In 2020, UNHCR provided legal assistance to IDPs and the conflict-affected population through its four partners: The Right to Protection (10,890 beneficiaries) mostly in eastern Ukraine; The Tenth of April (1,038) in southern Ukraine, with a focus on residents in Crimea; Donbass SOS (267 requests received through a phone hotline) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (511). Women represented about 62% of the legal aid recipients, reflecting the gender composition of communities targeted by the programme (IDP communities and conflict affected population). The proportion of elderly among beneficiaries of legal assistance decreased, mainly due to the closure of the EECPS. Elderly represented the majority of NGCA residents crossing EECPs, and restricted crossing of EECPs led to a lower number of this age group able to reach legal aid in GCA.
Most legal cases were related to access to social benefits, particularly pension entitlements from pension funds in GCA. Issues related to freedom of movement comprised 22% of the legal aid requests, mostly in relation to restrictions and requirements for the crossing of EECPs. Housing/land/property (HLP) issues were also among the most frequent issues for which legal aid was needed (21% of the requests in eastern Ukraine), with cases relating to compensation for destroyed or damaged houses, evictions, and access to utilities and housing. In September, the enforcement of a new compensation procedure for houses destroyed by the armed conflict also generated an increased demand for assistance on HLP issues. Other issues included personal documentation (most prevalent issue among requests in southern Ukraine), access to IDP registration, child protection, and access to the status of a person with disability.
UNHCR-funded legal aid filled an important protection gap, in a context marred by the disrupted access to administrative and social services, pension funds and banks as a result of COVID-19. State-run Free Legal Aid Centres (FLACs) closed down for about five months and could handle a reduced number of cases due to restrictive measures in place upon re-opening. In response, UNHCR legal aid partners adapted their mode of work to reach out to vulnerable individuals and ensure a direct but safe interaction with people in need of legal aid. Legal aid also remained available on the phone. Partners made increased use of social media and messaging apps (chat boxes, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram) for rapid consultations. Legal aid remained critical for vulnerable groups, in particular conflict-affected people along the contact line, in NGCA, and in displaced communities. For them, legal aid related to critical entitlements was essential to restore their rights, to be mainstreamed in institutional social/protection schemes, and thereby become less dependent on humanitarian assistance. In the context of the prolonged quarantine measures and growing unemployment, legal aid also proved useful to address concerns relating to payment of social benefits.
UNHCR legal aid partner R2P provided legal aid in strategic court cases, filing 88 strategic cases in national courts and 8 at the European Court of Human Rights. Judgements contributing to positive caselaw were obtained regarding HLP, reparation for non-pecuniary conflict-related damages, and other rights critical to the protection of conflict-affected people.
UNHCR partners conducted (online) workshops for 192 staff members of the Free Legal Aid (FLA) public system in six regions. The outreach capacity of FLA Centres was strengthened through the training of a network of 22 legal aid volunteers in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The volunteers were trained on simple procedures (applying for subsidies, pension-related requests, renewal of disability payments, approaching social services) and on responding to situations of domestic violence or gender-based violence.