EAST SOS Legal Expert Valeriia Dolhoier Spoke About Protecting Human Rights During Evacuation and Accommodation
Valeriia Dolhoier, a legal expert at the EAST SOS Charity Foundation, delivered a series of lectures within the Pravosvidomist (Legal Awareness) project. The webinars focused on the legal aspects of evacuation and accommodation, as well as the role of the state and legal application in these areas.
Pravosvidomist is an educational project of the Higher School of Advocacy of the Ukrainian National Bar Association, aimed at raising public legal literacy and ensuring citizens’ access to free professional information.
In her lectures, the EAST SOS legal expert covered:
• The concept of evacuation, its types, and specific features;
• The functioning of Ukraine’s civil protection system;
• The government bodies responsible for evacuation;
• Informing the public about evacuation and the role of local governments in this process;
• The joint efforts of the state, the Coordination Headquarters, civil society organizations (CSOs), NGOs, and volunteers in this field;
• Key challenges related to informing, relocation, accommodation, and bomb shelter accessibility, particularly for individuals with reduced mobility;
• Human-centered approach to the evacuation process;
• The concepts of refugee status and migration;
• Current statistics on internal displacement in Ukraine;
• Available opportunities, services, programs, and financial assistance for IDPs.
“Today, evacuation is not simply moving someone away from a dangerous area, but a broad range of services aimed not only at physically relocating a person to a safe place, but also at helping them adapt, integrate, and meet their basic needs,” Valeriia said, defining the modern understanding of the evacuation process.
The legal expert also emphasized the role of host hromadas. She is convinced that because human rights realization and proper integration happen locally, hromadas have ceased to be mere administrative units. Now, they are first and foremost environments of safety and adaptation.
“It is at the local level that issues of access to housing, social services, education, transportation, employment, and meeting the basic needs of IDPs are resolved. This is a joint effort by the state, hromada, and the individuals themselves, aimed at ensuring safety, resilience, the ability to adapt to crisis conditions, and the proper exercise of their rights,” the human rights advocate added.
Valeriia shared detailed instructions on receiving cash and other types of assistance. She also noted that the website of the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine contains a list of all opportunities available to IDPs.
The lectures are available at the link.
If you need evacuation or accommodation, psychological, social, or legal support, please contact the EAST SOS hotline: 0 800 332 614, Monday to Saturday, 8:00 to 18:00.
We also provide consultations via messengers:
+38 099 710 48 72 – Viber;
+38 096 108 60 48 – Telegram.
Recently, Anatolii Kolesnikov, a senior legal expert at EAST SOS, provided a commentary to the Ukrainian editorial office of Deutsche Welle regarding the seizure of Ukrainian housing in the temporarily occupied territories and the steps citizens can take to protect their rights.
