On 5 February, the Permanent Representative took part in the panel discussion “Implementation of Electoral Rights of Internally Displaced Persons and Residents of Frontline and Temporarily Occupied Territories.”

The discussion was also joined by Member of Parliament of Ukraine Tamila Tasheva; Legal Advisor at the All-Ukrainian Civil Organisation Civil Network OPORA Bohdan Mokhonchuk; Deputy Chair of the Central Election Commission Sergii Dubovyk; expert of the NGO DESPRO Olena Boiko; Member of Parliament of Ukraine Larysa Bilozir; Advocacy Director at the ZMINA Human Rights Centre Alona Lunova; partner at the law firm AZONS Daria Svyrydova, as well as other participants.

In her remarks, the Permanent Representative outlined the key challenges related to the exercise of electoral rights by residents of the temporarily occupied territories, including Crimea. The first challenge concerns documentation. According to Olha Kuryshko, a significant number of citizens—especially after 2022—do not possess valid Ukrainian documents. A particular challenge also affects young people who reached the age of majority after the occupation began and hold only Ukrainian birth certificates, which may limit their ability to participate in the electoral process.

The Permanent Representative added that the second challenge concerns the registration of the place of residence. Prolonged occupation prevented the implementation of reforms implemented in government-controlled areas. As a result, some individuals face difficulties with residence registration, which may, in turn, affect the organisation of electoral processes.

According to Olha Kuryshko, the third challenge concerns security:
“When offering residents of temporarily occupied territories the opportunity to participate in elections, the state must be aware of the security risks that, unfortunately, remain beyond our control. Any contact with Ukrainian state institutions may be interpreted by the occupation authorities as grounds for persecution—either administrative or criminal.”

In turn, Alona Lunova noted that ensuring electoral rights requires tailored approaches both for internally displaced persons and for residents of temporarily occupied and frontline territories. For example, for residents of the TOT, timely and clear information about voting procedures is crucial, while for IDPs it is important to account for inaccuracies in displacement registers and to clearly define the date of departure as grounds for accessing benefits.

Deputy Chair of the Central Election Commission Sergii Dubovyk drew particular attention to the limited reliability of state registers of internally displaced persons. According to him, these registers do not fully reflect population movements, as Ukrainian citizens leave temporarily occupied and frontline territories via different routes and using various documents. This makes it impossible to rely on such registers as the sole basis for decision-making.