Kherson Farmers Fight for Their Property Rights

As one of the most agricultural regions in Ukraine, Kherson has close to 3,000 officially registered farmers and landowners.   The large numbers of villagers, who are becoming new landowners by taking advantage of land reforms sweeping the country, usually are unaware of their rights and unfamiliar with land legislation.  They often are confronted with the problem of how to properly lease or privatize land, and with statutory regulations.  They often don’t know what to do and hesitate to ask the proper government authority for help.  Above all else, this is a sign of distrust towards state authorities, local government, judges, prosecutors and other government organs.  It also is an indicator of corruption in government ranks and a disbelief in the rule of law. Villagers usually do not have the means to afford the services of qualified lawyers who specialize in land and agrarian law as a result farming development has suffered. 

The Henichesk District Association of Farmers and Landowners called, “Priazovya”, filled this void through a Ukraine Citizen Action Network funded project by “Offering free legal consultations to private landowners and farmers, who, for the most part, cannot afford to pay for legal services saves them valuable time and the additional expenses of searching for legal experts,” said Olena Merkulova, the project manager of “Free Legal Consulting and Arbitration Court.” 

Everyone in the Kherson region soon learned about the free legal services following an effective public awareness campaign in the media.  Viktor Poleshchuk, the owner of the “Green Morning” farm, became one of the first people to visit Priazovya.  His claim to privatize 24 hectares of land not containing black soil, but sand had been rejected even though he had farmed the land for ten years.  He then turned to project lawyers.  With their help, the district court was obligated under law to issue Mr. Poleshchuk the plot of land free of charge for using and developing the land for ten years.  The court’s decision came as a shock to district authorities.  Although the district court appealed the decision it was upheld by the Kherson Appellate Court. 

Other farmers heard of Poleshchuk’s success and decided to defend their land rights.  Olena Merkulova summarized the project’s work succinctly: “We were able meet the project goal of showing Kherson farmers that issues can be resolved in court.  Poleshchuk’s example proved to everyone, once and forever, that privatizing sandy land is wholly legal.  The practice of privatizing sandy land instantly became widespread in Kherson.  Neither the local nor district government can prevent anyone from privatizing this type of land.  Also, the project made it possible for farmers to solve other problems based on existing legislation.  The most important thing is that local authorities learned that to interfere in the work of farmers is not in their interests.  We contributed to this dialogue.” 

Over 300 free consultations were provided in one year, 60 of which were reviewed in court. Not one case was lost.  The Association not only gained in popularity among farmers, but many farmers donated money to the organization.  Over three thousand UAH was received in six months.  In addition, farmers have expressed an interest in the continued publication of a monthly legal informational-analytical bulletin titled, “Landowner.” Five issues have been published under the project. With the help of Priazovya, farmers can now own the land they farm.

Humanizing Criminal Law

At the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a large prison population.  According to official statistics, over 200 thousand people are held in 179 correctional institutes, and another 134 thousand are under police supervision.  In 2003, there were 406 prisoners for every 100 thousand people in the country.  The Ukrainian government is trying to fight the high crime rate by improving the criminal code, reducing prison sentences, and working with correctional institutes and civil society organizations.  The goal is to rehabilitate convicts.  Yet these efforts are falling short of reducing crime and prison populations. 

A difficult socio-economic situation does nothing to help keep crime down, especially among juveniles.  Today, incarceration is the most widespread method of punishing criminals in Ukraine.  This is at a time when New Zealand, Norway, Germany, France, and Poland included alternative legislative measures to their criminal justice systems called “restorative justice”.  The restorative justice system allows for the offender and victim to engage in a mutual dialogue of reconciliation and to make peace with one another without the interference of judicial structures.  The premise is based on alleviating any emotional, material, and physical harm done to the victim while simultaneously having the offender accept full responsibility for the committed offense, which is vital for teen-agers to realize.

The Ukrainian Center for Common Ground (UCCG) decided to use the 25-years Restorative Justice experience of many countries in a project titled, “Implementing Restorative Justice in the Ukrainian Justice System”.  Its goal is straightforward: implement new approaches in achieving justice by humanizing and orientating it towards those involved in criminal situations.  The idea is to facilitate the process of restoring the victim’s rights as well as the community’s while helping the juvenile offender smoothly readjust into society.

