The policy of providing monetary or humanitarian aid to the victims of the war crimes

APPROVED

Director of the Civil Organization “Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group”

Zakharov Ye. Yu.

Version 3

І. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. This policy regulates the provision of humanitarian or monetary assistance to civilian victims of war crimes and other human rights violations (committed after February 24, 2022) who have submitted a corresponding written request to the Civil Organization "Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group" (hereinafter referred to as the CO "KHPG").

2. CO "KHPG" provides humanitarian and monetary aid to victims of war crimes and other human rights violation in Ukraine no more than once a year, in accordance with the Organization's Charter and in fulfillment of grant agreements with partner organizations (donors) in force at the time of providing such assistance.
3. Humanitarian aid is considered to be the provision of food products, medical products, products for children, clothing, sanitary and hygiene products and other basic necessities. Humanitarian aid per person constitutes a package of humanitarian aid. The specific contents of the package and its value are determined by the manager of humanitarian and monetary aid (hereinafter referred to as the manager), in agreement with the Director of the CO "KHPG", as well as with partner organizations (donors) under the grant agreement, if such agreement is provided for in the contract. The marginal value of the humanitarian package cannot exceed UAH 3,470 (three thousand four hundred and seventy hryvnias).
4. Monetary aid is the provision of funds to the account of a victim of a war crime or his/her close relative. The maximum amount of monetary aid is determined by the manager, in agreement with the Director of the CO "KHPG", as well as with partner organizations (grantors) under the grant contract, if such agreement is provided for in the contract. In any case, the maximum amount of monetary assistance cannot exceed UAH 3,470.
5. The payment of funds to a victim of a war crime or the purchase of a package of humanitarian aid for her/him is carried out under an agreement between the CO "KHPG" and the Charitable Organization "Charitable Foundation "Human and Law" (hereinafter - CO "Human and Law"), which acts as an intermediary between CO "KHPG" and the ultimate beneficiary, a victim of a war crime. The provision of humanitarian aid by the CO "People and Law" is carried out only after the transfer of the appropriate targeted funds for the payment to the account of CO "People and Law" from the account of the CO "KHPG".
6. The manager independently selects and purchases goods for humanitarian packages, taking into account the individual special needs of individual applicants.

ІІ. PROCEDURE OF APPLICATION FOR HUMANITARIAN OR MONETARY AID

7. Humanitarian and monetary aid is provided on the basis of a written statement of a victim of a war crime or other human rights violations, addressed to the director of CO "Human and Law". The application for receiving humanitarian or monetary aid must contain:

• The applicant’s first name, last name and patronymic.
• The applicant’s date of birth;
• Number and series of the applicant's ID, information about who and when issued the ID;
• Tax identification number of the applicant;
• Brief description of the war crime or human rights violation of which the applicant was a victim;
• The composition of the applicant's family with the indication of full name and the age of each family member;
• Contact phone numbers of the applicant;
• Contact address of the applicant;
• The date of writing the statement;
• The applicant’s signature.

8. The application may also include additional information necessary to make a decision on the provision of humanitarian or monetary aid, such as: the presence of minor or minor children, the presence of close relatives with special needs. The applicant can also indicate special wishes for receiving humanitarian aid, such as receiving specific goods, medicines, etc. The value of such goods may not exceed the maximum value of the humanitarian package determined by the grant agreement between the CO "KHPG" and the partner organization (donor).
9. The application for receiving monetary aid must necessarily contain an appendix - a certificate of bank account details.
10. A copy of the applicant's ID, a copy of the certificate of assignment of an individual tax number, a copy of the birth certificate of the child (children), copies of documents certifying the status of the victim (for example, medical certificates, a death certificate, an examination report of the damaged house, an extract from the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations etc) are to be attached to the application for receiving humanitarian or monetary aid. Copies of documents can be provided in paper or electronic form. Electronic copies must be sent to the phone number provided by an employee of the CO "KHPG" as soon as possible. The term of consideration of the application starts from the date of sending the relevant copies of the documents.

11. If the applicant does not meet the selection criteria or does not have the information necessary to fill out the application, and (or) lacks the necessary documents that must be attached to the application, the decision to accept or reject the application is made by the manager. If the applicant does not have a contact phone number, the applicant can indicate the number of another (trusted) person.

12. An applicant that receives a rejection has the right to know why he/she was not selected for assistance. Upon request, a rejected applicant will be provided with a brief justification for the decision. The decision is based on the selection criteria.
13. In case of an application for monetary or humanitarian aid during a personal on-site reception, such an application must be recorded in the Journal of the provision of humanitarian aid.

