13-14 November 2019,

Kyiv, President Hotel, Hospitalna str. 12

On November 13 in Kyiv, the CivilM+ platform organises the 2nd International Forum on Donbas “Reintegration in eastern Ukraine – improving the humanitarian situation and enhancing people-to-people contacts with the non-government controlled territories”.
The event will bring together diplomats, international and local experts and civil society discussing the integration of the population living under the daily burdens of the ongoing conflict.

The national and international experts will debate during the panel and group discussions outcomes of Ukrainian state and civil society policies in this field as well as other conflicts and peacebuilding efforts from all over the larger European region, and their applicability to the Ukrainian context.

The objective of the Forum is to build a strong network of institutional, political and civil society actors working on the conflict resolution in order to:

• take stock of the current state of the situation in the conflict region (problems and challenges),
• synchronize the knowledge and visions of steps currently taken by different actors for the improvement of the humanitarian situation in the conflict region,
• reflect on measures and responsibilities,
• exchange of experiencein Ukraine and in the other conflict regions,
• createa shared vision of the reconstruction and development of the conflict region,
• developthe road map of (re-)integration of the region with focus on population torn by the conflict for decision makers, and strenghten the commitmentof institutional players to support and implement concrete measures for the reconstruction and the improvement of living conditions for people in the region,
• raise international awarenessof the conflict consequences and of the situation of people.

Programme

EXPERT ROUND TABLES, 14 November

The working languages of the event will be English, Ukrainian and Russian.

Please indicate your interest in participation by filling out the registration form. A more detailed program will be send to the email, which you suggest in the form. A limited amount of funding is available to cover participants travel costs.

The event is kindly supported by the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of Germany and the Slovak Ministry of the Foreign Affairs. 

Organised by:

With the kind support from:

Read about the three steps offered by Oleg Martynenko on the UGSPL website. (in Ukrainian)

CivilM+ experts have prepared recommendations for successful reintegration of the region and its residents, addressed to all levels of government, politicians and diplomats, parliamentarians and officials in Ukraine and
abroad, international political and financial institutions and humanitarian organisations, civil society.

This Policy Paper was developed on the results of the 2nd International Forum «Reintegration in Donbas – improving the humanitarian situation and strengthening people to people contacts in the conflict region», which was held on November 13-14, 2019 in Kyiv.

The following are amongst the priority measures for the effective reintegration of the ORDLO and their population, as well as IDPs:

• resolution of humanitarian crisis and provision of the effective access of the population to exercising of rights/ basic services;
• eliminating all forms of discrimination and ensuring equal access to services and rights;
• development of a concept of transitional justice;
• ensuring access to citizens’ right to the freedom of movement and the restoration of social ties;
• access to the education for all citizens;
• implementation of the consistent policy towards the local selfgovernance in the territories under the control of the Government of Ukraine;
• Minimisation of risks for the environment in the conflict affected region;
• Information and language policy.

Read more in the publication “Reintegration of the population affected by the conflict in Donbas and restoring justice and peace: current state and priorities” in Russian and English.

The exhibition is the outcome of a dialogue between young people from Ukraine and from Russia: More than 20 participants of the dialogue process aged between 18 and 29 were sharing and reliving their experience of perceiving the war and being in it. They were meeting in 2019-2020: at first, they had national meetings, separately in Ukraine and in Russia, and then – dialogue meetings and the artistic workshops abroad, in Sarajevo and in Vilnius.

The exhibition was opened by the Ambassador of Germany in Ukraine, Ms. Anca Feldguzen. She spoke about the devastating impact of war on the lives of people, in particular children and adolescents. Ms. Ambassador is confident that today’s youth will be able to provide the country, the region and the world with a better, peaceful future.

Nearly 40 artworks are presented at the exhibition: collages, photos, videos and texts. One sleepless night of discussing emotions has also become a piece of art.

“One of my favourite projects is “No result”, when a group of young people had to reflect on the experience the other participants had when being in Sarajevo. Following a sleepless nights and fruitless search of the artistic form they suddenly understand that this very process is their main outcome, it is their joint art-project. Their attempts to find common language and to articulate a complicated topic together is, in fact, their creative expression, exactly what they were looking for”, adds art-curator in charge of the artistic process Elena Afanasieva.

The communication was not easy. In the beginning, the participants were learning to trust each other, to open up, to release tension while speaking about difficult and painful issues.

