Kulchytskyi T. Legal Regulation of Social Protection of Internally Displaced Persons in Ukraine

The dissertation is a complex study of the legal regulation of social protection of internally displaced persons in Ukraine. The legal status of an internally displaced person as a subject of the right for social protection has been described; the concept of social protection of t internally displaced persons has been defined and the legal guarantees of social protection of internally displaced persons have been investigated; social benefits provided to internally displaced persons have been characterized; the specifics of their pension provision have been clarified; legal issues of social protection of internally displaced persons in the employment relations have been analyzed; guarantees of realization of their right for accommodation have been revealed; the services of social integration and reintegration have been described as types of social protection of the internally displaced persons. By means of the comparative analysis, it has been found out that the legal foundations of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Internally Displaced Persons” does not fully comply with the UNO Guiding Principles on Issues of Internal Displacement. In order to bring them into line with the international standards, it is suggested to complement the item 2 at Art. 4 of the above mentioned Law of Ukraine with another reason for registering a person as an internally displaced one: inability of a person to reside in the area in conditions described in the article 1 of this Law of Ukraine at the time of application, despite of reasons irrelevant to a person, they didn’t reside in the territory at the time of appearance of the events, provided by law. The definition of social protection of internally displaced persons has been further developed as a system of state, territorial and non-state organizational and legal measures of legislatively obligatory or voluntary nature, used to meet the social needs of persons due to circumstances provided by the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Rights and Freedoms of internally displaced persons”, they are aimed at the effective integration of these persons in their new place of residence, as well as creation of conditions to ensure a decent level of standard of living. The relationship between social needs and the right for social protection of internally displaced persons has been demonstrated. The system of legal norms that determine legal conditions and procedure of social protection of internally displaced persons, obligated subjects, ways to protect the violated rights and responsibilities in this area of relations has been studied. It is argued that the lack of a single unified normative legal act in the field of providing internally displaced persons with social benefits has a negative impact on the complexity and effectiveness of their social protection. It is proposed to adopt a single Procedure in order to provide all types of such payments, legal reasons, conditions and manner for obtaining, obligated subjects and responsibility. For the first time it is substantiated that the legal reason provided by law for refusal in assignment of financial assistance to an internally displaced person to cover living expenses – the ownership of a dwelling / part of a dwelling that does not meet social accommodation standards is law-restrictive one and should be changed in accordance with social standards. The legislative provisions on the subject composition of recipients of the address-targeted assistance to internally displaced persons to cover their living expenses have been improved. The necessity of fixing the norm is argued, according to which such assistance should be provided to every individual family, regardless of the fact that several families live at the same address. It is proposed to amend the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On providing monthly address-targeted assistance to internally displaced persons to cover living expenses, including accommodation and communal services”. It is substantiated that the terms of a person's application for any kind of social benefits provided by law in the mechanism of realization of the specified right by an internally displaced person are acquiring the law-restrictive features. It is proposed to prohibit the use of restrictive deadlines for application in the procedure of assignment and provision of social benefits to internally displaced persons. The provisions of the procedure of assignment a pension to an internally displaced person in regard with the loss of a breadwinner have been improved. In particular, there has been proved the necessity in the Procedure for application and formatting documents for assignment (recalculation) of a pension in accordance with the Law of Ukraine to provide the possibility of internally displaced persons to confirm the fact of cohabitation with the deceased breadwinner with help of the certificate of accommodation registration by the moment of their internal movement.