The Housing for Internally Displaced Persons Forum-Dialogue was held in Zakarpatska oblast

May 20, 2024

A three-day parliamentary and municipal forum-dialogue, Housing for Internally Displaced Persons, was held in Zakarpatska oblast. It was organised by the Temporary Special Commission on the Protection of the Rights of IDPs and Other Persons. MPs, representatives of the Government, local authorities, local hromadas, NGOs, and international partners attended the Forum.

Ksenia Gedz, Advocacy Coordinator of Right to Protection, spoke at the Financial and Credit Mechanisms as a Tool for Realising the Right to Housing for Internally Displaced Persons session. During her speech, she stressed that despite the successful steps to implement the compensation mechanism in 2023, it needs to be systematically improved.

Ksenia Gedz, Advocacy Coordinator of Right to Protection

One of the main problematic issues today is the lack of opportunity to receive compensation under the Law on Compensation and relevant government resolutions for those people whose real estate was destroyed or damaged as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation before 24 February 2022. The solution to this problem should be to extend the mechanism of compensation for owners of housing destroyed before 24 February 2022.

Other important issues that need to be addressed and finalised are:

  1. Lack of possibility to receive compensation for damage and destruction of objects that, as of 24 February 2022, were located in the temporarily occupied territories.
  2. Under the terms of the eVidnovlennia programme, those whose damaged houses are located in an area of active hostilities cannot receive compensation for their damage.  
  3. Delayed implementation of the technical functionality of the Diia application required to implement the mechanism for providing compensation for repairs already made at the owners' own expense.
  4. Inability to submit an information notice and enter information into the Register of Destroyed and Damaged Property about residential property damaged or destroyed before 24 February 2022.
  5. Inability to use compensation funds to restore damaged housing within the timeframe provided by law.

The Forum's second day was dedicated to visits to IDPs' temporary residence places in Zakarpatska oblast. Afterwards, the participants analysed the results of the visits and discussed ways to further improve the functioning of the CCs at a roundtable with municipalities.

On the third day of the Forum, a meeting of the Temporary Special Commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the Protection of Property and Non-property Rights of Internally Displaced Persons and Other Persons Affected by the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine was held, where participants discussed the draft Law of Ukraine, On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the Realisation of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons to Housing, the results of the implementation of the eVidnovlennia state programme, and representatives of local authorities of the Zakarpatska, Lvivska, and Ivano-Frankivska oblasts presented their achievements.

Ksenia Gedz, Advocacy Coordinator of Right to Protection

The Parliamentary-Municipal Forum-Dialogue, Housing for Internally Displaced Persons, is a unique, successful case of bringing together key stakeholders in a frank dialogue on what has already been done to protect the housing rights of internally displaced persons and the war-affected population, what is not working and why, and what should be done by state and local authorities, international partners and the public. The Forum not only exposed the problems, but also outlined a further strategy for the development of housing policy in Ukraine, protection of housing rights and vectors for the reconstruction of our country.