HLP Technical Working Group Meeting Minutes October 01, 2019, Kramatorsk Agenda item Summary of discussion Action plan Time frame Introduction. Welcome speech. Presentation of participants. 1. Discussion on the OHCHR representative was present in Skype mode. Coordination On the administrative • The Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 623 of 10 July 2019 has amended the with Donetsk permanent compensation Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 947 of 18 December 2013 “On Approving the OSA on the basis. mechanism for Procedure for Granting and Determining the Amount of the Financial Assistance to Those mechanism damaged destroyed Affected by the Emergencies Who Have Stayed at Their Place of Residence”. The Decree in of housing force has introduced the administrative mechanism for compensation provision to the persons compensatio affected. n for the • Currently, in line with the mentioned Decree, the following algorithm is established for the housing person affected by the emergency: 1) Collect the documents (passport, individual tax ID destroyed. number, Certificate on the status of the person affected by the emergency, act on damage, ownership documentation; 2) Submit the Application documention package to the “Compensation commissions” established at Oblast State Administrations; 3) The “Compensation Commission” shall make the decision on provision/denial of the compensation; 4) The Oblast State Administrations shall submit the application to the Ministry of temporarily occupied territories (hereinafter MTOT) including the list of persons and compensation calculations; 5) The MTOT shall transfer the funds to the Oblast State Administrations as per the lists received; 6) The Oblast State Administrations pay out the compensations to the apllicants. • NRC: briefly summarised the updates from the Kharkiv International Legal Forum held on September 24-28, 2019. In particular, he told about the practice of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of Ukraine in cases on compensations for the damaged/destroyed property and about the latest aspects of the ECHR practice regarding the compensation cases. • HLP TWG Coordinator proposed representatives of Donetsk Oblast State Administration’s departments to engage the HLP TWG as a consultative team in those departments activity where necessary. • Donetsk OSA: agreed to involve HLP TWG in the Donetsk RDA work regarding the issue on implementation of the compensation mechanism. 2. Discussion on the • The OHCHR representative (via Skype) shared the updates on the recent activities in regards To hold a November cases of military use with the Avdiivka case. separate 2019 (Update from the Task - A range of letters has been sent, namely to the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, the meeting of Force on military use) Prosecutor’s Office of the Donetsk Oblast, the National Police of Ukraine, the State Bureau the Expert of Investigation, the Commissioner for Human Rights, etc., regarding the military use of civil group on the property in the so-called “Avdiivka case”. The replies received show certain discoordination military of the security agencies’ actions in these criminal cases. occupation - The majority of those cases have been re-qualified and sent for review to the National Police for co- of Ukraine. ordination of - Furthermore, the letter has been sent to and the reply has been received from the JCCC interworking (Joint Control and Coordination Centre). in the • UNHCR and Right to Protection: 1) As agreed at the last Military Use Task Force HLP TWG, a Avdiivka case thorough data collection has been conducted. For the latest 2.5 months, 5 advocacy meetings have been held with the residents of building No. 15, Vorobiova Street in Avdiivka. In general, sessions were held with the residents of more than 40 apartments out of 144. 2) A large number of agreements on legal support have been concluded between the residents and Right to Protection. 3) Official letters have been prepared and sent to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. The responses received stated that the Ministry of Defence did not give a command to the military for quartering in Building No. 15, and, respectively, the stay of military in the building is not legal. • Proliska: The letter was received stating that the City Council of Avdiivka is indicated as the property operator of Building No. 15. Therefore, the Cityl Council of Avdiivka has to conduct the building examination with regard of its serviceability for living. • HLP TWG Coordinator: Based on coordinated action of partners, they have conducted gathering and processing of the information on military use in “Avdiivka case”. Currently the following major issues can be identified (being incurred separately or in various combinations): - lack of access; - military use; - property theft; - debts for utilities; - damage to the apartment or property. Main positions of the beneficiaries regarding the satisfactory solution of their issues include: - release of the apartment from military occupation; - return to the apartment; - loss compensation; - utility debt repayment; - obtaining equivalent housing. Additional aspects are present in the Avdiivka case which directly or indirectly influence the decisions in specific situations: - absence of ownership for the apartment (the majority of the apartments have not been privatised); - lack of information regarding the military persons; - lack of applications or requests to the state bodies. • HLP TWG Coordinator mentioned that there is a concern about advocating for the residents’ return to the building, as there is permanent probability of artillery attack of the building (considering its location) and, respectively, negative aftermath for the residents. The participants agreed that the group will not do advocacy for the residents’ return to the building occupied, and will focus on solving other problems of the residents instead. • To define further actions and steps of the HLP TWG in this case, the HLP TWG Coordinator suggested the following: - To develop algorithms for legal actions. This will allow to develop and introduce certain action algorithms in a coordinated manner. - To engage Kharkiv Human Rights Group in WG as they are currently preparing the claim to the ECHR on behalf of one of Building No. 15 residents. - To work out questions for the future meeting with the Donetsk Oblast State Administration after the common position is consolidated and the decisions are elaborated. 