Council of Europe calls on Ukraine to uphold voting rights of IDPs

This was discussed on the first day of the 35th session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which takes place in Strasbourg on November 6-8, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

 “In Ukraine, IDPs who fled the areas affected by foreign military intervention in the Eastern part of the country and, to a lesser extent, Crimea after illegal annexation by the Russian Federation, make up a population of almost 1.7 million. The large number of IDPs and their extremely vulnerable situation posed significant challenges to upholding their rights, inter alia, their voting rights in the 2014 parliamentary elections and the 2015 local elections,” reads the report of Jos Wienen, the rapporteur from the Netherlands, which was adopted on Tuesday.

As noted,  the IDPs  have  to  be  given de  facto opportunity  to  electoral participation,  by  removal  of  barriers  such  as  excessive  residency requirements.

 “IDPs  should  be able  to  make  their  own  individual  choices  about  the  constituency  of registration,” the report underscores.

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