Under the chairmanship of Vice Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, a meeting was held to discuss draft law No. 9069 on the peculiarities of the state registration of civil status acts that took place in the temporarily occupied territories.

Members of Parliament, representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court, the National Security and Defense Council, the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, the Permanent Representative of the President in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and civil society organizations took part in the discussion.

According to the general procedure, the registration of birth and death certificates is carried out based on an applicant’s application to the state civil registry authorities with a minimum set of documents confirming these facts.

However, TOT residents are currently forced to go through the courts, which is time-consuming in practice. This increases the burden on the judicial system and requires significant resources, including financial, from both individuals and the government.

Therefore, the Government’s legislative initiative proposes to introduce an extrajudicial (administrative) procedure for the state registration of civil status acts performed in the TOT.

This means that the facts of birth, death, marriage, or divorce can be registered in the TOT without going to court.

Ukrainians can apply to the State Register of Civil Status of Citizens with documents issued in the TOT and receive a Ukrainian certificate. The Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Citizens and the Legal System in the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine” allows using information from such documents.

The proposed principle is fully consistent with the international standards formulated by the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.

Such a procedure will reduce the risks of a lack of Ukrainian citizenship for TOT residents, especially for children. In particular, more than 300,000 children were born during the occupation. They will need to obtain Ukrainian birth certificates.

“This bill is primarily aimed at the protection of human rights. It is one of the tools to reintegrate the residents of the temporarily occupied territories. These citizens should feel the protection of the Ukrainian state,” emphasized Iryna Vereshchuk.

During the discussion, representatives of the executive and judicial branches, civil society, and human rights organizations supported adopting this legislative initiative.