Clarification of military registration data: lawyers, doctors and representatives of the TCC discussed controversial issues

On July 16, the statutory 60-day period for Ukrainian citizens to register for military service or update their military registration data expired. The day before, the UNBA discussed the issues related to this.

The roundtable on «Protection of the rights of persons liable for military service during mobilization» was initiated by the UNBA committees on human rights and military law. The event was attended by representatives of territorial recruitment and social support centers. In particular, the discussion was attended by representatives of the Sviatoshynskyi District Recruiting and Social Support Center in Kyiv, Oleg Korotchenko and Pavlo Pimakhov, military doctor Natalia Pustovoitova, Chairman of the UNBA Committee on Legal Practice Bohdan Kushnir, Deputy Chairman of the UNBA Youth Committee - UNBA NextGen Igor Andreev, and member of the UNBA Committee on Human Rights Protection Serhii Kostyra. The discussion was also attended by a representative of the Legal Hundred NGO, attorney Inna Simakina, Deputy Chairman of the UNBA Human Rights Committee Serhiy Starenkyi, members of the UNBA Human Rights Committee Dmytro Buzanov, Pavlo Makarenko and others.

Maria Ostrovska, the Chairman of the UNBA Committee on Military Law recalled the list of military registration data that should be clarified in accordance with the Final Provisions of the Law of Ukraine «On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Certain Issues of Military Service, Mobilization and Military Registration», although it is defined in Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine «On the Unified State Register of Conscripts, Persons Liable for Military Service and Reservists», the lawyer noted that the 60 days allocated by the legislator are intended to clarify the data, but not all 34 points. For example, the medical examination of the MEC should not be included in the process of data clarification, despite the insistence of the TCC.

The speaker also drew attention to the problem of the main legal acts regulating the issue of updating credentials. This obligation is stipulated in three laws and two resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers, which formulate the requirements differently. And in the month since the significant May amendments to military mobilization legislation, the Cabinet of Ministers has managed to amend its own resolutions several times. According to M. Ostrovska, this indicates the instability of the norms and affects the quality of the law, which, according to the ECHR practice, should be accessible and predictable in its wording. Ultimately, this may lead to the European Court of Human Rights recognizing the state as a violator of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Moreover, contrary to the requirements of the Law «On the Unified State Register of Conscripts, Persons Liable for Military Service and Reservists», two different procedures for maintaining the Oberig Register are simultaneously in effect. One of them is approved by the Ministry of Defense (Order No. 94 of 28.03.2022), which has lost the authority to regulate such issues. The other procedure is determined by the Cabinet of Ministers, but the relevant resolution of 10.05.2024 No. 523 is still not publicly available.

Despite the provisions of the Law «On Access to Public Information», according to which everyone has the right to have access to information about them that is collected and stored, access to the Oberig register is not available to anyone except the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Foreign Intelligence Service, and the TCC. The Ministry of Defense, which has the status of the holder and administrator of the Register, refuses to satisfy requests for public information and refers a person to the TCC as the body that maintains the Register. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense is guided by the norms of its Procedure for Maintaining the Register, which was supposed to cease to be valid from 04.04.2024. The General Staff, which is the manager of the Register, ignores requests. At the same time, the TCC often does not even accept documents.

The lawyer expressed her hope for establishing cooperation between the TCC and the legal community, providing algorithms for defense counsel's actions to protect human rights in order to improve the effectiveness of legal aid.

B. Kushnir emphasized the problem of the lack of a legislatively adopted unified algorithm for updating military records and guarantees of non-infringement of rights after the military registration and enlistment commission.

Pavlo Pimakhov, a representative of the Sviatoshyn RTC, emphasized the unjustified negative attitude to the activities of the RTC, which, in his opinion, is mostly the result of hostile propaganda. Because of this, the attitude of citizens to the military authorities is extremely distrustful, people are skeptical, believing in fictional lawlessness based on information from social media. That is why there are conflicts and disagreements about the proper performance of work. At the same time, TCCs are ready to cooperate with lawyers within the legal framework, emphasized Pimakhov.

P. Makarenko said that today there are approximately 11.2 million people in Ukraine who may be subject to mobilization. These are men aged 25 to 60 years. Of these, about 500 thousand are already reserved, and 1 million 500 thousand are potentially disabled. This issue directly relates to the passage of the MEC, which creates additional inconveniences for citizens.

N. Pustovoitova outlined the list of legal acts regulating the activities of the medical service. In particular, this is the Regulation on Military Medical Examination in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, approved by the Order of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine No. 402 dated August 14, 2008. She noted that the military medical examination determines the fitness for military service of conscripts, servicemen, persons liable for military service and reservists, establishes the causal connection of diseases, injuries, wounds, contusions, mutilations with military service and determines the need and conditions for the use of medical and social rehabilitation and assistance to servicemen. In other words, the conclusion of the MEC determines fitness or unfitness for military service with a review in 6 to 12 months. The decision of the MEC may be canceled by a higher MEC after appeal. All copies of medical documents are certified by a notary and attached to the medical characterization, which is written, for example, by a military doctor or district doctor.

As a separate issue, N. Pustovoitova highlighted cases when a person had the right to an additional examination and his or her illness had to be treated properly. Then a person liable for military service could fulfill his duty to protect the homeland, the doctor emphasized.

N. Pustovoitova also answered the question about the timeframe for the military medical examination, in particular, whether it is legal to undergo a military medical examination in one day. «A person can be examined clinically, instrumentally by the decision of doctors. These are not ordinary doctors - they are authorized doctors, they can prescribe any examination they deem necessary. If they have time to make all the necessary conclusions in one day, then, of course, the MEC can be conducted in one day. On the other hand, the conclusion of the MEC is an important and reliable document. If it is stated that a person is healthy, there are no pathological indicators indicating problems with his or her health».

S. Starenkyi raised the issue of keeping records of persons who were found fit by the MEC and who are sent by unit commanders for a second MEC after 3 months because they are actually unfit. The participants of the roundtable concluded that currently there is no such statistics, but the problem exists and requires a proper response.

The peculiarities of clinical trials of persons liable for military service were emphasized by Hanna Kolesnyk, Chairman of the UNBA Human Rights Committee. «When the procedure provides, for example, for certain tests, in particular for AIDS, we all understand that the results of the tests will be received at least the next day. That is, when a person is simply detained on the street and taken to the TCC and sent to training in 5 hours, it is obvious that there was no MEC and the signatures that were put in the conclusion are just a formality. And this is a real problem, because the procedure for appealing the conclusion of the MEC is even more complicated than the process of passing it - court hearings are scheduled at least 3 months after the date of the appeal, which means that a person with certain diseases can already be on combat missions during this time and all this time infect other people. Thus, as a result of poor-quality MEC, one person provokes a deterioration in the health of dozens of other people who are forced to be near the sick person on duty».

D. Buzanov raised the issue of a person's refusal to undergo the MEC, in particular, when a person has relevant medical documentation of a chronic illness and wants to provide it later. «If a person is called for a MEC during the data update, he or she may refuse, and may be recommended to appear in 3 days at the TCC with the relevant medical documents. If a person has already been served with a summons, he or she is warned about the MEC, so the person immediately comes with the relevant documents», - said Ms. Pustovoitova.

Given the large number of problematic issues faced by persons liable for military service and defenders of their rights during mobilization, it was decided to continue this topic at the next UNBA events.