ІІІ. PROCEDURE FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF APPLICATIONS FOR THE PROVISION OF MONETARY OR HUMANITARIAN AID

14. Consideration of an application for the provision of monetary or humanitarian aid cannot exceed ten working days. The manager notifies the applicant verbally of the results of the application review by calling the number specified by the applicant during the application. Such notification must be made within three working days from the date of the decision.
15. Only civilian victims of war crimes and human rights violation scan be beneficiaries of humanitarian or monetary aid.
16. Monetary aid and humanitarian aid are provided to the following categories of civilian victims of war crimes and human rights violations:

• Survivors of torture and ill-treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence
• Relatives of died victims (parents, children, grandparents, brothers and sisters);
• People injured as a result of hostilities;
• Relatives of missing persons, if the disappearance is related to a military conflict;
• Relatives of prisoners who were not released;
• People released from captivity;
• The owners of the house that was destroyed.

The groups in the specified list are arranged in the order of their priority. The highest priority (1) is given to victims of torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, relatives of those killed as a result of military conflict and wounded during hostilities. Medium priority (2) is given to the relatives of missing persons and prisoners for whom there is no information about the use of torture.

Monetary and humanitarian aid is given to beneficiaries in order of priority, that is, if there are a large number of applications, first it is given to the group with the highest priority, then to the group with the middle priority, and only after that - to the group with the lowest priority. At the same time, in any case, the persons who belong to the categories specified in Clause 17 of this Policy will have extraordinary priority.

17. Specific (extraordinary) priority will be also given to person with the highest priority (1) if they are related to:

• Individuals with disability and serious health conditions

• Parents or guardians of 3 or more children

• Elderly persons without family members

18. KHPG will make information about the selection criteria and the types of assistance available on platforms where it is easily accessible and understandable to potential beneficiaries. This includes the KHPG website and social media platforms, as well as in KHPG offices and at distribution points.

19. As a general rule, simultaneous provision of monetary and humanitarian aid to the same person is not allowed. If a person applies for both types of assistance, the manager makes the final decision on the appointment of one of the types of aid, taking into account the special circumstances of the applicant’s life.

20. The decision to refuse to provide humanitarian aid must be made in the form of a report regarding each specific person, in which the reasons for such refusal must be indicated. The report is submitted to the director of the CO «KHPG» and the accountant.

21. In the event that the number of appeals to the CO «KHPG» from victims of war crimes and human rights violations exceeds the number planned for the provision of humanitarian packages and money transfers for such victims, the manager reserves the right to establish additional priority criteria for the provision of humanitarian or monetary aid. Such criteria must be agreed with the director of the CO «KHPG» and be made publish on KHPG’s website.

22. After making a decision to provide humanitarian or monetary aid, the manager sends it within ten working days. Humanitarian aid is sent using the postal services of the state-owned enterprise «Ukrposhta» or «Nova poshta». In some cases, when there is no postal service in the territories where the applicants live, the delivery of humanitarian aid can be carried out personally by road transport or with the involvement of third parties. Monetary aid is provided by transferring it to the accounts of the victims of war crimes specified in the applications.

23. KHPG will establish a safe, anonymous way for beneficiaries to submit complaints if they experience abuse or harassment or other gross misconduct by staff responsible for the aid. Such complaints may relate to any abuse of rights by the manager or other employees of the organization, including demands for bribes, sexual or other forms of harassment, demands for any services or works for the benefit of the employee or third parties, and may also contain information about tactless or incorrect behaviour of the manager or other employees of the organization, insults, intolerant statements, etc. For this purpose, in each application form filled out by the victim, there will be an annex containing the KHPG Ethic principles to KHPG staff and an e-mail address where the person can submit a complaint if he/she experiences behaviour that contradicts the code of conduct. Complaints will be reviewed by the director of the organization. If there are grounds for the complaint, an investigation will be initiated where further information will be collected from the complainant and other sources. The person will be notified of the results of the review via the contacts specified in the relevant complaint. Anonymous complaints are not allowed, but confidentiality about the complainants identity is guaranteed. The director receiving and processing the complaint will the not divulge any personal details from any of complaints without explicit consent, or unless there is a well justified reason for doing so.

IV. FINAL PROVISIONS

24. All staff or consultants from KHPG and CO "Human and Law" that have responsibilities for selecting beneficiaries and distributing assistance are obliged to sign and adhere to KHPG’s code of conduct (insert link). Breaches must be subject to disciplinary action.

25. This policy does not oblige the CO "KHPG" to provide humanitarian or monetary aid to anyone who requests such assistance.

26. The decision to refuse to provide humanitarian or monetary aid can be appealed to the director of the CO "KHPG" within thirty days from the day of its adoption.