To obtain an IDP status for a child with a disability. The story of a family from the NGCA

Recently Ruslan Bereteli, our colleague and a lawyer, shared an interesting experience in solving a complex case of an IDP family, on which several offices of the R2P were working simultaneously:

«With the beginning of the new year, we are gradually closing the cases that were inherited from the last year. We are currently working on obtaining a passport for an elderly man who lost it when he tried to solve the issue with his pension, as well as on registration of custody of a minor child for a large family from Krasnohorivka. But there is one particular case that has already been successfully completed, and it gives hope for an equally productive and eventful year. After all, thanks to such cases, not only do people receive much-needed help, but we also have a basis for thinking about law enforcement practice,»

Recently a woman who moved from Donetsk to Mariupol recently asked us for help with the issue of registering an internally displaced person (IDP) in the interests of her minor son, who is a child with a disability. She was also interested in obtaining the relevant certificate.

The lack of appropriate status could be an obstacle to passing the necessary medical examinations to confirm the child's disability and receive the necessary medical and sanatorium treatment in the Government-controlled areas of Ukraine. After many years of treatment, the son of our beneficiary has only recently started to walk on his own. In addition, this child with disabilities is not the only one in the family.

The main "stumbling block" for Ukrainian officials was that the guy, after obtaining a passport of a citizen of Ukraine, was not registered at the place of residence in his city in the occupied territories, and thus, he could not prove that he had lived there permanently since the beginning of the armed conflict and that he left only in October 2021. It should be noted that the mother and the youngest son were registered and received IDP certificates, and the eldest son, who lived with them permanently, was left without a certificate.

During the meeting with a specialist of one of the local units of the social protection service, officials have categorically and in oral form refused to register the child as an Internally Displaced Person because they "did not see" evidence of a child’s permanent residence at the Non-Government Controlled Areas (NGCA). According to the law, they had to take the documents to work, after which, within 15 days, they must have made an informed written legal decision in accordance with the documents, provided by the applicant, which confirms the fact of a residence in the occupied territory.

After this happened the family called the Mariupol office of the CF “Right to Protection” (R2P) by the hotline. The boy and his mother were invited to a personal meeting, where after a thorough analysis of the situation, lawyer Galemskiy Serhiy provided advice, and the process of a legal aid provision began.

Lawyer Iryna Nikolenko submitted an application to the Department of Social Protection, provided a list of the necessary documents, and made requests to the relevant authorities to confirm the legal position in the case of our beneficiary.

The situation was further complicated by the fact that most of the documents confirming permanent residence at the NGCA were issued by the illegal authorities and were not taken into account in the decision-making.

During the daily meeting of the specialists of Mariupol and Kurakhiv offices it was found out that the colleagues who work in Mariinsky, Pokrovsky, and some other districts of Donetsk region also have had similar situations, so they decided to discuss this issue directly with the leadership of the Department of Social Protection of the Donetsk region.

At the online meeting with the leadership of the Department of Social Protection of the Donetsk region, the lawyer of the Kurakhiv office of Bereteli Ruslan discussed this issue to develop guidelines for practical use in the field. As a result of the meeting, there was a common opinion that a well-established algorithm and an approach to solving such situations need to be created.

The head of the IDP department contacted colleagues from the education department, who confirmed the information in the electronic registers that the boy studied at a Donetsk school before the conflict, ie lived there permanently. This information and the information contained in the documents provided by the family became a sufficient basis for a decision in favor of the beneficiary.

IDP certificates provide the ability to those who desperately need them to apply for financial support from the state.

We express our sincere gratitude to the leadership of the Department of Social Protection of the Donetsk region for efficiency and lack of unnecessary bureaucracy.

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To obtain an IDP status for a child with a disability. The story of a family from the NGCA