Reparations for Ukraine

Supporting civil society advocacy for Ukraine reparations

A decade after the start of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, the right to reparation for civilians harmed in the conflict, as provided by international law, remains unfulfilled. The challenges have increased hugely since the full-scale invasion that began on 24 February 2022, together with the number of civilians affected.

Ensuring reparations for Ukraine must remain a priority for the international community. Central to achieving this is the principle that the perpetrator must pay. Steps have been taken, such as the UN General Assembly’s condemnation of Russian aggression and the establishment of an international Register of Damage for Ukraine by the Council of Europe. However, while Russian financial assets remain frozen in many jurisdictions, the drive to make Russia pay for reparations continues to stall. At the same time, planning for the delivery of reparations has lagged behind.

This project aims to strengthen civil society participation in the design and delivery of inclusive reparations mechanisms for Ukraine, in order to bring justice to Ukraine’s civilians and enable them to rebuild their lives. It combines civil society briefing and consultation, identification of lessons learned from previous official compensation programmes in eastern Ukraine and supported national and international advocacy. Activities are designed to enable civil society participants to identify context-specific barriers to access to justice and to support advocacy for victim-centred reparations mechanisms that embody best practice, with specific attention to the needs of vulnerable civilians including SGBV survivors.

This project is generously supported by a grant from the Foundation Open Society Institute in cooperation with the Open Society Foundations.

Partners on this project include:

Eastern-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives (EUCCI) is a human rights NGO established in 2003 in Luhansk, Ukraine. It aims to stimulate public dialogue on issues critical to restoring peace and justice. Since the beginning of Russia’s aggression in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea in 2014, the Center has documented cases of gross human rights violations and war crimes and provided legal assistance to victims. EUCCI is an active member of the coalition ‘Justice and Peace in Donbas’ and helped establish a Ukraine-wide network of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence (SEMA-Ukraine).

Reports:

Ceasefire, Reparations for Ukraine: An international route map (June 2022)

English

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