"It may be stated that the Ukrainian crisis with internal forced relocation of citizens and civilians is the greatest similar crisis in Europe since the World War II. In the past year, the number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine has already outnumbered those in the former Yugoslavia," said Maksym Butkevych, coordinator of the Resource Center for IDPs.

 

As of 16 March 2015, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is aware of 1,152,000 IDPs, excluding Ukrainian refugees who fled to other countries.

 

Due to the fact that the centralized and unified registration of IDPs was introduced by Ukrainian Government only in October 2014 and some of IDPs choose not to register, this mechanism is not efficient enough, the real figure of IDPs remains unknown and is likely to be higher than the official data.

 

To help internally displaced persons, UNDP in Ukraine supported the launch of the Resource Center for IDPs (RC), uniting 10 civil society organizations, charities, and initiatives working side by side with staff of the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsperson).

 

The RC partnership memorandum was signed by the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Krym S.O.S. civic initiative, Social Action Centre ("Bez Kordoniv" (No Borders) project, "Dim Druziv" (Friends' House) initiative), Centre for Civic Education "Almenda," Employment Centre of Free People, "Pravo na Zakhyst" Charitable Foundation, "Rokada" Charitable Foundation, Crimean Diaspora, Centre for Civil Liberties, Vostok S.O.S. initiative, "First Aid Kit for Refugees" initiative.

 

The RC is aimed at solving humanitarian and legal needs of IDPs, analysing the legal framework for the development and implementation of long-term strategies to provide assistance to and integrate IDPs, while coordinating efforts of civic initiatives and governmental bodies in solving the problems of internally displaced persons, etc.

 

According to Maksym Butkevych, by the end of February 2015, the RC had provided legal advice on labour law, a pass-entry system from the ATO zone, the issues of inheritance, registration as IDPs, document recovery, and more.

 

The RC together with the Office of the Ombudsperson conducted 20 monitoring visits to 21 regions of Ukraine to examine settlements of internally displaced persons, checking their suitability for habitation in winter months, verifying data on the quantitative composition of IDPs living there, and helping solve problems related to forced relocation. The monitoring revealed such immediate needs of IDPs as medicine, food, hygiene products, household cleaning products, household supplies, appliances, furniture, and more.

 

Oleksandra Romantsova from Centre of Civil Liberties, which was part of the monitoring group, and Zhanna Lukianenko, Representative of the Commissioner for observance of the rights of internally displaced persons, stressed the need for integration and adaptation of IDPs to new conditions and called for closer cooperation in assisting IDPs in Ukraine.