ECHR decision on the conflict in Donbass: Ukraine is not responsible for the lack of courts in the occupied Donbass

The European Court of Human Rights has made one of the first decisions about violation of the rights of citizens as a result of the conflict in the Donbass. This is said in the decision, a copy of which Yevropeyska Pravda has.

Strasbourg Court united seven similar complaints from Ukrainian citizens residing in Donetsk. It acknowledged in the decision that Ukraine is not responsible for the problems with implementation of legal proceedings in certain regions of the Donetsk and the Luhansk oblasts.

Seven pensioners and recipients of social assistance, from 1926 to 1960 year of birth, who stopped receiving social payments from the budget in 2014, after the occupation of Donbass, filed a suit against Ukraine. Three of them appealed to the Ukrainian government in 2015    concerning the resumption of social payments, others did not.

None of the plaintiffs appealed against the government's decisions on termination of social payments in Ukrainian courts, explaining this by the fact that the bodies of Ukrainian judicial system do not function in Donetsk – all courts were evacuated from the territory of CDDLO because of the Russian aggression. The Donbass residents filed a lawsuit to Strasbourg against it: in their opinion, Ukraine limited their ability to apply to the court for the restoration of social benefits.

The European Court of Human Rights dismissed all the complaints by accepting the side of Ukraine.