“There was a moment of the emotional explosion when they jointly discovered that the same story is presented entirely different in their countries, while the participants had witnessed certain events”, said Svitlana Krot who has been coordinating the project from Ukrainian side, the Head of the NGO “Country of Free People”. “When we don’t talk to each other, it is very easy to manipulate information. When we speak about our experience and listen to the others, we become free from the influence of someone else’s motives”.

A dialogue process, especially during wars, is an essential component of ‘soft’ or ‘people’s’ diplomacy. In some way, dialogue is a peace-making process, says one of the project’s facilitators, trainer Maksym Ieligulashvili:

“We are used to see peacebuilding through the prism of ‘blue helmets’ or negotiations of those in power. However, the practice of last decades proves that the readiness of the society as a whole and individuals in particular, peace agreements, no matter how good they are, are doomed from the moment they are signed. We cannot organize dialogue processes for millions of people but we can use a specific dialogue process to look for new expressions, new narrative that can play a role in rehumanization and understanding what is going on with me and around me. In this project, we have worked on the complex methodology of the search, elaboration and rebroadcasting of the dialogue experience through modern are. I truly hope that this set of tools with help return and restore contacts with residents of controlled territories and residents of all non-government-controlled territory of Ukraine”.

The dialogue process as well as its artistic component took place within the project ‘Donbas Diaries’ of the international civil society platform CivilM+ which unites 20 independent civil society organizations from Ukraine, Russia and the EU. The project was coordinated by the German NGO DRA and the Ukrainian NGO ‘The Country of Free People’. The name of the organization that coordinated the engagement of Russian participants is not disclosed due to security concerns for civil society activists in Russia.

The artworks and additional information is available in the booklet of the exhibition.

The exhibition will be open from 12 till 17 October in All-Ukrainian Youth Center at 17, Esplanadna Street, Kyiv. 

Conclusions and recommendations of the research conducted within the framework of the international platform CivilMPlus.

Local elections will be held in Ukraine on October 25. However, elections will not take place in 18 communities in the government-controlled territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions: about half a million residents of the east will not be able to exercise the constitutional right to vote and elect their representatives.

The decision not to hold the elections was made by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) based on the letters from the heads of civil-military administrations and law enforcement agencies. The main reason indicated was the impossibility of ensuring security.

The procedure for making this decision, the attitude towards it in the region and in the capital, as well as its possible consequences for Donbas and Ukraine as a whole were analyzed by a group of experts from the international civil society platform CivilMPlus. *

The key conclusions of the research are the following. First, the procedure for deciding not to hold the elections is non-transparent and the legislation does not specify which sate body is responsible for such a step. In fact, the decision was made by the CEC, but, according to the expert, the Commission has neither the resources nor the authority to check the situation on-the-ground and to verify the information provided by the CMAs and law enforcement agencies.

Second, due to the legislation gaps there are no clear and systemic criteria for not holding elections in certain territories. Third, representatives of civil society were not fully involved in the decision making. Yet again, people feel the dominance of political elites and paternalistic attitude. “In the town of Shchastya the elections were not allowed, we have CMA. The head was fired, but a new one was not appointed. The head believes that he alone decides everything. Nobody wants to talk to residents…”, – wrote Shchastya resident (Luhansk region) during the online presentation of the CivilMPlus research.

Experts note that a non-transparent decision not to hold the elections can have serious consequences. Those are, for instance, the decrease in the level of people’s trust in the authorities and the delay of the perspectives for the reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories.

“In the so-called “DPR” and “LPR”, there is no self-government, “mayors” are appointed, not elected there. I would not want people to get the impression that democratic procedures are being phased out in the Ukrainian east as well. And it is precisely this impression that Russian propagandistic media are now “promoting”. The Ukrainian government should make more efforts to inform communities, to involve civil society in decision-making, and to proportionally approach the restriction of rights due to security threats”, said Valerii Novykov, the Head of Luhansk Regional Human Rights Center “Alternative”.

In addition, not holding the elections demotivates active citizens, thereby blocking the development of the new elite and the emergence of new potential regional leaders on the political arena.

“Having been in Sloviansk for just a few weeks, I saw an incredible number of people willing to change the country and the society. If I were a member of the central government, I would do everything possible to engage these people, to work with them, to encourage them, and not vice versa”, says Samuel Goda, Head of the Future of Security and Cooperation in the European Program of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association.

Goda is working in Sloviansk under the volunteer program and is currently based in the resource center “Drukarnya” of the German NGO DRA.

The authors of the study emphasize: Ukraine still lacks strategic approach to the development of Donbas.

