide free legal assistance to clients in allegedly liberated territories, which in fact are very problematic regions of Ukraine. The experience of Ihor Orel from the CSO "Choice," who having arranged the work of CLIC in Stakhanov, after the occupation of the city began rebuilding the Center in Starobelsk area from scratch, deserves special respect. Serhiy Kovalenko from "Democratic Development Agency of Donbas" told about the launch of the educational program "Protecting the rights of residents of Donbass;" while Serhiy Koshel from NGO "Civic Platform" told how his organization manages to provide legal aid in Kreminna and Rubizhna. Vyacheslav Skrypnyck one of the lawyres of the regional organization "Civil Legal Assistance Service" told how 15 lawyers of the Center continue to provide legal aid in Luhansk, in terms of informational isolation of people, who are thus influenced by the pro-Russian propaganda.

 

The emotional debate was provocated by the representatives of CSOs "Romani cherkhen" Myroslav Horvat, Charitable Foundation "Development" Oleh Hryhoryev, "Roma Rights Center" Yana Bondarenko and Kharkiv organization "Chachimo" Nataliya Burlutska.

 

"State Roma policy is declarative - it lacks public funds" - the director of "Roma program initiatives" Olha Zhmurko told. "Formally, at the request of the European Union the state pretends to be concerned about Roma, but these people do not get real help from anyone except donors and NGOs."

 

European human rights defenders generally consider the situation of Roma in Ukraine to be catastrophic, confirms Myroslav Horvat. The main unresolved problems are the lack of identification and other documents (at least 80% of Roma have no documents), and therefore lack of ability to register their dwelling, receive social payments, medical care and education, information isolation, prejudice against Roma, etc.

 

The first day of the program was completed by the information message from the team of "Legal Space." Editor-in-chief of above information resource Nataliya Bimbirayte and the coordinator of "Legal Space" Anna Martynyuk presented new site sections and explained the mechanisms and benefits from the cooperation of Centers with the portal.

 

During the second day, the participants worked in sections. The section for managers consisted of training on effective time management and strategic planning, which was conducted by Olha Zelenyuk, Head of Culture Development Leadership Department of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University.

 

Work in section for lawyers started with the speech of Alyona Matviychuk, Volyn NGO "Center for Legal Aid", who told about the practice of providing legal aid to ATO participants and their families and has engaged the participants in group work. Kateryna Balakireva, employee of the O. YaremenkoUkrainian Institute for Social Research, shared tips on how to work with difficult clients from the standpoint of psychology. Maksym Butkevych, Centre for Social Action "No Borders," told about the coordination of legal aid for IDPs in the east of Ukraine and Crimea and his colleague Dmytro Natalukha, lawyer of the Charitable Foundation "The right to defense," analyzed the novelties of the Law "On protection of rights and freedoms of IDPs" No.4490, which was adopted by the Parliament of Ukraine on 20 October and has not yet been signed by the President of Ukraine. Speech by Serhiy Zayets, Regional Centre for Human Rights, on the peculiarities of providing legal aid IDPs from ARC caused a lively discussion, during which the participants exchanged views on the importance of providing all necessary and effective legal aid to clients as opposed to preserving the position of non-recognition of the authority of the Russian Federation over the territory of Crimea.