3. Discussion on the • The DRC representative provided the group participants with the update on the recent To be Not defined issues on taxation of organisation’s activities on the agricultural land taxation issue: considered agricultural land plot - On September 18, 2019, a panel discussion was held on the impossibility of intended use for the future along the contact line of agricultural land occupied for military purposes and contaminated with explosive co-ordination objects. Four major issues were raised in it. - First. The possibility to write-off the tax debt due to non-use of agricultural land. 1) One of the ways to solve the issue of agricultural land taxation along the demarcation line is to obtain the Certificate of force major circumstances in the departments of the Chambers of Commerce. 2) The State Fiscal Service believes that only the certificates issued at the state level may be accepted. 3) The regional Chambers of Commerce believe that they also are entitled to issue such certificates, and that they are legally qualified to do this. 4) The cost of the Certificate varies from UAH 5 000-7000 what in most cases significantly exceeds the amount of the agricultural tax. 5) The Certificate application results cancellation of the tax debt charged on the certain date only. But from the next day on, the land tax starts to be charged again. 6) Currently, the discussion between the SFS and the Chambers of Commerce on this issue continues. - The representative of Right for Protection inquired on the scale of the problem. The DRC representative mentioned as an example that as per village council of Mykolaivka, over 3,500 Ha of agricultural land at their territory is not being used. - Second. The possibility of establishing a land tax at the rate of 0 % for the agricultural lands. 1) The Ministry of Finance noted that an effective solution to this issue would be setting of the land tax rate at 0 % by local coucils; 2) There is a problem with such approach, as the Tax Code of Ukraine does not allow to provide individual benefits to individuals; 3) The meeting participants have decided that certain wording/definition of the typical solution has to be elaborated. - Third. The possibility of agricultural land conservation. The representative of the State Land Cadastre did not support the idea of conservation of such lands. In particular, there are no grounds clearly stated by law for the conservation in respect of this category of land. An additional obstacle is the need to conduct laboratory analyses (chemical analysis) of the lands, and this is impossible if the lands are contaminated with explosive objects. - Fourth. The co-ordination with the Civil-Military Administration regarding the provision of information on the mine contamination of agricultural land. Currently, an interactive map of mine contamination is available at the link: https://mod-ukr.imsma- core.org/portal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d1fc9330a4964cc793dac7894c725fa3 . This information may be used as a reference when preparing the replies to the SFS regarding the agricultural tax payment notifications issued. 4. Update on HLP Currently, the following work within the framework of HLP TWG is conducted in various fields: To continue On the TWG’s • Compensation Task Force (NRC, Kristina Nechaieva) works on: informing permanent Strategy/Workplan, - a general overview document on the compensation mechanism in Ukraine; HLP TWG basis structure and current - consolidated advocacy messages regarding the compensation; participants activities - update of the foreign experience in compensations; on group • Military Use Task Force (OHCHR, Tagui Melkumian): activities at - works on the case of military occupation in Avdiivka; the central - elaborates the standardised questionnaire for the cases of the military occupation. level • Shelter Documentation Task Force (DRC, Nataliia Madzihon): - develops a general overview document on utility subsidies; - develops the concept of simplifying construction permitting procedures for Shelter beneficiaries. 5. Updates on HLP • Proliska: 1) The situation in Pisky. The people who left this village currently have no access to To take into Not defined. issues from the their houses in Pisky. Although part of them (10 people) managed to return, the military do consideration participants of the not let the rest of them to get to their dwellings. The situation with the acts on housing . meeting damage/destruction is also unclear. The residents of the Pisky addressed this issue to the Yasynuvata Raion State Administration. Some of the people were refused to issue the act, and part of them did not receive any response at all. Out of 60 houses, only 6 persons have received the acts. 2) In Opytne, the private damaged houses are being reconstructed. But there are also 2- and 3-storey multi-apartment buildings which are not covered by the renovation programs. There is no power supply in the village either. Assistance with the statement of estimates preparation is needed to provide for renewal of these multi-apartment buildings. • The State Department of the Civil Protection of the Donetsk Oblast State Administration: currently, all actions and material provisions were conducted and are being conducted in the context of emergency (of local or regional nature respectively) response. This implies certain financing limitations. The diversion of funds is unlawful. In respect of drawing up the acts, it was stated that the process has been initiated. Commissions are established in coordination with MTOT, but there is a personnel shortage. The problems are gradually being resolved. 6. Other issues

Participants: HLP TWG, UNHCR, NRC, OHCHR, Donetsk Oblast State Administration, ICRC, R2P, Proliska, DRC

Next meeting: Kyiv, October 2019