The rural councils of Bilopil, Vinnytsia, Zayachytsi, Kozliv, Kolpytiv, Markovychi, Pryvitne, and Kholopychi are among the pioneers. Three more rural councils in Lokachi district also committed to granting legal aid to rural population.

 

The initiator of these decisions was Lokachi District Centre of Free Legal Aid (hereinafter - the Centre), which is established on the basis of NGO "Institute for State and Regional Policy Analysis." It will soon be a year since the Centre began its work. It was created in February last year, and in March it started providing free primary legal assistance to local residents with the support of the project "Democratization, human rights and civil society development," implemented by UNDP in Ukraine and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

 

Legal advice, preparation of applications, requests, and complaints, support of cases in court enjoyed great demand among local population. In addition, the Centre's experts helped local authorities to develop projects of local legal acts. They even managed to reduce the amount of work of the district council workers because the lawyers helped to resolve people's legal problems. Of course, the Centre's activities are not confined to Lokachi district only. Activists have worked closely with the heads of rural councils in the district. Residents of all villages in the district were able to receive free legal aid from lawyers of the Centre. Moreover, in the absence of the position of lawyer at the office of the executive committee and the rural council, lawyers often provided legal assistance to employees and heads of rural councils. Such cooperation and positive feedback from leadership of the district tested positive: 8 out of 19 rural councils adopted a decision to provide free legal aid to rural population, three more rural districts council of Lokachi district will consider similar decision in January.

 

Lokachi District Council not remained aloof, considering the project of integrated district programme of legal education and free primary legal aid provision in Lokachi district in 2015-2019 that is already positively agreed with the District Department of Justice.

 

All Lokachi district municipalities hope for a peace, stability and ability of councils' budgets that will provide a real opportunity to improve the access of citizens to professional legal assistance.

 

 

Lokachi District Centre of Free Legal Aid
Address: 22b Dubnivska Street, Suite 31a, Lutsk 43010. Offsite reception is in the village Lokachi, at the district council, 37 Myru Street.
Phone: (097) 950 22 75, (099) 726 93 53
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Skype: instytutadrp
Contact: Inna Haivoronska, Head of Legal Aid Centre

 

For more information on the Centre, you can link www.polityka.volyn.ua.