Cases regarding successful integration of internally displaced persons were selected from the interviews with the liaison officers on IDPs and from the open sources

IDPs’ right to vote. Uzhhorod

Uzhhorod city council filed an appeal to Verkhovna Rada to support the adoption of the bill on the IDPs’ right to vote that was not considered for about a year.

Citizens of Ukraine that live not in the place of their registration can vote during the state elections but they can not exercise their right to vote during the local elections and elections to Verkhovna Rada in the single-member electorate district. To have this right they have to change their place of residence. However, for the internally displaced persons it would mean losing their status as IDPs. Because of such legislative contradictions more than one million Ukrainians can not vote during some elections.

In March of 2017, the draft bill #6240 “About making changes to some laws of Ukraine (regarding the right to vote of the internally displaced persons and some other mobile within Ukraine citizens)” which was supposed to resolve this issue, was registered. It was drafted by the group of activists, representatives from the Civil Network OPORA, NGO “Public Holding “Grupa Vplyvu”, International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), NGO “Ukrainian Association of IDPs” and people’s deputies. However, in the year this draft bill was not considered.

The issue of the lack of the right to vote for the IDPs is also raised by the people in communities – to draw attention of the local authorities. There were some events held in Uzhhorod to serve this purpose. One of them – forum-theatre where participants (among them IDPs and the representative of local authorities) played out the situation with defending the right to vote of the IDP in front of the local official. Through inviting local officials to participate in this and other similar events, Uzhhorod became the first city where the city council filed an appeal to Verkhovna Rada regarding lobbying of the draft bill #6240 in the fall of 2018 (the authors of such appeal were only some people from the city council – all representative of one political faction). The liaison officer on IDPs in Zakarpattia oblast, representative of the NGO “Zakarpattia-Donbas” and some of the IDPs also participated in writing the appeal.

Similar initiatives spread in other cities as well. However, such appeals did not yet lead to the adoption of the draft bill #6240 by Verkhovna Rada.

The city council should be interested in the adoption of this bill, including facilitating the adoption. As internally displaced persons in the city are potential voters, who can be active citizens and contribute to the development of the city, but at the same time do not have the right and leverage to express their position during the election.

Legal aid for the IDPs. Khmelnytskyi

The liaison officer on IDPs for Khmelnytskyi oblast mentioned the sphere of legal aid as one of the most successful ones in the city of Khmelnytskyi. To his mind, before dealing with the issues of employment and housing, IDPs first have to face more general problems with the provision of their rights.

The Law “On free legal aid” guarantees those citizens who filed an application to register them as IDPs free secondary legal aid. It includes the legal services with obtaining the certificate of registration as IDPs, representation of citizens (particularly, in courts), drafting of procedural documents, and also the legal defense if the status of IDP has already been granted. As in all other oblasts, the Secondary Legal Aid Center operates in Khmelnitsky, through which secondary legal aid is provided. Although the relevant Law of Ukraine provides for the provision of certain rights to IDPs, in practice there may be difficulties in obtaining access to certain rights, and sometimes they may be inaccessible at all to local IDPs. This secondary legal aid is intended to provide for, among other things, basic and most urgent needs, in particular to enable IDPs to seek work in a new city, live there and use social infrastructure.

However, in addition to the Center, a legal clinic at the Khmelnytsky University of Management and Law also provides these services. It is students who work in this clinic, and they provide assistance to disadvantaged groups of the population, including IDPs. In addition to legal assistance, the important part of this practice is an intercultural dialogue between local students and IDPs. This creates more opportunities for the integration of the IDPs – they have a link with the community, and community representatives that are now familiar with IDPs will be less biased towards them.

At the same time, the Podillya Legal League also operates in the field of legal aid. In addition to legal assistance, this organization, with the help of the International Organization for Migration, implemented the project “Facilitating the Rebuilding and Sustainable Resolution of the Problems of IDPs and the Population Affected by the Conflict”. Although this project was supported not by local authorities, but by an international organization, it was also important because it supported entrepreneurial activities among representatives of the IDPs.

Although legal aid is usually required by IDPs to address basic needs or if there are difficulties with access to guaranteed rights, it is also an important component of the integration of IDPs into the local community. After all, the rights that IDPs have are aimed at their access to certain public services or to help with living or working. All these opportunities contribute to the integration of IDPs in the cities, and therefore local authorities could pay more attention to providing quality legal aid to the IDPs.

“Domus” Theatre. Lviv

Interviewed liaison officers on IDPs often named culture as the most successful area for the integration of IDPs. Respondents attributed this assessment to the fact that it is much easier to organize and carry out cultural activities and, in general, does not need investing significant financial resources in comparison with other spheres of integration. On the other hand, some of them noted that there are no specific events oriented on the IDPs, as they are already considered part of the community, and are taking part in various activities as locals. In general, there are such practices in the field of culture in the cities: free tickets for theater performances (including puppet theatres) for IDPs, exhibitions of IDPs photos, workshops, song contests, festivals, etc. Mostly, these and other initiatives are organized and supported by local community organizations, charitable foundations or donor organizations whose programs operate in the city.

