Ukraine has been in a state of armed aggression by the Russian Federation for more than a decade. Crimea and parts of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Kherson regions have been occupied by the aggressor country for a long time. However, these Ukrainian territories continue to be home to Ukrainian citizens who demonstrate resilience and faith in liberation every day despite the occupation.
We, the representatives of the coalition of organizations dealing with the protection of the rights of victims of armed aggression against Ukraine, stress the importance of the state’s actions aimed at ensuring and maintaining the national unity of Ukrainian society. The state should continue to work to strengthen ties with those Ukrainian citizens who live in the temporarily occupied territories (TOT).
We are convinced that the state must take direct steps to support our people who remain under occupation and to build ties with them. In particular:
- there should be in the Government of Ukraine responsible for the development and implementation of state policy on the temporarily occupied territories, support and reintegration of their residents. This institution should have all the necessary resources (human, material, etc.) to carry out its functions;
- support programmes should be developed and implemented for children and youth leaving the TOT; such support should include assistance in obtaining passport documents, providing temporary accommodation, access to education, psychological assistance, financial support, etc;
- mechanisms should be developed to use information from documents issued by the occupation authorities to avoid negative consequences for the civilian population and to ensure their rights in the territory controlled by Ukraine. First of all, it is necessary to introduce extrajudicial procedures for the use of information from civil status acts, medical documents, property documents, etc;
- the state policy on internally displaced persons should remain consistent, predictable and should include real support measures based on an assessment of the needs of IDPs.
Ukrainian society must support the resilience of Ukrainian people under occupation and provide our citizens with comprehensive support. The voice of our country must be more powerful than the propaganda of the RF. Our right to the sovereign territories of Ukraine only grows stronger when Ukrainian citizens are waiting for us on these territories.
While the territories are occupied, there are still people living there.
December 13, 2024
Human Rights Centre ZMINA
CO CF Stabilisation Support Services
CF Right to Protection
CF EAST SOS
NGO Civil Holding GROUP OF INFLUENCE
NGO CrimeaSOS
NGO Donbas SOS
Crimean Human Rights Group
