Legal Component of the Link Local Humanitarian Response Coordination Mechanism
The Legal Development Network began implementing in 2024 in partnership with the Czech humanitarian organization “People in Need” and with funding from the UK government.
During the first year of Link’s humanitarian work, requests for legal support came from community representatives. It turned out that there was a significant gap in providing legal services locally. So the following year, borrowing some principles from the humanitarian component, they developed the legal direction of the mechanism.
“The request for legal aid is not always identified by community residents who can say, yes, I need a lawyer. However, later, in the process of communication, when we identify humanitarian needs, we understood that people also need legal support”
Executive Director of the Legal Development Network Olga Nastina
Identifying legal needs: from unnoticed to unrecognized
“Many legal aid providers, international organizations visit settlements, but not everywhere is accessible, not everywhere do security policies allow. There really is a certain challenge that many legal needs remain unnoticed and unresolved”
Legal Services Manager of the Legal Development Network Darya Kovalchuk
“When you arrive and ask a person whether you have some specific legal problem there. You hear in response that there isn’t one. You start talking and in the course of this conversation you understand that there is a problem, but due to lack of knowledge it’s difficult to identify that this is really a legal problem”
Darya Kovalchuk
The legal services manager emphasizes the importance of timely identification of legal problems, because in case of delaying the process of solving the problem, negative consequences appear, the problem worsens and may become one that will not be solved.
“We didn’t want to duplicate the activities of organizations that provide legal services. Our goal is precisely to identify such needs and transfer them to partners for resolution”
Darya Kovalchuk
In focus of Link’s legal component:
- Identifying and verifying legal requests from community residents
- Trips to the most remote settlements of de-occupied communities
- Detailed interviewing of people about their needs
- Referral and redirection to legal aid providers
- Search for partner organizations to solve specific problems
- Collecting feedback from beneficiaries and partners.
Link uses two types of directing people for legal aid: referral and redirection. Link humanitarian response lawyer Yaroslava Sulimova explains the difference.
“Referral is first searching for an organization that is ready to take on solving a legal problem. It’s important that those who need help must be ready to communicate closely with the organization to solve their issue. Link specialists get consent from both sides, refer and accompany community residents until the issue is completed, supporting them all the way.
Redirection is, actually, redirecting a person to state institutions. If we understand that a person, for example, simply needs to contact a notary to solve their issues, we redirect them to him. In more complex cases, for example, when people encounter biased attitudes from representatives of state institutions, etc., we find an organization that can accompany the person further”
Yaroslava Sulimova
Since May 2024, the Link team has identified 140 legal requests that remained unnoticed by legal service providers or unsatisfied for certain reasons. Behind this statistic stands meticulous work on planning trips, communication with communities and coordination with partners and comprehensive support of people at all stages of solving their problems.
Link is actively expanding its network of partner organizations. It’s important that help can be provided in cooperation of several organizations.
“You can make referrals not only to one organization, but to several, where one organization can, for example, write a lawsuit and help with filing, and another cover the costs of paying the court fee”
Legal services manager Darya Kovalchuk
Partnership approaches
Link’s legal component cooperates with organizations and state institutions that provide legal aid in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. To properly include them in referral and redirection, specialists learn about the list of issues the organization works with, financial support possibilities (payment of court fees, document production), contacts and work schedule, possibilities of trips to settlements.
One of the partners to whom Link’s legal component redirects is the free legal aid system (FLA). Deputy Director of the Southern Interregional Center for Free Legal Aid Olena Ipatenko explains the features of the center’s work, which covers four regions: Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad and Odesa.
“We are a state institution created to cover people’s legal needs free of charge for them, but at budget expense”
Olena Ipatenko
“We are always happy about referrals, redirections. After all, despite the advertising campaign, there still remains a part of people who either don’t know about legal services that can be obtained free from the state, or are afraid because they think they won’t get anything good for free. It’s right and appropriate today to help people get legal services by all means”
Olena Ipatenko
Among Link’s partners is the NGO “CSP Perspective”. The organization provides both primary aid and secondary aid — in case of court appeals, challenging actions of tax authorities, state executive service or another body according to the appeal. Besides that, it provides psychological and other types of aid.
