In the area of Equal treatment:
- Ukraine ratified the Istanbul Convention
On June 20, the Parliament of Ukraine ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention). This decision does not only ensure the protection of women’s rights, but is also an important step towards Ukraine’s European integration.
According to the Law, Ukraine recognises that the Convention is aimed at protecting women from all forms of violence, ensuring criminal prosecution and elimination of violence against women and domestic violence against women, men and children (boys and girls). The Convention legally obliges states to establish a legal framework to combat violence against women. Acceding countries should criminalise psychological violence, stalking, physical and sexual violence, forced marriage, forced abortion and sterilisation.
Ukrainian CSOs will be able to actively participate in the monitoring and implementation of the Istanbul Convention and contribute to the protection of women's rights, conduct awareness-raising campaigns for the public about the different manifestations of violence covered by the scope of this Convention, their consequences on children and the need to prevent such violence. National governments that ratify the convention have a legal obligation to recognise, encourage and support their work and to establish effective co-operation with them.
In the area of State duty to protect:
- Negative developments regarding the Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs) of legal entities
On June 20, the Parliamentary Committee in Economic Development registered three Draft Resolutions (6131/П, 6131-1/П, 6131-2/П) to reject Draft Law No. 6131 on Providing Information on the Ultimate Beneficial Owners of Legal Entities, Draft Law No. 6131-1 on Extension of the List of Legal Entities Exempted from Providing Information on the Ultimate Beneficial Owners and Draft Law No. 6131-2 on Improving the Institute of Designation of Information About the Ultimate Beneficial Owner and Ownership Structure of the Legal Entity.
The Draft Laws provide for positive changes for CSOs, since they remove the unreasonable and bureaucratic requirement to submit information on UBOs. At the same time, it would be advisable to unite the two Draft Laws and provide the exemption from this requirement to all public associations, charitable organisations, and public self-organisation bodies. Therefore, the resolutions to reject those Draft Laws is a negative development.
In addition, Draft Resolution No. 6003/П on adoption as a basis of Draft Law No. 6003 on streamlined mechanisms for the validation of information on UBOs and ownership structure of legal entities was registered in the Parliament on June 30.
The Draft Law proposes to identify in the Unified State Register that a legal entity has allegedly submitted inaccurate information on its UBO or ownership structure and carry out subsequent verification of the reliability of such information. It also proposes to introduce legal liability of legal entities for knowingly entering false information about the UBOs or their absence in the Unified State Register.
It carries immediate risks for CSOs with legal entity status, since they may face additional obstacles in their legal relations with banks, insurance companies, notaries, lawyers, etc. There is no established procedure for a legal entity to provide explanations and documents to corroborate this information, nor a procedure for considering them or verifying the information provided by a legal entity. The Draft Law does not consider the specific CSOs’ organisational and legal form without founders, and it is often difficult to establish the absence or existence of UBOs of CSOs. Therefore, the Draft Law needs to be further enhanced with the participation of representatives of business, CSOs and primary financial monitoring entities.
In the area of State support:
- Improving regulation for volunteers
Draft Law No. 7454 on Strengthening the Protection of Volunteers Active in the Area of Hostilities was registered in the Parliament on June 10, 2022. The Draft Law is aimed at clarifying the procedure of provision of certain social guarantees for volunteers and their family members who were injured while volunteering in the conditions of full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine.
It offers to spread the social guarantees coverage (such as material, social and household, medical support) over all categories of protected persons under the Law of Ukraine “On the status of veterans of war, guarantees of their social protection” not only for persons who operated in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but also on the whole territory of Ukraine in the conditions of full-scale war. The corresponding changes will create additional social guarantees, which is important for non-profit organisations, which cooperate with volunteers to implement activities in combat areas.
- Tax exemption for volunteers
Draft Law No. 7492 on Exemption from Taxation of Certain Types of Charitable Aid Collected by Volunteers, registered in Parliament on June 27, 2022, will have a positive impact on the taxation of charity. It exempts volunteers from personal income tax when providing charitable assistance to military personnel, employees of enterprises, civil protection forces and members of their families involved in national security and defense measures while in the areas of active hostilities, as well as war-affected individuals. It also extends the period during which a volunteer can be exempted from the personal income tax (from January 1 of the reporting year in which the person was entered in the Register). The Draft Law will help volunteers who have accumulated and distributed charitable aid without paying personal income tax, not be subjected to legal responsibility.
- Initial steps taken to support CSO sustainability through tax designation mechanism
On June 28, the Draft Laws No. 7500 on amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine (on the introduction of the tax designation mechanism in Ukraine aimed at supporting CSOs) and No. 7501 on amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine were registered in the Parliament of Ukraine.
The Draft Laws propose to introduce a tax designation mechanism in Ukraine to support public associations, charity organisations, and religious organisations. If these laws are adopted, all citizens of Ukraine will be able to designate up to 2% of their income taxes of individuals to the benefit of one or two CSOs duly registered in the register for receiving tax designation mechanism. These legal acts were developed through consultations with leading Ukrainian CSOs, MPs and ECNL.un