On April 4, the online meeting of the working group with the participation of civil society representatives and involving representatives of state authorities was held to discuss the updated version of Section 5 “Development of Volunteer Activity – 2.0” of the Legal Reforms Roadmap for Civil Society in Ukraine. About 30 representatives of civil society organizations and state authorities took part in the discussion. 

Discussion participants analyzed some of the proposed provisions of the updated version of section 5, in particular regarding:

• Introduction of institutional support mechanisms for organizations that attract volunteers;
• Competitions of volunteer projects at the state and local level;
• Development and approval of the concept of the State Target Program for the development of volunteering in Ukraine;
• Age limits for volunteer activities;
• Amendments to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 604 of August 19, 2015, which regulates the payment of a lump-sum monetary benefit in case of death or disability of a volunteer due to an injury (post-concussion syndrome, injury or mutilation) received while providing volunteer assistance in the combat zone.

Participants’ proposals will be analyzed and reflected in the final version of the updated Section 5 “Development of Volunteer Activity – 2.0” of the Legal Reforms Roadmap for Civil Society in Ukraine.

The next meeting of the working group to continue discussing and working out problems in the sphere of legislative regulation of volunteering will be held on April 11. 

In particular, the following issues will be proposed for discussion:

• Solution to the problem of imperfect approach to taxation and reporting in the activities of individual philanthropists (ATO volunteers) by amending the Tax Code of Ukraine;
• The need to simplify the legislative conditions for attracting foreign volunteers and their activities;
• Increasing the level of involvement of volunteers in the work with the executive authorities and local self-government.

Any interested representatives of CSOs and state authorities can join the following discussions by filling out a short form at the link: https://forms.gle/FhHeVmboEPLvUBF19.

Read the proposed version of Section 5 in the form of comparative tables and consolidated text. 

Background information

In 2020, thanks to the joint work of the sector, Section 5 (“Development of Volunteer Activity”) of the Legal Reforms Roadmap for Civil Society in Ukraine was finalized.

Since the final version of the Roadmap was developed, some solutions have been implemented and problems identified in Section 5 have been addressed.

At the same time, some problems identified in the Roadmap require revision and updating taking into account the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. Thus, the following issues have become relevant:

– Providing an opportunity to receive welfare benefits for volunteers who became people with disabilities and family members of deceased volunteers in the areas of combat operations with the extension of this right to the entire territory of Ukraine;

– Imperfect approach to taxation and reporting in the activities of individual benefactors (ATO volunteers);

– The need to simplify the legislative conditions for attracting foreign volunteers and their activities;

You can read a brief summary of the implementation of the Map recommendations here.