A/HRC/43/CRP.5 through local authorities to a limited number of affected families. This has not been done in a regular or consistent manner. OHCHR welcomes the commitment of the Cabinet of Ministers to further amend Resolution No. 947 of 18 December 2013 in order to improve the access of the affected population to compensation.20 OHCHR recalls that Ukraine has committed to providing access to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services under SDG 11.21 However, a comprehensive and non-discriminatory State policy of restitution and compensation for damaged and destroyed housing and property is still lacking. 35. OHCHR continued to document cases of military use of civilian property, which resulted in looting and destruction of property in some cases, and a failure to provide adequate alternative housing and/or compensation. Furthermore, the military failed to pay the bills stemming from their use of utilities such as electricity, leaving owners with large debts. 36. For example, in Government-controlled Verkhnotoretske (Donetsk region), a family of retirees informed OHCHR that in 2014, their home was damaged by shelling and they were forced to leave due to general insecurity. From 2015 to 2018, their home was used by the military and was looted. The family applied to local authorities and the police seeking compensation for the damages and an investigation into the pillage. In the last four years, the police has not effectively investigated the complaint. The local authorities did not provide any compensation or alternative temporary housing to the family. The family was only able to return to their home in 2018, when the house was vacated by the military and partly rebuilt by a humanitarian organisation. 37. OHCHR also documented the case of a family who was forced to leave their home in the part of Zolote-4 that came under the control of armed groups in October 2018 due to the active hostilities at the time. They were forced to move to a rented apartment in Zolote5, a nearby location. One of the family members then lost his job, placing the family in financial difficulty. The family received no housing support nor have they been able to visit and maintain their property, reportedly due to the presence of mines. 2. Right to social security and social protection 38. OHCHR welcomes the statement by the chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee that pensions should be paid to all eligible individuals without any discrimination based on place of residence or registration.22 The current policy requiring pensioners registered in territory controlled by ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ and ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ to register as IDPs in Government-controlled territory and regularly undergo verification process to receive pension payments has caused hundreds of thousands of pensioners to lose their pension payments.23 OHCHR calls on the Parliament and Cabinet of Ministers to undertake practical actions to ensure full access to pensions and social entitlements for all eligible individuals, and to delink the payment of pensions from IDP registration. This would contribute towards Ukraine’s implementation of SDG 10, by ensuring access to social services and reforming pension insurance based on principles of 20 21 22 23 For more information, see OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 16 May to 15 August 2019, para 34-36. See Target 11.1 set out in the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture’s Sustainable Development Goals: Ukraine – 2017 Baseline Study, p. 82, available at http://sdg.org.ua/images/SDGs_NationalReportEN_Web.pdf. Ukrainian National News, “The Council raised questions about the delinking of pensions from IDP status”, available at www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1831727-u-radi-postavili-pitannya-providokremlennya-otrimannya-pensiy-vid-statusu-vpo. United Nations Ukraine, Briefing Note on Pensions, available at www.humanitarianresponse.info/ru/operations/ukraine/document/briefing-note-pensions-unitednations-ukraine-february-2019. 13

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents