Specialized public organizations believe that the liquidation of the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine and the redistribution of its functions may lead to the disappearance of the topic of protecting the rights of victims from the state agenda.

"We believe that there should be a separate institution at the government that will deal with issues related to international humanitarian law, the affected population and the formation of policies regarding it, reintegration, and other issues that are currently in the sphere of the Ministry of Reintegration," Olena Luneva, advocacy director of the ZMINA Human Rights Centre, said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine press center on Wednesday.

She emphasized that it is important to preserve this institution, but noted that this can be done in different formats.

"In early September, after personnel changes at the government, information appeared about the intention to 'integrate' the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine into the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine... Such a position may be understandable, because the support, development and further restoration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine should occur in the unified logic of Ukraine's development," the public organizations say.

At the same time, in their opinion, there is a high risk of losing some of the powers in relation to people who suffered as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine, in the event that the government does not have a ministry directly responsible for developing a comprehensive policy for the reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories and de-occupied territories of Ukraine.

"The redistribution of the Reintegration Ministry functions may lead to the disappearance of the topic of protecting the rights of victims from the state agenda, because the restoration of infrastructure in the regions is only part of a more comprehensive reintegration process, which includes legal, humanitarian and socio-economic aspects. But the main thing is to support people," the public organizations say.

In this regard, the organizations consider it extremely necessary to take into account a set of issues related to the protection and restoration of the rights of the affected population, the development and implementation of a comprehensive state policy for the reintegration of the occupied territories of Ukraine when implementing the decision to redistribute the powers of the Ministry of Reintegration.

In this regard, the public organizations call on the government to ensure the functioning of a government body that will have powers aimed at protecting the rights of the affected population and developing a comprehensive and systemic reintegration policy.

"This could happen, for example, through the transformation of the Ministry of Reintegration into the Ministry of Unity with the provision of basic powers in relation to persons affected by armed aggression against Ukraine. Or the government could retain the position of Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine [without the ministry] with specialized deputies in each ministry," the statement says.

The signatories of the position are: the ZMINA Human Rights Centre, the Crimean Human Rights Group, NGO Donbas SOS, the Influence Group public holding, the Vostok SOS Charitable Foundation, the Right to Protection Charitable Foundation, the Stabilization Support Services Charitable Foundation, and NGO Crimea SOS.