The Community Charter
Kostiantynivka is a small frontline city in Donetsk Oblast.
In the pre-war period, the city had a population of about 70,000 people. Approximately 80% of the population worked at local factories, and everything revolved around them. Each factory had its own park, culture house, and people's lives were centered there. When the factories closed during the crisis of the 90s, everything associated with them declined as well.
The Krivyi Torets River cuts the city in half, but it is not safe to swim in due to years of waste and toxic substances discharged by nearby industrial enterprises.
Near Kostiantynivka, in the settlement of Berestok, even a radioactive waste dump was discovered in 2007.
With the start of the decentralization reform in Ukraine, central government bodies are transferring powers to regions and local communities.
The community has become a key figure that independently determines its priorities in security, environmental sphere, health care, and activities aimed at creating a safe environment on its territory. The goal of the local governance reform is to create a capable community that can solve local issues.
Article 19 of the Law of Ukraine "On Local Self-Government" stipulates that, in order to take into account the historical, national-cultural, socio-economic, and other peculiarities of local self-government, the representative body of local self-government, based on the Constitution of Ukraine and within the limits of this Law, may adopt the statute of the territorial community of a village, settlement, city.
Cossack hut. Exhibit in the village Oleksievo-Druzhkivka, Donetsk region
The community statute is one of the fundamental documents and a legal opportunity for residents to bring any issue within the competence of such a council for consideration.
In turn, the necessity of adopting the mentioned regulatory document by the local self-government body is clearly defined by the Law of Ukraine "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine" and the Constitution of Ukraine since it allows for considering all historical, socio-economic, and ecological peculiarities of the region for implementing the main principles of local self-government and democracy.
Currently, in the Kostiantynivka ATC (Amalgamated Territorial Community), the above-mentioned fundamental documents are missing, which would make it possible to implement the principle of democracy, legality, and the combination of local and state interests in the community.
This project aims to address these legal gaps that have formed in the Kostiantynivka ATC. The absence of the Statute does not allow establishing effective interaction between local authorities and residents. The inaction of local authorities on this matter directly violates the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine "On Local Self-Government", which guarantees the implementation of the rights of the ATC residents. In this case, local residents are not even able to initiate the legal procedure for considering their own issues, the resolution of which falls within the authority's powers.
This is happening due to the sheer absence of these fundamental documents, which have not been adopted throughout all the years of Ukraine's independence and during all the terms of the local authority.
The main objective of this EALSOC project is the integration of effective legal tools for the safe activity of communities in peacetime. The adoption of the Statute of the Kostiantynivka ATC in court for further interaction of residents with local authorities in the process of decentralization.
Monitoring of the court process can be followed at the link.