On July 12, 2018 Permanent Representative Borys Babin, the Head and the officials of the Department of International Connections took part in the meeting of the CoE Project Steering Committee “Internal Displacement in Ukraine: Development of Long-term solutions” in the framework of the CoE Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2021.

The participants of the meeting were the Deputy Head of Independent Human Rights Bodies Division of CoE, the Head of Council of Europe in Ukraine, Special Advisor to Council of Europe’s Secretary General for Ukraine , the Deputy Minister for temporarily occupied territories and IDPs, the Representative of the Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Deputy Director of the Legal Assistance Coordination Center , the heads and the assistants of the CoE Project, the representatives of the National School of Judges in Ukraine, Notary Chamber of Ukraine, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Ministry of Regional Development of Ukraine and other central executive bodies, scientific institutions and non-governmental organizations.

The Project is aimed at strengthening of the European Human Rights protection for the IDPs, displaced specialists as well as other key stakeholders and their access to justice in Ukraine. The Project will be focused on three main pillars: the enhancing the capacity of the internally displaced specialists, displaced institutions; the improvement of the legal instruments and law practice for the IDPs to be integrated at the local and regional levels.

At the meeting the CoE Project Manager Ganna Khrystova emphasized the general strategy and the measures of the draft Action Plan ( August of 2018 – August 2019). The members of the meeting discussed the Action Plan and outlined their proposals and comments. Borys Babin noted that the Mission supported the CoE Project and would facilitated its implementation under the Mandate. The Permanent Representative proposed to increase the implementation of the Project to the South of Ukraine by involving the regions, adjacent to the temporarily occupied Crimea. In addition, Borys Babin proposed to invite the representatives of the State Migration Service of Ukraine and the Taurian National University named after Vernadsky to the seminars and trainings of the CoE Project.