Report 2019. Legal Development Network

Publication date: September 29, 2020

Foreword: Yevgen Poltenko, Executive Director of the Legal Development Network

It is a strange time, if you look back. The global COVID-19 pandemic this year has forced many of us to reconsider our priorities, approaches in the work and mobilize for new responses to new challenges.

But looking back, in 2019, we, as a responsible and accountable organization, ask ourselves whether we have achieved our goals, whether our work has helped to solve or prevent problems, whether the lessons we have learned will be useful in 2020?

The purpose of the annual report is to review the relationship between our actions and our impact. Our mission is consistent with the 16th Sustainable Development Goal and specifically its sub-goal 16.3 – to promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and to ensure equal access to justice for all.

So, did our actions in 2019 bring our goals closer? Obviously, there will not be enough pages of this report to share all the details with you, but you will definitely find the most important aspects and conclusions here.

For the Legal Development Network, 2019 was a year of significant expert capacity strengthening, which was embodied in several researches on access to justice: a research on the actual pathway to justice for people of the Eastern Ukraine facing legal challenges, a monitoring of the quality of court services, and an analysis of Ukraine’s implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, etc.

We shared our expertise with Ukrainian communities and our colleagues abroad to jointly find evidence-based solutions that improve access to justice for all.

Bearing in mind that there cannot be too much legal aid, and the public demand for it is constantly increasing, our member organizations have continued providing free legal assistance and rising legal awareness, often relying only on the enthusiasm of their lawyers and activists. We have systematically supported the work of the only online legal counseling chat in Ukraine. It has become significantly relevant in the current quarantine year, when the demand for remote tools has grown tremendously.

We realize that the strength of a chain is determined by the strength of its weakest link. The crisis of 2020 leaves no doubt that only strong and self-sufficient organizations are able to effectively respond to its challenges. Therefore, our previous years achievements in strengthening the organizational capacity and resilience of the Network’s members do not lose the relevance today.

2019 has taught and strengthened us a lot, but this achievement would not be possible without you: our partner organizations, our donors, our supporters, and critics. Thank you for being there. We will continue to work persistently to justify your trust and support. We hope you know how important you are to us in helping to facilitate justice for all.

Wishing you a pleasant reading, I also encourage your feedback on impressions and thoughts that are of great significance to us!

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