Son verifies the death of his mother on the temporarily occupied territory

Publication date: September 25, 2024

Public Platform NGO lawyers’ successful case may serve as an example for algorithm of actions, on how to verify death of person, occurred on temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. Especially, in circumstances a deceased person’s relatives located on liberated parts of our country without any documents of a family member or evidence of death.

In April 2024, Mr. Oleh* visited Public Platform office. He shared, that he is 58 years old and native of Luhansk Region. He relocated from his hometown Sokyrne to Dnipro Region during the war in 2014.

He lived alone, hence he has only distant family, who “choose” occupied Ukraine, by staying on temporarily occupied territory. His mother stayed in Luhansk Region as well…

It was hard to get used to new, but lonely life, however Mr. Oleh* is good with his hands, so he managed by working.  He took every job, worked as: electrician, builder, plumber, and security guard. “It’s tiring to live alone, yet I love to work”, – he shared with organization’s workers, to whom he turned for legal advice.

The thing is that Mr. Oleh’s* mother died in the Luhansk region,” explains Anastasia Nazarchuk, Public Platform NGO’s Lawyer , “He did not accept any relations with the occupied territory, and, of course, he had to ‘formalize’ the death of his relative in a state-run procedure. But he did not know how to do it. The case was complicated by the fact that Mr. Oleh’s* mother had never traveled to the liberated part of Ukraine, had no IDP certificate, and her son did not have any of his mother’s documents either.

To establish the fact of the death of a person who died in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, the relatives of this person must apply to any local court of Ukraine administering justice, regardless of the applicant’s place of residence (stay), the lawyer explains.

The following documents should be submitted to the court:

1. An application for establishing the fact of death in the temporarily occupied territory, which should indicate

– what fact the applicant requests to establish and for what purpose;

– reasons for the inability to obtain or restore documents certifying this fact;

– evidence confirming the fact.

2. Evidence confirming the circumstances described by the applicant (e.g., written testimony of eyewitnesses, photos from the burial site, medical documents on death, etc.)

3. A certificate stating that the lost documents cannot be restored (e.g., a written refusal from the civil registry office).

4. A copy of the identity document and the registration number of the taxpayer’s account card (Article 318 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine).

“So, we had absolutely nothing of the above evidence,” Anastasia Nazarchuk comments, “So, first of all, we turned to the Kamianske Civil Registration Office. We applied for a refusal and received it. Then, Mr. Oleh’s* sister sent scans of the documents (his mother’s passport, a certificate from the morgue, a medical report, photos taken during the funeral, and a photo of his mother’s grave).

After drafting a statement and attaching the documents, the man appealed to the local court. The court recognized Mr. Oleh’s* mother as deceased, and with this court’s conclusion, the son went to the Civil Registry Office, where he was issued a certificate of his mother’s death.

“It is worth noting that in such cases the plaintiff is obliged to pay a court fee,” the Lawyeradds, “However, in this case, the state even paid Mr. Oleh* an allowance in the amount of two mother’s pensions (for burial).

*Name changed based on ethical grounds.

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The material was created with the support of the international charitable platform GlobalGiving, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The content of the publication is the sole responsibility of the Legal Development Network Non-Governmental Union.

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