Procedure of Compensation of Property Damage Caused by Armed Conflict Was Discussed in the Supreme Court

Expert meeting “International Standards of Compensation of Property Damage Caused by Armed Conflict and Forced Displacement” took place in the Supreme Court within the Council of Europe Project “Internal Displacement in Ukraine: Building Solutions”.

The President of the Supreme Court Valentyna Danishevska thanked the Project for sustainable support in the work on topical issues regarding Ukrainian judicial system and the timely organization of the discussion of matters arising while justice administering.

Valentyna Danishevska remarked that the armed conflict on the East of Ukraine had led to negative consequences unknown in the state. Primarily, that was the internal displacement of people, victims among the military personnel and civilians, cases of property losses. Presently, people apply to courts to get compensation of such losses and to receive compensation of the caused damage. While considering relevant cases, judges shall appropriately direct the case law and interpret the nature of caused harm and the state’s duties in this case to all subjects of law enforcement.

The Project international expert and the member of the Constitutional Law Committee of the German Lawyers Association Stefan von Raumer told about the CoE standards in the sphere of internal displacement and the compensation for destroyed property, as well as analyzed relevant judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

Thus, the experts noted that on practice there were problems, when claimants applied to get compensation of property loss, the proprietary right to which had not been properly registered or the entitling documents to which had been destroyed.

Besides, the meeting participants paid attention to the correlation of citizens’ legitimate expectations and the state’s positive obligations in the context of restitution and compensation for damaged or destroyed property.

Pursuant to Tetiana Antsupova, judge of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, the outlined problems in Ukrainian realia are significantly complicated with the lack of legislatively determined clear compensation mechanism.

Hanna Khrystova, Head of the Council of Europe Project “Internal Displacement in Ukraine: Building Solutions”, Pavlo Pushkar, Head of Division, Department of the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, Directorate General of Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Council of Europe, judges of the SC Grand Chamber Nataliia Antoniuk, Svitlana Bakulina, Yurii Vlasov, Mykhailo Hrytsiv, Dmytro Hudyma, Olena Kibenko, Leonid Loboiko, Oleksandr Prokopenko, Larysa Rohach, Olena Sytnik, Oleh Tkachuk and Vitalii Urkevych also participated in the event.