part, their reluctance stems from the fact that the central Government has not yet guaranteed any funds to help regions pay for accommodation of IDPs from the Donbas area. Shelter and humanitarian assistance are also being provided by a wide array of business, religious and civic groups, but this has started to subside. With the displacement entering its fifth month, fatigue and lack of capacity has started to set in, and this is compounded by the economic downturn. Deeper tensions are also emerging. Host populations and IDPs are competing over scarce resources. In various cities, this competition is expressed over the issue of pre-school slots, since these are in short supply in Ukraine’s urban areas. In western Ukraine, host populations increasingly resent male IDPs, accusing them of evading military service while men from the west are being mobilized158. IDPs staying at a church-run centre near Kyiv reported being threatened by their neighbours who accused them of stealing jobs and evading their military duties. Some media outlets are fuelling these resentments with alarmist articles about the alleged misbehaviour of IDPs from the east. According to UNHCR and civil society, some IDPs in Kyiv and Lviv have reported that landlords have become reluctant to rent apartments to them because they are from the Donbas area. Those IDPs who have fled without their “labour book” - a document normally retained by employers - face difficulties in obtaining official employment or accessing unemployment insurance. In the area around Mariupol, some IDPs live in dire conditions, sleeping in tents, cars or decrepit summer camp facilities. A joint UN mission visited locations with insufficient toilet facilities and no potable water. These conditions pose serious health risks, and are completely untenable for the winter months. An unknown number of IDPs are staying in camps and other old buildings, which cannot be efficiently heated. The regional authorities are just beginning to plan how to extend shelter to IDPs over the winter, which is expected to be complex and costly. Local and regional governments throughout the country are responding to these humanitarian needs to the best of their abilities with limited resources and guidance from the central level. What is needed is a more systematic approach backed by a clear allocation of responsibilities and resources from the central level. The President vetoed a law adopted by Parliament on 17 June on the rights of persons displaced from Crimea or the “zone of the anti-terrorist operation”. Civil society organizations expressed serious concerns about it, including that it would have established of overly complex procedures for registration and would not solve the administrative problems IDPs face in accessing their social and economic rights. The Presidential Administration has consulted extensively with civil society in drafting a new piece of legislation. VIII. SITUATION OF PERSONS BELONGING TO MINORITIES The Commissioner for Ethno-National Policy in Ukraine informed the HRMMU that although instances of discrimination based on ethnicity occurred, they were neither systemic, nor regular. Most ethnic communities have raised concerns about insufficient financial allocations for their cultural needs and of the necessity to adopt an ethno-national policy, which should become the basis for updating current legislation, particularly the law “On national minorities in Ukraine” (1992), to fully meet international standards. Based on consultations with the minorities’ leaders and the head of the Parliamentary commission on human rights, minorities and religions, the Commissioner for Ethno-National Policy plans to lobby for the adoption of such a policy after the upcoming parliamentary elections. 158 The Government has announced that eligible IDPs are subject to the current partial mobilization. 222 | P a g e