A coalition of public organizations dealing with the protection of the rights of victims of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine recommended the authorities 10 steps to be taken in 2023 to strengthen the protection of the rights of various categories of Ukrainians during the war.

This is not the first time experts have prepared such recommendations for the authorities.. But after the start of a full-scale war, many problems that had not been resolved earlier escalated, says Alena Luneva, advocacy director of the ZMINA Human Rights Center..

10 recommendations from human rights activists for the Verkhovna Rada and the government:.

Ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and harmonize national criminal law with international. This will help strengthen the capacity of the national system to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of serious international crimes.. Ukraine will receive the powers of a full-fledged member of the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC, which is the supreme governing body of the ICC, and will be able to participate in the selection of judges and prosecutors, form priorities and strategies for the further work of the court, recommend situations for consideration in different countries by the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC.

Introduce an administrative (out-of-court) procedure for the recognition of acts of civil status held in the temporarily occupied territories. This refers, in particular, to acts of birth, death, marriage and divorce. At the moment, there is a simplified judicial procedure for considering cases of birth and death that took place in the occupied territories. However, this is not enough. For example, less than 10% of children born in the occupied territory of Donetsk and Lugansk regions in 2022 have birth certificates issued by the competent authorities of Ukraine.

Determine the categories of people affected by the armed aggression against Ukraine. Despite the long-term armed conflict and thousands of affected people, Ukrainian legislation does not define who can be considered victims of the armed conflict.. Because of this, it was not possible to introduce a comprehensive system of assistance to victims.

Ensure fair compensation for property destroyed or damaged by war. This issue can be settled, in particular, by bill No. 7198, taken as a basis for 01. 04. 2022, and in need of improvement, for example, in the issue of compensation for those whose housing the Russian army damaged before February 24 last year.

Introduce changes to the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which will ensure compliance with the principle of legal certainty in the issue of bringing to responsibility for collaboration activities. The current wording of the law creates the basis for excessive discretion of law enforcement officers in qualifying acts and misunderstanding by citizens of the limits of permissible activities in the occupied territory.

Create conditions for confirmation of educational qualifications by those who received education in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. This will allow our citizens to join the work on the territory controlled by the government of Ukraine and replenish various sectors of the country's economy with specialists who are lacking today..

Ensure the full implementation of the law " At present, the government has not adopted the necessary provisions for the full implementation of the law, in particular on the provision of medical and rehabilitation assistance, the provision of sanatorium treatment. Also, the Unified Register of Persons against whom the fact of deprivation of personal freedom as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine has been proven has not been launched..

Change approaches to assigning housing assistance to internally displaced persons. All HPEs receive assistance in a fixed amount, without assessing their needs. Such a system of payments sooner or later forces the state to look for tools to control them.. As in 2016, at the end of 2022, we decided to conduct checks on the place of residence of HPEs and cancel payments to those who are not at home at the time of the check.. Such a system was previously recognized as discriminatory, checks were canceled. Today they are returning to these illegal practices. The reason is an undifferentiated approach to HPE payments, which do not depend on the assessment of needs, as well as assessment of the level of integration in the community..

Ensure the full implementation of the law “On the legal status of persons missing in special circumstances”. At the beginning of 2023, the Unified Register of Missing Persons under Special Circumstances, which should become an integral database for the search for missing persons, did not work. As a result, the system of social protection of relatives of the missing, their social support does not work..

Provide an effective mechanism for the evacuation of the civilian population during martial law. To do this, it is necessary:

\u200b\u200bto ensure systemic coordination between state bodies (military administrations) on the ground and public national and international organizations helping to evacuate; improve the quality of informing civilians about what kind of support and assistance they can expect after evacuation, where they will be placed, in order to better motivate them to leave; introduce mandatory evacuation mechanisms for children whose parents refuse to evacuate from especially dangerous areas.

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The Coalition that prepared these proposals includes the ZMINA Human Rights Center, NGO "