As a guarantee, and to secure project success, UCCG first established partnerships with the Supreme Court, Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Prosecutor’s Office, and the Academy of Judges of Ukraine.  Project volunteers then gave presentations on how to mediate between the victim and juvenile offender in district courts.  As a result, the Darnytska District Court in Kyiv signed an agreement with the UCCG to launch a pilot project in restorative justice.  An international conference was held on “Forming a Ukrainian Model on Restorative Justice” in which 115 participants gathered representing CSOs who promote the practice of restorative justice as well as experts from Poland, Moldova, Russia, and Great Britain.  The experience and use of Ukrainian based reconciliation programs were disseminated at the conference, and a distinctive Ukrainian model of restorative justice was formed.  Most importantly, the idea of practicing restorative justice was reinforced among law enforcement and justice system personnel, and criminal researchers attending the conference.   

Among the project’s outputs was the creation of a professional community of mediators as well as a Code of Ethics.  UCCG also teaches juvenile offenders the value of taking responsibility for one’s actions and for understanding the consequences of those actions.  Additionally, during the mediation process, the offenders offer restitution to victims for any harm done, physical or otherwise while the victim expresses his/her emotions felt during the criminal act as part of the healing process. 

Due to the lobbying efforts of the Ukrainian Center for Common Ground, the Supreme Court reviewed two potential resolutions at a plenary session: (1) a review of juvenile crime and the rights of victims regarding compensation; (2) recommending judges spread the use of institutional reconciliation as well as urging courts to jointly work with CSOs who apply mediation programs between offenders and victims. 

Thus, the Center was able to impact the humanization of criminal law and legal proceedings of Ukraine.  The Supreme Court recommended to courts that they include programs of reconciling victims and juvenile offenders.  Restorative justice programs are already being applied in Ukraine, 15 cases of which have been successfully mediated. 

The Chernivtsi City Council Partners with Civil Society Organizations to Address Urgent Social Needs

Prior to and after Ukraine’s independence, the city of Chernivtsi resolved local social problems without including its residents in the planning and decision making process.  Indeed, local citizens had no idea how and where budget expenditures were being put to use in meeting the city’s most urgent social needs.  As a result, many social problems persisted stemming from the local government’s distrust of the public.  Local community leaders explained that money was doled out on a basis of personal connections.  People unknown to city councilmen would not receive funding.  The standard way of distributing funds was not applied – local government didn’t view CSOs as potential partners.

Things soon changed when Chernivtsi’s local government decided to use the Western method of “social contracting” whereby it funnels money via non-profits in meeting the social needs of the community.  This is to say, CSOs are charged with the task of resolving society’s most pressing problems using funds obtained from the city. 

According to Volodymyr Staryk, the head of the “Ukrainian People’s House,” a local CSO and the brainchild of the social tender program, “We decided to hold open social tenders  to address the city’s most dire social needs while simultaneously creating a transparent and effective environment for utilizing budget expenditures through CSOs.”  The tender program funded by the Ukraine Citizen Action Network program included a public awareness campaign in the mass media, a training for CSO leaders on grant writing as well as the publication of a brochure titled, “How to secure a grant from the city of Chernivtsi.” 

News coverage of the tender program in local and regional media outlets laid the foundation for public trust in the city’s government.  On March 31, 2005, the Chernivtsi city council officially approved a resolution on “city competitions regarding social projects and programs for non-profit organizations.”  The bill decreed that city council employees and deputies along with CSO representatives would comprise the tender approval committee and earmarked 60 thousand UAH of the local currency for municipal projects.

The “Hilfe” CSO became one of the competition’s four tender winners.  In its 15^th year of existence as a poverty reduction non-profit, Hilfe received nine thousand UAH to deliver 25 tons of humanitarian aid to needy residents donated by a German charity: 400-500 people were reached during the endeavor by volunteers trained by the CSO with funds obtained from the city. 

Anatoliy Melnyk, department head of International Relations and Communications within the city’s executive committee, enthusiastically remarked “This year’s competition was the start of a prospective relationship between local government and the public, one in which we believe and one that we will continue to financially support on an annual basis, and one whose subject matter will expand to other municipal projects [not just social ones]”.

A significant improvement in the lives of Chernivtsi’s residents was due mostly to the initiatives of one CSO – Ukrainian People’s House – that started an open dialogue with the city and managed to persuade the city council to hold public tenders.  Now Chernivtsi can be included in the list of Ukrainian cities that work with its residents, where there is mutual trust, and where transparency is taking root.