ANNUAL REPORTOF UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS CHAPTER 1 28 Namely, it is due to the lack of funds allocated from the State Budget to cover the budget programme 2501200 “Social Protection of the Citizens Affected by Chornobyl disaster.”10 In November 2019, the Commissioner submitted a motion to the Prime Minister of Ukraine on violation of the rights of citizens affected by Chornobyl disaster to receive timely compensation and benefits guaranteed by law. Due to insufficient funding from the State Budget to cover actual needs, there are violations of the rights of privileged categories of citizens for sanatorium treatment, provision of technical and other means of rehabilitation to persons with disabilities11. Certain national programmes do not work at all due to lack of funding. In particular, funds for the purchase of cars for people with disabilities from the State Budget in 2019 were not allocated. The facts of violation of the rights of a particular category of citizens for privileged travel have been revealed. Example The Commissioner received an appeal from a mother of a serviceman who died during military service on violation of her right to a 50 percent discount on fares in Intercity railways, since the railway ticket offices require a coupon sheet from her, while the ID being the only legal document entitling her to privileged travel should be enough. At the request of the Commissioner to the Ministry of Infrastructure to take measures to secure the right to privileged travel of the specified category of citizens, the PJSC “Ukrainian Railways” resumed the sale of tickets with a 50% discount for long-distance railway ride to the specified category of persons only requesting their IDs (since 1 June 2019)12. Violation of the rights of rehabilitated and victims of repressions The Commissioner’s monitoring revealed cases of violation of the rights of citizens to obtain the status of rehabilitated person or of a victim of repressions due to late establishment of regional commissions on rehabilitation by the Heads of State Oblast Administrations and Kyiv City State Administrations or their improper functioning. The respective commissions should be established within three months from the date of their approval by the Ministry of Culture (Order #926 of 25 October 2018 “On Approval of the Regulations on the National Rehabilitation Commission and Model Regulation on the Regional Rehabilitation Commission”, hereinafter – Order of the Ministry of Culture #926). 10 According to the Ministry of Social Policy, as of 1 October 2019, in all regions of Ukraine, the arrears on payment of compensations and allowances under the budget programme amounted to UAH 256,077,600, including UAH 88,603,400 of arrears on monetary compensation for the cost of food for citizens affected by Chornobyl disaster (category I and category II). The highest level of arrears was in Zhytomyr (UAH 123,812,800), Kyiv (UAH 32,695,700), Rivne (UAH 16,352,900) oblasts and in the city of Kyiv (UAH 22,680,500). 11 According to the Ministry of Social Policy, a total of UAH 1,624,099,000 is needed to implement the budget programme for providing certain categories of population with technical and other means of rehabilitation, as confirmed by the data of the social protection bodies for 2019. The allocated funds in the amount of UAH 1,335,591.000 under this programme in 2019 were not sufficient to meet the actual needs. 12 www.ombudsman.gov.ua/ua/all-news/pr/zavdyaki-reaguvannyu-upovnovazhenogo-v%D1%96dnovleno-pravo-na-p%D1%96lgovij-pro%D 1%97zd-m%D1%96zhm%D1%96skim-zal%D1%96znichnim-transportom/.