The Ukrainian Veterans Foundation together with the NAKO Independent Anti-Corruption Commission presented a concept of veteran policies entitled Dignity and Respect. It is aimed at countering the discrimination of veterans and members of their families. The concept is designed to prevent the discrimination of the former military servants compared to other citizens in terms of rendering public or commercial services, UVF informs.
“The Ukrainian Veterans Foundation manages the veteran support system. We fulfill the information, consulting, recruiting, and protection functions for improved cooperation with the authorities rendering services to veterans at the societal and public levels,” stated Yuliia Laputina, Minister of Veterans Affairs.
She claims that the public sector has to actively cooperate with the civic sector in facilitating the employment, retraining, and training of veterans in the shortest term after the dismissal from the military service. “The state shall fulfill a comprehensive protection function in terms of veteran support in various directions,” she underlined.
In the west, a sociological research on veterans discrimination was presented. It covered the issues of limitation of rights or privileges of veterans, the members of their families, the members of the families of the deceased, military men and women by sex, nationality, appearance, and social status. The research was conducted by Rating group commissioned by NAKO and UVF.
It included the analysis of UVF legal support project implemented together with NAKO as supported by the Office of the UK Special Defense Advisory. The main issue turned out to be illegal or unreasonable refusal to provide documents for registration of the combatant status without any explanations, which attributed to 80 % of appeals for legal consulting.
Ruslana Velychko-Tryfoniuk, First Deputy Executive Director of UVF, stated that the research on the problems and requests of veterans and current military servants conducted by the Foundation will allow to develop more precise program messages to be translated into real projects.
“While rendering legal consulting services, we realized that some issues arose more frequently than the others: 80 % of appeals of the veterans and the current military servants refer to illegal or unreasonable refusal to provide documents for registration of the combatant status without any explanations. Today, the Ministry representatives and people’s deputies invited to our event discussed the most efficient and acceptable solutions to this problem,” she informed.
“NAKO really appreciates its cooperation with the Foundation. Currently, there are two work directions, and we plan to extend this list. We thank the UK Embassy for its support. We know that veteran policy is a top priority for this institution,” emphasized Svitlana Musiiaka, NAKO Head of Research and Policy.