Cooperation with Link opened new opportunities for the organization.
“Although we travel through villages and communicate with people, Link became an additional tool for us that allows us to work more with the needs of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions”
Lawyer of NGO “CSP Perspective” Serhiy Vlasenko
The “Right to Protection” Charitable Foundation implements programs of legal, psychological and material support for internally displaced persons and population affected by military actions, and also provides social aid and monitors protection of rights.
“We got acquainted with the Link platform recently. Such an initiative and such work can help a lot during work because I can potentially have more information about the aid recipient. Because, in particular, there are cases when a person contacts me as, let’s say, the fifth lawyer, and you need to understand why this happens”
Lawyer on Gender-Based Violence issues of the “Right to Protection” Charitable Foundation Iryna Syedina
Feedback system
An important part is collecting feedback from both community residents and partner organizations to find out whether the Link mechanism helped and whether the problem was solved. If not, specialists record information indicating the reason why the problem couldn’t be solved.
Out of 140 aid recipients, 57 people have already been surveyed. The main obstacles they face:
- Financial difficulties
- Multiple redirections between institutions
- Logistical problems (lack of transportation, high travel costs)
- Lack of awareness of the legal nature of the problem.
Situation in Mykolaiv region
- In Shevchenkivska and Halytsynivska communities, most legal needs are resolved
- In remote settlements of Shevchenkivska community, unrecognized and unnoticed needs remain
- 67.8% of settlements receive legal aid once a month from various legal aid providers
- 28% of settlements are visited by legal service providers once every 2-3 months.
Situation in Kherson region
- In Velykooleksandrivska and Bilozerska communities, there are difficulties in satisfying legal needs due to the security situation
- In Muzykivska and Chornobaivska communities, 94.7% of identified legal needs are satisfied
- 75% of settlements receive legal aid once a month
- 12% of settlements are visited by representatives of legal organizations three times a month
- 12% of settlements have weekly visits from organizations
Legal education tools
Link develops human-centered information materials and implements innovative formats of legal education.
“We understand that the material we form for use must be written in the most simple, understandable language, where a clear algorithm of actions is provided: what a person needs to do to solve their problem”
explains Darya Kovalchuk
The process of creating legal education materials includes:
- Analysis of the Link platform’s request database to determine relevant topics
- Consultations with key informants
- Adaptation of materials for people without legal education Constant updating and improvement of content.
Chatbot with integrated artificial intelligence
Another tool for improving access to legal aid is a chatbot with integrated artificial intelligence.
“Our lawyers chose the most relevant topics and are currently developing their content. Conditionally, one topic covers more than 30 consultations. In terms of the document — this is more than 150 pages of verified information. The Link chatbot provides exclusively current information. We are now testing the chatbot in terms of relevance of getting answers to questions from community residents”
explains Darya Kovalchuk
Besides the chatbot, community residents have the opportunity to use online chat, whose work is supported by lawyers from 22 member organizations of the Legal Development Network.
Future plans
Link continues to expand its activities. Legal Development Network legal services manager Darya Kovalchuk outlines the main directions of development:
“We are going to continue the started initiative of collecting and verifying legal needs in other communities as well. We plan to reach more of those settlements that really need this help the most, but don’t have it due to complex logistics. We will make every effort to still cover these settlements too”
Besides that, in 2025 the team will work on developing online tools, particularly the chatbot, filling it with new topics, connecting the possibility of lawyer consultations.
An important direction is expanding cooperation with other organizations.
“We want to coordinate more with the Protection Cluster. This cooperation has already started with us. I’m confident that we can strengthen each other and in synergy we can provide as many people as possible with access to legal services and justice”
says Darya Kovalchuk
