Strengthening of the grassroots human rights organizations community

Publication date: July 7, 2023

Author: Halyna Kolesnyk, communications manager of the Legal Development Network 

A feature of the project “Capacity development of local NGOs – legal aid providers in Ukraine”, which is implemented by the Legal Development Network (LDN) with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine and the Government of Canada, is flexibility and the creation of opportunities: to become part of a community of organizations facing similar challenges, interact and learn from representatives of the Legal Development Network organizations, network with the community of paralegals, and learn about the experiences and approaches of other human rights organizations.

Photo: Vitalii Okhrimenko, program director of the LDN. Photo by Halyna Kolesnyk

“This project focuses on strengthening those moments that are crucial for institutional stability, and development of sustainability of these organizations. This is a long game because we are creating a community of small NGOs that think not only about how they work in their communities but also about how they can raise common painful issues through interaction. Organizations request joint advocacy, and specific training programs, especially to improve the competence of their lawyers and paralegals, to ensure quality. That is why we are starting to talk about certain standards of service provision and interaction,” says Vitalii Okhrimenko, program director of the Legal Development Network.

The Ukrainian Paralegal Association, registered in 2019, is a large network organization that consists of indifferent Ukrainian men and women. They are ready to constantly learn to help community residents solve problems and provide counseling and redirecting. As a participant of the project “Capacity development of local NGOs – legal aid providers in Ukraine”, this organization had the opportunity to participate in the competition for mini-grant support announced by UNDP. The Association is constantly looking for new forms of legal education, so it decided to implement one of them in the initiative “Gaming approach in civic education – a driving force for raising the legal awareness of citizens.” For the community of paralegals, this is a new direction and experience that will allow them to expand the tools of legal education available to them. 

“The implementation of our plan takes place in several stages. We analyzed the requests that are most often addressed to us by representatives of the target audience, collected a set of questions, and divided it into blocks. After the basic mechanism is ready, we will conduct training for those who will test the game directly in the communities. So far, more people have responded than we originally planned. Certified game practitioner Olha Ihnatieva, who studied at the Ukrainian Game Academy, was involved in the development of the game. She understands the correctness of mechanisms and logic and has repeatedly researched the process of creating games,” says Halyna Fediura.

The developers plan in a game way to give the participants an opportunity to get the experience and feelings that, for example, IDPs have in various situations. These circumstances exist in reality, but it is quite likely that the participants would not be able to rethink them in another way. The game will help players change their position and become more aware. After testing in September, it is planned to distribute the game for wider use.

A few years ago, one of the member organizations of the Legal Development Network of the NGO “Local Initiative Center” (Chervonohrad, Lviv oblast) had a similar experience in creating a legal education game. Its practical implementation has shown high interest and demand among young people and the community of civil activists. 

“We understand that in order to strengthen paralegals and communities in general in solving legal problems, we need certain methods. The opportunity to take advantage of such a game is one of the ways that will help us to spread legal culture,” says Hanna Ilashchuk, head of the Ukrainian Paralegal Association.

The game can be a continuation of the already existing developments in the gaming approach, which are available in Ukraine. If you develop a game in one episode, you can create several more in the future. That is, the game can be modernized depending on the blocks of legal issues that fill it.

“Among the next steps we have planned in the project is filling the game with content, working on its algorithms, testing it in the paralegal community, and later training trainers, developing detailed instructions, and, of course, holding a presentation of the game,” says Halyna Fediura.

Another format of interaction was shared by paralegals Maryna Tsarapaieva (Semeniv community, Zhytomyr oblast) and Nataliia Horvasiuk (Storozhynets community, Chernivtsi oblast).

“In the tandem “person – paralegal – lawyer”, we analyze the problem and look for solutions, turning it into a successful practice or a kind of case. Right now, working with people is in full swing. We talk to local residents who often have questions that don’t require professional legal help. Our knowledge is enough here. For example, write an appeal and identify the executive authority that can solve the problem. There are cases in my work where legal help is needed because my knowledge is not enough here. We cooperate with lawyers of the Legal Development Network, who help us understand the intricacies of the legislation,” Maryna Tsarapaieva says.

The paralegal Nataliia Horvasiuk, who works in the Storozhynets community, Chernivtsi oblast, tells about a successful example of cooperation regarding the privatization of a land plot, which a resident of the community could not resolve for more than three years. Thanks to the lawyer Mykhailo Bardyn, it became clear that there were mistakes made by other organizations that dealt with neighboring plots and their privatization. According to the results of the lawyer’s consultation, the woman’s plot of land received a cadastral number and the client successfully completed the privatization process. 

For reference

The project “Capacity development of local NGOs – legal aid providers in Ukraine” is implemented by the Legal Development Network with the support of UNDP within the framework of the UN Peacebuilding and Reconstruction Program with the financial support of the Government of Canada.

The UN Reconstruction and Peacebuilding Program (UN RPP) is implemented by four UN agencies: the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Framework for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Food and the United Nations Agricultural Organization (FAO).

The program is supported by twelve international partners: the European Union (EU), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the US Embassy in Ukraine, as well as the governments of Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland.

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