The impact of armed conflict on the observance of Conventional human rights in Mariupol, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk

By Andriy Solodko

The violation of human rights is simultaneously a symptom and a cause of the tension in society. When human rights are not protected properly and basic human needs related to these rights are not provided, it creates tension in the society, causing the signs of latent conflict and increasing the potential for outbreaks of physical violence, resulting in real conflict.

Introduction

This study aims to draw attention to the state of human rights in Mariupol, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, to determine the impact of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the post-conflict status of liberated cities on human rights. The research is conducted by analysing the public policy and civil society activities focusing on how the human rights are the ultimate goal of state policy in post-conflict areas, and analysing what tools and means are there to implement the goal. In the course of the study, additional attention was paid to the vulnerable groups of the population, first of all, to internally displaced persons. Ensuring their rights should be the cornerstone of state and local politics when developing the programs of economic and social development of cities. Assessing the state of human rights, we did not attempt to rank the cities, as far as the field study has shown that cities had had different occupation experiences and significantly differed economically, socially and culturally. The attention was paid to those aspects of human rights that were identified by the local people and activists during the field study, as well as those referred to by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in their regular reports.

Post-conflict dimension of human rights in the cities of eastern Ukraine

Human rights are a tool for maintaining peace in the east. The implementation of the state policy in the field of human rights protection helps to avoid the conflict recurrence and reduces the concern level in the communities of the three cities that is high. Ensuring the observance of human rights in the cities that have experienced the conflict and are still near the conflict line is seen by the local population as ensuring their socio-economic rights. It is confirmed by through personal communication with the representatives of NGOs working on the protection of human rights directly in Mariupol, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, and by the data from the national human rights study. At the same time, the same study confirms that the inhabitants of Donbas are more than willing to face material difficulties for the preservation of civil rights¹.

However, the analysis of state programmes, strategies, statutes, city budgets, programs implemented by donors, international organizations, and local community activists has shown that the protection of human rights in eastern cities, in addition to traditional, also includes atypical (for other regions of Ukraine) variables. These include the issues of reconciliation, disarmament, preventing violence and crime, adapting the cities' economies to new realities, stabilising the political situation, restoring infrastructure and state institutions, involving the private sector, civil society, international organizations, and the IDPs in developing policies. Therefore, we can say that the context of human rights in post-conflict cities is much more complex and multilayer than in the country in general.

As a result of the conflict, there was a large group of people who needed to strengthen the protection of their economic and social rights. In the majority of cases, they belong to vulnerable categories of the population, the largest of whom are internally displaced persons, and are so-called suddenly poor. They lost their property and sources of existence as a result of the conflict and have specific problems: lack of own housing, poor living conditions, employment problems, low wages, and difficulties in accessing social services.

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¹ See. "What Ukrainians know and think about human rights" http://www.ua.undp.org/content/dam/ukraine/docs/DG/Ombudsman%27s%20project/HumanRightsUa.pdf

According to the Ministry of Social Policy, the number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine is decreasing. At the beginning of 2018, 1 492 100 IDPs were registered, it is the smallest total official number of resettlers over the past year. However, the largest number of the displaced is concentrated in the Donetsk region - 496 thousand people.

At the same time, data analysis shows that the real number of those in cities is smaller. We can only estimate their current number by indirect methods. Thus, if you look at the number of IDPs children attending educational institutions, in Mariupol there are 1929 in schools and 699 in kindergartens; in Kramatorsk respectively 1002 and 512, in Sloviansk - 800 and 350. With such a number of children given, the volunteers estimate the actual number of IDPs living in Kramatorsk to be around 10-12 thousand people, in Mariupol - up to 60 thousand.

In addition, the occupation and conflict have divided the population, creating a culture of allies and enemies. Creating such a marginalized group enhances the discrimination and goes far beyond socio-economic rights and totally violates the political rights since these marginalized groups have very limited ability to influence decisions directly affecting them.

Peace-building

Human rights defenders in the cities consider peace conditionally in a negative and in a positive sense. In the negative sense, it is referred to a situation where there is no direct threat of physical violence. At the moment, they believe that the authorities successfully contribute to the achievement of this "negative peace". On the other hand, they say that there is a positive peace which stipulates the conditions for equality, non-discrimination, social justice, and respect for human rights. It currently cannot be achieved. The programs addressing the structural causes of the conflict that took place in Mariupol, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in 2014 have to be implemented. First of all, through the provision of socio-economic rights to eliminate regional doubts about the past, and through engaging citizens in decision-making in order to build a stable relationship between the authority and the community.

