In Kyiv the court reversed the Cabinet of Ministers decision, which forbade Crimean residents to export property to the mainland Ukraine

Today, the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal recognized the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 1035 of December 14, 2015, as illegal and invalid, which established an exclusive list of personal belongings that Crimean residents could take to the mainland.

As reported by Darya Svyrydova, lawyer of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, to the Human Rights Information Centre. She supported the lawsuit for the cancellation of the resolution.

According to her, on March 20, 2017, the District Administrative Court of Kyiv had declared the said decision as illegal, then this decision was appealed, and today the Court of Appeal confirmed the illegality of the decision.

The case was initiated by the public reception office of the Odessa regional organization Committee of Voters of Ukraine and was supported by the Center of Strategic Litigation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.

Human rights defenders have repeatedly said that the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers № significantly restricts the rights of Crimean residents to import personal things into the mainland Ukraine. By this resolution Crimean residents were forbidden to transport personal belongings from the temporarily occupied territory, with the exception of the 23 items stipulated in Article 370 of the Customs Code of Ukraine. The list of allowed things includes items such as a pager, a portable TV, ski poles, a typewriter and the like. At the same time, it is forbidden to export coffee maker, microwave oven, drill and even a tea set.

In addition, according to Svyrydova, the decision limits the types and amount of socially significant goods that can be exported from the territory of Crimea or imported into it. So, the total value of such goods should not exceed the equivalent of 10 000 hryvnias and the total weight should not exceed 50 kg per person.

“But the most important thing is that this document of the Cabinet of Ministers does not give an opportunity to protect property rights within the framework of Ukrainian jurisdiction. Despite public statements by officials about the need to abolish the resolution, this resolution was still acting until today, even after the numerous lawsuits and the trial of the cancellation of this decision in the court of first instance, which was won on March, 2017. And only on June 14, 2017, the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal declared that Decree № 1035 was illegal and invalid. Therefore, the ban forbidding Crimean residents from taking their property is not acting! There are only concerns that the government can adopt new decrees that would complicate life”, – noted Svyrydova.

As a reminder, in December 2016, Court of Appeals of Odessa in its judgment upheld the right of internally displaced persons from Crimea to transport property, that is not listed as allowed in the list, through the checkpoint. But the recognition of the illegality of the bag concerned only one complainant.

And in 2017 the Crimeans continued to face the ban. In particular, a case when a student spent almost two days trying to transport his personal belongings through the Ukrainian checkpoint at the administrative border with Crimea. This case received a huge resonance.

On February 9, 9 human rights and non-governmental organizations appealed to Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman with a request to initiate the introduction of amendments to Cabinet of Ministers resolution № 1035, which defines a list of personal property allowed to be transported through checkpoints on the administrative border with Crimea.