Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights: Social Policy Ministry comes to us from Mars

Not only children, but grandchildren of the public officials, who violate the rights of the internally displaced persons now, will pay for their wrongdoings after the European Court of Human Rights delivers the corresponding judgments.

This opinion was expressed by Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Valeria Lutkovska at the enlarged meeting of the Parliament’s Committee for Human Rights, which discussed the implementation of recommendations of parliamentary hearings for the rights of IDPs.

As the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent notes, the Ombudsperson was emotional in her speech.

She was outraged by the fact that payment of pensions to 450,000 people was suspended due to lists of the Ukrainian Security Service and not resumed after five and a half months.

“What do the Social Policy Ministry and the whole Government do in this situation? They pass the decree No. 365, which theoretically should resume the payment of pensions. However, it won’t be implemented for sure, as it has no resources for its implementation,” she said.

As a reminder, the decree No. 365 stipulates that the department for labour and social protection inspects the actual place of residence of an IDP to appoint or resume the welfare payment. Having inspected it, a department’s representative makes a report on inspection of housing conditions of a family in a prescribed form of the Social Policy Ministry.

“The decree came into force on June 14, while the decisions on resumed payments should be made on July 14. Will you make these decisions within this period of time? Have you just now started to explain the departments for labour and social protection how to carry out these checks and how to create these commissions? Therefore, I believe that the Social Policy Ministry came to us from Mars, apparently,” she said.

“You were told that, for example, about 300,000 IDPs live in Luhansk region and there is no sufficient number of social protection workers to do the work. Moreover, you also did nothing to interest the people, to raise their wages or to create jobs, or perhaps recover fare. The government-controlled area of Luhansk region is large enough. How will a social inspector travel across these areas? How much time will the checks take? How people will live without pensions all this time? Dear officials, you arrange a genocide,” the Ombudsperson said.

Lutkovska stressed that neither the Social Policy Ministry nor the newly established Ministry for occupied territories and IDPs had even begun to think about ways to pay pensions to Ukrainians residing in the uncontrolled territory.

“Dear officials, you have been thinking how to create this mechanism for two years already, but I have the impression that you work not to create it,” she said

“Pension is a public contract between me and the state. First, during my life, I pay my money to the Pension Fund, and I get my pension. Currently, the conduct of the anti-terrorist operation is not stipulated in the pension legislation of Ukraine as the reason for termination of payment of pension,” she recalled.

Lutkovska points out that the decree No.365 contains discriminatory provisions.

“We have created a pension tourism, the checkpoints with appalling conditions of stay, and then we start additional discrimination against IDPs. We will check them and somehow make a report on housing conditions. Has anyone read the legislation before taking a resolution? I want look in the eyes of the Justice Minister, who approved it,” she said.

“Since when have the pensions been dependent or independent of housing conditions? Yes, there are certain benefits requiring this report but it does not refer to pensioners and some other social payments,” Valeria Lutkovska added.

The Commissioner for Human Rights states that the IDPs return to the occupied territories because the state does not provide them with decent job, place of residence or social welfare.

“They return to places where it is dangerous to live, but where they have shelter and kitchen garden. Meanwhile, we stop paying social welfare because they are not real IDPs. It is absolutely wrong and will lead to terrible consequences,” she said.

Lutkovska publicly appealed to the Social Policy Ministry with a request to include her or her representative in the working group to amend the decree No. 635. She hinted she was forced to appeal to the Social Policy Ministry in public as it did not respond to emails of the Commissioner for Internally Displaced Persons.

Earlier, more than 7,000 persons asked the Social Policy Ministry to resume paying social welfare.

As reported, Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Committee for Human Rights Hryhoriy Nemyria was outraged by absence of Social Policy Minister Pavlo Rozenko and other ministers at the enlarged committee meeting, which considers implementation of recommendations of the parliamentary hearings on observance of the rights of IDPs