Internally displaced persons often open their own business, create jobs and conduct cultural events. In Lviv, for example, thanks to immigrants from the Crimea, Natalia Menshikova and Denis Fedeshiv, a Domus theater was opened up, and it has been running for some years now. The theater’s location is the Dovzhenko cultural and artistic center located in Sykhiv, in the residential area of ​​the city. And the name of the theater in Latin is translated as “home”.

The idea of ​​the founders of the theater was to bring together internally displaced persons and Lviv citizens, professionals and amateurs. Therefore, among the cast of actors are former residents of Crimea and Donetsk region, as well as residents of Lviv. According to the founder of the theater, they do not take into account the place of residence and origin when taking someone to the collective, since for her and her colleagues the theater is a kind of home, as the name suggests. Also, the theater organizes trainings on acting, whose participants and participants can join the theater team, and some have already stayed.

During the time of existence of the theater, the actor’s group went to the ATO zone several times, to such cities as Sievierodonetsk, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Bakhmut and Novoaidar, and to Dnipro. On the last trip to three cities, the theater collected funds on the platform “Big idea” (through the crowdfunding), and the previous one was funded through a mini-grant from the donor organization.

During the founding and development of the theater, its leaders did not turn to the local authorities and did not interact with them. Instead, they were helped by businesses, other civic organizations, donors and some individuals. For example, the owners of the small business “Crimean Baking”, which was also organized by migrants from the Crimea, financially helped to open the theater, and the owners of the textile store in another city helped with the materials for the decorations.

However, there are examples where local authorities have been involved in such initiatives. Also in Lviv at the end of 2017, a decision was made by the city council to provide a building for the NGO “Crimean Tatar Cultural Center “Crimean House in Lviv “, as a result of the application filed by the NGO. Thus, they received an area of ​​more than 500 sq.meters of communal property for rent. The organization holds events of various directions, in particular, devoted to the theme of the culture of the Crimean Tatar people.

The “First School Bag” Campaign. Ivano-Frankivsk

The “First School Bag” campaign is an initiative of the International Charity Fund “Caritas”, which provides children from socially vulnerable families, including the IDPs, a set of the most essential subjects for school (eg, school bags, notebooks, pencils, pens, paints) This campaign started for the first time in the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, and in September 2018 it will be held for the 15th time.

In the previous year there was a provision made about the campaign. According to it, the participants of the campaign are children from socially unprotected groups. In order to receive this aid, participants must confirm their status and provide the organizers with a list of defined documents.

The local authorities also take part in this campaign. Under the previously established cooperation with the Children’s Service of the executive committee of the city council, the campaign was included in the city program in the paragraph of cooperation with civic organizations. Thus, funds were received from the city budget to cover a part of the campaign, namely – presents for children deprived of parental care were financed with it. Today, the city authorities continue to take care of the same group of children as part of the “First School Bag” campaign.

The rest of funds, in particular for children with the status of IDPs, are provided by the Foundation. These funds are collected through charity donations. The organization of the campaign begins in August and involves fundraising, in particular through media publications. The handing of these school bags (the holiday of the first school bag, as it is called by the organizers) takes place on the 1st of September. The event is traditionally held in the church: the metropolitan is invited, the service is being carried out, school bags are handed to the kids who are going to go to first class. And later during September students of grades 2-11 are presented with the certificates for school supplies.

At the same time, in some cities, there are also city programs that support and assist in adapting families with children of school age. These programs include providing elementary school students with free school meals. Such assistance should ease the financial expenses of the family. In particular, this assistance at least partly reduces the financial and psychological pressure associated with the entry of the child into the school, and in the case of families of IDPs to the new community. Therefore, such measures, including providing students with school supplies are important for IDPs, and at the same time they are evidence of community openness to help and facilitate their integration. And this is one of the activities that local authorities could give more attention to improve the integration of the IDPs. However, as already mentioned, not all cities operate such a program, and it does not always cover the students of all classes.

IDPs’ integration program in Sievierodonetsk

In April 2017, the city council of Severodonetsk adopted a city program for social adaptation, integration and protection of internally displaced persons, developed on the basis of the city’s target program of adaptation of the IDPs for 2016-2018 years.

Despite the fact that the program was not fully funded and was not adopted in advance, by the beginning of the year, today it is the only example of an integrated approach to addressing the current issues of IDPs.

The program was formed in accordance with the indicators laid down in the regional program of support for IDPs for 2012-2018 years. The peculiarity of this document is that it contains a more extended list of characteristics, compared to any such accepted program, and meets the requirements that are international organizations usually have for their partners. In addition to the tasks and subjects of execution, the program also includes quarterly planning of financing activities, sources of funds, performance indicators. On the basis of indicators, the city council approved a report on the implementation of the program. Attention was paid to the indicators of expenditures, indicators of quality and indicators of the effective implementation.

The program was aimed at solving problems that, according to national surveys, are of most importance to IDPs (for example, see the National Monitoring Report on IDPs). In particular, these are housing problems, access to the labor market, the overall level of living conditions, awareness of their rights and responsibilities.

Implementation of the program was carried out by structural departments of local self-government bodies with the funding from the state, oblast, city budgets and donors. The main financial partner was the European Investment Bank, which provided funds that made up 21% of the total budget.