The fulfillment of the tasks of protecting the population, territories, natural environment and property from emergency situations, eliminating the consequences of military (combat) operations is carried out by ensuring cooperation (interaction) between lawyers and military administrations, law enforcement agencies and the judicial system, during the provision of professional legal assistance to authorities state authorities, the population in cases of:
– recording of war crimes in terms of evidence base collection;
– representing the interests of the injured party both in criminal proceedings and in international institutions;
– representation of the interests of the victims with the aim of recording in national courts the fact of murders, violence, destruction as a result of aggressive war by the Russian Federation.
The profession of a lawyer is expressed through the vocation to be, first of all, a DEFENDER. The ways of protecting those who need it are quite different. One of these ways is the participation of a lawyer, as a specialist in the field of law, who is on the front lines of legal battles, in law-making processes. The real challenge for today has become the great trouble faced by millions of citizens of Ukraine, the name of this trouble is the armed and insidious aggression of the Russian Federation.
The lawyers of the RAKO "military" Committee joined the law-making work through the drafting of draft law No. 7198 "On compensation for damage and destruction of certain categories of immovable property as a result of hostilities, acts of terrorism, sabotage caused by the military aggression of the Russian Federation" and providing proposals and amendments to draft law
Such close attention to draft law No. 7198 is due to certain aspects related to the specifics of the fact of causing damage as a result of violating the rules of war, possible ways to compensate for such damage, and the need to achieve transparency in the processes of determining and compensating for the damage caused.
The following areas became the object of particularly close attention during the development of draft law No. 7198:
- The fact of aggression itself, which should be considered as a violation by the Russian Federation of the terms of the Paris Treaty on the Prohibition of War as a Means of National Policy, which entered into force after the USSR on 07/24/1929 and a number of other international acts. For this, it is necessary in the preamble of the law:
- to clearly record the legal fact of the Russian Federation's violation of relevant norms of international law;
- to record the presence of guilt and a cause-and-effect relationship with all the facts of causing damage – even in the event that the destruction of property actually occurred as a result of the forced actions of the Armed Forces during the defense.
- The need to determine in a legislative procedure the very fact of violation by the armed forces of the Russian Federation of the laws and customs of land war, provided for by the Hague Convention of 1907 and other international acts, in this case it is necessary to provide in the law :
- the legal procedure for recording each separate fact of violation by the armed forces of the Russian Federation;
- violation of the laws and customs of war;
- the causal relationship between such a violation and the damage caused.
- Fixation of the fact of unmotivated aggression of the Russian Federation as a result of a gross violation of the established rules and customs of warfare entails the loss of judicial immunity of the Russian Federation , which allows consideration of claims for damages in the courts of Ukraine.
- Creation of a simple and understandable procedure in the legislative order for persons affected by the aggression of the Russian Federation , in order to restore their violated rights, for this purpose it should be taken into account that::
- waging an aggressive war and violating the laws and customs of war is a criminal offense under the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and the procedure for compensation for damage caused by these crimes is provided for by the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (a civil lawsuit in criminal proceedings), the observance of which is unrealistic due to the impossibility of procedurally establishing specific guilty persons;
- to provide for a more simplified legal procedure that records the fact of damages and the existence of a cause-and-effect relationship with hostilities without the need to establish and prove the guilt of specific military personnel of the Russian Federation in each individual case.
- Ensuring the transparency of procedures during the consideration by special Commissions of issues of compensation for damage caused as a result of the aggression of the Russian Federation, which in turn:
- must ensure trust in the authorities and create a positive image of Ukraine in the international arena;
- reduce possible corruption risks to a minimum when processing applications of persons affected by the aggression of the Russian Federation.
All of the above was processed and submitted in the form of a comparative table for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (attached).
In addition, recently, the Committee of the Bar Council of the Kyiv region on issues of interaction with the military administration, law enforcement agencies and the judicial system to ensure the protection of the civilian population under martial law sent written appeals separately to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk and separately to the Chairman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Economic Development Dmytro NATALUSI.
Appeals, together with a comparative table, were sent with the aim of taking into account the developed amendments to draft law No. 7198.