“There are very important areas that can be developed only with the participation of the community and with the consideration of people’s opinion. Energetics, for example. This issue was relevant already before the war, and the fact that its resolution had been ignored was one of the reasons for discontent and for anti-governmental moods. The region’s economy needs to be reshaped, and this is possible only through communication with people. This would finally lead to a change of elites in the region. This is a complex process, especially in relation to the energy sector, as it involves the restructuring of the traditional industry which has shaped the identity of many residents. Therefore, dialogue and consultation with the public are essential”, says Wilfried Jilge, Associate Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP/ Berlin).

More specific recommendations related to the cancellation of the elections include the following: to amend legislation and to ensure a transparent procedure for not holding the elections, to unify the list of criteria for such a decision, and to create a coordination center to foresee and prevent risks. Also, in those communities where local elections will not take place on October 25, experts advise considering the possibility of holding them next year.

A summary of the research and all suggested recommendations are available in the briefing note in Ukrainian, Russian and English.

___________

* The authors of the study, experts of the international civil society platform CivilM +:

• Samuel Goda, Head of Future of Security and Cooperation in Europe Program, Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA), Associate Professor at the University of Economics in Bratislava
• Wilfried Jilge, Associate Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP/Berlin); member of the Strategy Group “Key States” within the project “Strategies for the European Neighborhood” of the Bertelsmann Foundation
• Valerii Novikov, Head of the Luhansk Regional Human Rights Center ‘Alternative’ (Kyiv), de jure deputy of the city council of the now occupied Alchevsk (Luhansk region)
• Yuliya Erner, Coordinator of the international civil society platform CivilM+, project manager at the DRA e.V (Berlin).

The research was conducted in October 2020; its findings are based on in-depth interviews with political actors and activists working in government-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine and in Kyiv. The research took place within the framework of the international civil society platform CivilMPlus. The work was coordinated by the German NGO DRA and the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, with the financial support from German Federal Foreign Office and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Slovakia.

Follow the CivilMPlus platform news on Facebook.

In the French city of Nantes, within the framework of Summer University of Social Movements and Solidarity, the international civil society platform CivilMPlus organized a discussion on Ukraine: about the war, politics and activism.

The presentation was delivered by Maksym Osadchuk, an activist and an IDP from Crimea, and Yulia Chistyakova, legal analytic at the East-Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives. They talked about the beginning and development of the armed conflict, about the victims and destruction in Donbas, the current situation and the ongoing shelling. Nearly 50 attendees of the Summer University took part in the discussion, including the representatives of the old leftist organization “Movement for Peace”, who sharply criticized the position of the speakers.

“This is a specific audience,” says Anne Le Huerou, a member of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, an organization that coordinated the Ukrainian debate in Nantes. “Many have an anti-American stance since the Cold War, and some people in France support the idea of ​​Russian statehood as a counterbalance to the United States, not understanding or not being interested in what modern Russia is.”

That is why it was important to present an objective situation based on facts and information from primary sources.

“The most important thing is to give the floor to those whom it concerns, so we are very glad to be talking about Ukraine with Ukrainians. When people from the conflict zone, activists, lawyers come, it is easier to step aside from ideological prejudices and talk about a specific situation, about facts,” concludes Anne Le Huerou.

That is why it was important to present an objective situation based on facts and information from primary sources.

“The most important thing is to give the floor to those whom it concerns, so we are very glad to be talking about Ukraine with Ukrainians. When people from the conflict zone, activists, lawyers come, it is easier to step aside from ideological prejudices and talk about a specific situation, about facts,” concludes Anne Le Huerou.

Such trips and discussions are one of the tools in the information war. To counteract Russian propaganda, one should not ignore different positions, but listen to them, enter into a dialogue, and tell the truth”, says Maksym Osadchuk.

“We lost the information war to Russia even before it started, because we do not have and would not use such money and such channels as RT. What we can do at our level to ensure information protection is to go and talk and try not to get annoyed if opinions heard in the seventh year of the war are difficult for us to understand. Many people, even in Europe, have their heads full of Russian propaganda, and they associate Russia with the Soviet bloc, with Soviet romance,” he said.

Sowing a grain of doubt even among several dozen activists is already good,” said human rights activist Yulia Chistyakova: “When discussing the further fate of the conflict, we must appeal only to facts and speak the truth: both in the international and in the domestic space. This is the only way to overcome stigma, including in Ukrainian society.”

Such discussions are part of the information work of the CivilMPlus platform carried out by its member organizations in Ukraine and the EU countries. The project “Dialogue for understanding and justice: European NGOs working together for conflict resolution in Donbas” is implemented with the financial support of the German Federal Foreign Office.