The Ombudsman is concerned about the state of the FLA system

The Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights is ready to join the development of proposals for amendments to the legal acts developed by the Ukrainian National Bar Association that will improve the functioning of the free legal aid system.

The UNBA was informed about this by the Ombudsman's Office after studying the Report on topical issues of the functioning of the legal aid system in Ukraine, which was presented last week.

The report demonstrates the cause-and-effect relationships that determine the existence of problems in the FLA system and effective ways to solve them, in particular in terms of monitoring the quality of FLA provision, distribution and execution of secondary assistance orders, payment for lawyers' services, appointment of defense counsel to participate in a separate procedural action, as well as in criminal proceedings in absentia, identification of a lawyer with a client, termination of legal aid in suspended criminal proceedings.

Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets expressed his gratitude for the position formed on the basis of the analysis. He is also concerned about the conclusions regarding violations of the rights of lawyers providing free legal aid, as well as the problems that arise during the functioning of the FLA system.

Lidiya Izovitova, the President of the UNBA,BCU has previously noted the need for legislative changes and the introduction of a different organizational model of the legal aid system.

As a reminder, a pilot project on providing professional legal aid to citizens has recently been launched in Zakarpattia, Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne and Khmelnytskyi regions under the Memorandum of Cooperation signed between the Ombudsman and the Ukrainian National Bar Association.