Emergency Legal Aid to counter COVID-19

Publication date: October 22, 2020

This report presents the results of the analysis of legal aid provided by specialized civil society organizations —  members of the Legal Development Network – during the quarantine restrictions established by the Government of Ukraine in response to the spread of acute respiratory syndrome COVID-19 (from March 15, 2020 to July 15, 2020).

Legal aid in offline and online modes has reached more than 2.5 thousand people in need. Lawyers also provided assistance to those who did not have access to electronic legal services. Most of these people were concerned about their social security (more than 18% of all applications). The second place in this ranking was taken by questions on obtaining advice for resolving family cases (17.5%), the third place – on resolving issues in the field of labor relations (10.8%), the fourth – on resolving inheritance cases (10.2%) and the fifth – settlement of legal relations in the field of real estate (9.1%).

The report contains conclusions on the causes of legal problems and recommendations for citizens, public authorities, and local governments on possible ways to solve them during the pandemic. In particular, the key findings of the researchers include suggestions for improving the existing mechanisms for exchanging information between state and non-state free legal aid providers. The purpose of this is to collect, summarize, and disseminate data on current issues in quarantine. Systematization of these data, avoidance of duplication, dissemination of best practices for the protection of violated human rights.

The initiative is supported by the UNDP project “Civil Society for Enhanced Democracy and Human Rights in Ukraine”, which is implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

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