Government and human rights

Local authorities work with a wide range of human rights community and international organizations, building partnerships that contribute to improving the human rights situation. However, the normative framework of human rights is provided only at the national level. At the local level, there's no such framework in place. This can be explained by the lack of readiness to assume responsibility due to the absence of resources and community request. Most human rights projects in cities are funded at the expense of donor funds.

Local authorities are focused on ensuring social and economic rights of the population. What is new is their partnership with international organizations that support them institutionally and financially. According to information available in the register of existing international technical assistance projects and sites of local authorities, during the year the three cities implemented 70 social and economic projects with the full or partial support from donors.

The government had to reorganise its human rights protection system in the east by placing its representatives in the field according to the direct need to implement its international obligations. The state presence is geographically uneven and affects the level of human rights ensuring. For Kramatorsk currently holds the status of a regional centre, for the most part, most of the international human rights organisations are located here and focus on preventing discrimination and ensuring the rights of internally displaced persons. In this regard, the new offices were launched in Mariupol and Kramatorsk - of the Members of Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights (the so-called Regional Coordinators for Public Relations); in Kramatorsk - Sector in the Donetsk region of the Ministry of the Temporary Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons and Adviser of the Ministry of Social Policy on the IDPs.

Sloviansk, though, is still left marginalized. If not for the closeness to Kramatorsk, the city would have suffered from unequal access to health care, education (though now exercising the right to education and healthcare in Sloviansk is less invested), justice and other services.

The comparison of human and financial resources involved in providing public and social services has shown that Kramatorsk is able to provide 18% more services than Mariupol and 28% more than Sloviansk. Obtaining these services is important for eliminating discrimination and overcoming social inequality. Therefore, it is necessary to search for new approaches in order to use budget funds in such a way as to gradually reduce gaps in the implementation of human rights. Ensuring economic, social and cultural rights should not be determined by the place of residence.

In addition to the presence of international organizations in cities, the number of NGOs in the field of human rights has increased. This happened due to the registration of new ones and the opening of representative offices already existing. However, the open sources (USREOU, ngomap.org.ua, sites of local self-government bodies) information gives us the understanding that most of those organisations do not carry out any activity. If we consider only those that have a site and / or implemented at least one project, in Mariupol there are 13 such organisations, in Kramatorsk - 11, in Sloviansk 7.

Integration of IDPs

The IDPs are integrated into local communities neither legally nor factually, although there is a perception that the Donbas integration is easier. This view is obviously related to cultural integration, that is conducted here in an easier way than in other areas. In the east, there is a high degree of solidarity with the IDPs and a high level of sympathy. However, the study of tolerance conducted by the Ministry of Temporary Occupied Territories in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts shows that the provision of basic living needs of the population due to the highest unemployment rate is the most challenging. It impedes the integration opportunities for IDPs.

Another problem is the low share of the formed amalgamated territorial communities, there's only 9 in the Donetsk region. The lack of amalgamated territorial communities, in particular in Mariupol, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, does not provide the opportunity to attract additional state subsidies.

In addition, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Mariupol do not have separate programs for the integration of the IDPs. In the Donetsk region, during 2015-2016, a regional program for integration, social adaptation, and protection of internally displaced persons operated, followed by a corresponding program for 2017. At the same time, in the Luhansk region, there was an approved programme for 2017-2018. The budget of the programme amounted to 85049.4 thousand UAH in 2015-2016, while funding was provided at the expense of international donors and non-governmental organizations, partly local budgets and, to a small extent, the regional budget.

From the data provided, it is clear that the amount of funding is constantly increasing but the main source of income is still the donor assistance. In three years its volume has increased by 22 times. However, it is not possible to asses the effectiveness of the IDPs integration programmes, since the reports do not contain the information on achieving the indicators, although the programmes outlined 27 indicators.

