© UNHCR
The World Bank estimated there were 395,863 persons without an identity document (ID) in Ukraine at the end of 2021. Forced displacement due to the ongoing full-scale invasion in Ukraine can increase the risk that people are unable to prove their identity because they may have lost or damaged documents, or they may have been unable to document important life events (birth, death or marriage) or access government offices to renew important documentation.
In Ukraine, the administrative procedures for establishing someone’s identity, citizenship, obtaining a birth certificate, or its duplicate are complex and may be difficult for certain people to access because of costs, lengthy procedures requiring witnesses, and in some situations, involve foreign consulates. People who hold U.S.S.R. passports (but no Ukrainian documents) must confirm their residence in Ukraine as of August or November 1991 in order to obtain a Ukrainian ID at the State Migration Service of Ukraine. To obtain their ID, they need to collect evidence, communicate with state bodies and go through court procedures, which require advocate and court fees. Given the challenges that some vulnerable groups face in obtaining basic documents such as a birth certificate or a Ukrainian ID, they are unable to access the government’s free legal aid scheme, and therefore find it almost impossible to obtain a Ukrainian passport.
On 18 July 2020, amendments to the Law ‘On Free Legal Aid’, allowing legal representation of rejected applicants for Stateless Determination Procedures came into force. On 20 May 2022, amendments to the Law ‘On Free Legal Aid’ allowing legal representation of persons without Ukrainian IDs came into force. With these amendments, lawyers and attorneys from the government’s Free Legal Aid Centers (FLACs) began providing secondary legal aid which USSR ID holders and undocumented Ukrainians need to obtain vital identity documents that can help them to prove their identity and access key government services. As these legislative changes present opportunities for the FLACs to support undocumented persons to obtain ID documents, UNHCR and its partners conducted two trainings on 25-26 May and 26-27 June 2023 in Uzhhorod and Kyiv on “Documentation of stateless persons and persons with undetermined nationality”. Forty-six 46 lawyers from Odesa, Kyiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhya, Uzhhorod, Lviv, Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk participated in these two events organized by UNHCR and the FLAC Coordination Centre within the framework of a joint project with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and with the support of UNAIDS.
© UNHCR
© UNHCR
In the trainings, participants reviewed the court procedures for establishing a fact of birth; a fact of residence in Ukraine as of 1991 for eligible citizens of the former USSR; and identity setting for undocumented individuals with remote witnesses. The training also covered how to establish the fact of the birth of a child born in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, particularities of the Statelessness Determination Procedure, and some of the common challenges in supporting members of the Roma community to obtain IDs.
The training was practical, and trainers used case studies to ensure that participants would be prepared to support vulnerable individuals to obtain vital identity documents.
© UNHCR
© UNHCR
With the assistance of UNHCR and financial support of UNAIDS, an e-course was developed which contains information on four documentation procedures: birth registration/verification; identity setting procedure; statelessness determination procedure; confirmation of Ukrainian nationality procedure).
The course will be hosted on the FLAC’ e-learning platform. The e-course is a comprehensive product that will complement the knowledge base of the lawyers in the FLA system and will support more vulnerable people to get the identity documents that they need.
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