Public security

Despite increased administrative efforts to ensure people's safety, at the local level, the number of crimes increased by an average of 20% in each city. A major disadvantage is the lack of mechanisms for citizen participation and accountability of law enforcement in cities. Mechanisms at the local level, although foreseen, are extremely weak, there is not enough money. However, the Strategic Plans of the cities (Kramatorsk and Mariupol are already in place, strategy for Sloviansk is being developed) include the "Safe City" direction, which, if implemented, will bring the following results:
- improving the level of efficiency and addressing the violations and its disclosure;
- providing security in public places;
- for Mariupol - reducing the level of administrative violations by 50% and crimes by 47%.

Judicial protection of human rights

Justice, restoration of justice, reparation, the punishment of those responsible and the guarantee of non-repetition of human rights violations are a cornerstone in ensuring the rule of law. The analysis of court decisions of Mariupol, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk local courts in the USREOU shows that for the courts were mostly addressed with the following issues of human rights protection: labour, housing, the right to life, the right to liberty and personal inviolability. At the same time, reports from human rights and international organizations suggest that serious violations of human rights related to the conflict remained unpunished. Ineffective investigations, politicisation of cases involving high officials (Sloviansk) and interference with the administration of justice impede prosecution.

Freedom of movement

The restrictions on freedom of movement by introducing internal checkpoints on which personal data and telephone IMEI codes are verified, while personal data is collected in violation of the law, have discriminatory nature. The Right to Protection Charitable Foundation indicates the repeatedly discriminatory practices. At the same time, the so-called new law On The De-occupation of Donbas will only increase the vulnerability of local residents.

The housing rights

In Mariupol, there are 2502 houses with a total area of 5366.27 thousand m2 on the balance of local councils, with 3356.03 thousand square meters of residential area. The number of apartments in these houses is 110043. Average provision of living space per city resident is 20.5 m2.
In Sloviansk, there are 572 residential buildings with a total area of 1014.4 thousand square meters on the balance of the city. Housing and communal services run 33 residential buildings with total area of 135.0 thousand m2, and AOMSB manage 31 residential building with an area of 133.3 thousand m2; an average of 23.39 m2 per inhabitant.
In Kramatorsk, the balance of the city council has 2486.5 thousand square meters of residential housing premises. On average, 24.1 sq. m of living space per inhabitant.

Due to the internal displacement, the burden on residential infrastructure has increased significantly and housing prices have increased in the cities of the East.

Social housing was provided at the expense of local budgets and donor funds.

In Mariupol, a programme for the redemption of housing in the secondary market and the transfer for temporary use were introduced. As of December 29, 2017, 43 apartments were purchased for a total amount of 20.2 million hryvnias, with a total area of 2098 m2, which averaged 9.6 thousand hryvnias per m2, under the maximum lawful price of 11 310 UAH. In Sloviansk and Kramatorsk such programs were not implemented, although there were no barriers at the legislative level. Instead, these cities relied on donor assistance to meet housing needs by repairing housing stock. At the same time, it should be understood that Sloviansk partly covers the needs of housing by directing the IDPs to Sviatohirsk, and Kramatorsk - to its satellite cities.

In Kramatorsk, the housing programme is implemented at the expense of the EU funds (2 million euros). The reconstruction of dormitories designed for 253 seats is conducted with this money. The housing is designed primarily for the most vulnerable categories of IDPs, as well as locals who have been affected by the conflict.

In Sloviansk, another dormitory is renovated to a family-type dormitory at the expense of the EU, as well.

Recommendations

For local authorities:

• To institutionalise the mechanisms of human rights protection at the local level through the creation of structural subdivisions in local authorities, public councils, involving community organizations that are present in the region.
• To include the data on the indicators that were incorporated into the programme while reporting on its implementation. For example, in the IDP integration programme, there is an indicator "the number of housing commissioned". While there's no such data in the report.
• To fulfill the commitments required by the donors. So, having renovated the housing with EU funds with the condition of commissioning it to IDPs, there are cases of its further distribution among the beneficiaries from the general queue.
• In the cities of IDPs compact residence, those being Mariupol, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, to work out the possibilities of developing integration programs at the local level. It will allow for local features to be taken into account regarding individual characteristics of IDPs, the settlements infrastructure, available funding opportunities and donor cooperation.
• To develop a strategy for Sloviansk, including indicators for improving the protection of human rights.

For civil society organizations:

• To carry out a preliminary assessment of the needs of IDPs and local residents before implementing projects to better meet the needs and prevent conflicts.
• To take measures on the possibilities of attracting financing for local projects from the local budget, advocating participatory budgeting practices.

Автор: Андрій Солодько