The Human Rights Institute of the Ukrainian Bar Association invites you to the event “Transitional Justice and Vulnerable Groups: How to Build a Systemic Approach to Recovery Policies” held within the framework of the Programme “Human Rights Infrastructure for Ukraine (2025–2027)”, implemented by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) with the support of Sida.

Date: 12 December 2025

Time: 16:00 – 18:00 (Kyiv time)

Format: online

Working languages: Ukrainian and English (simultaneous interpretation will be provided)

Invited participants:

• Ministry of Social Policy, Ministry of Justice, Office of the Ombudsperson, Coordination Centre for Victim and Witness Support
• Civil society organisations working with victims
• Human rights defenders, lawyers, psychologists
• Transitional justice experts (ICTJ, EU, UN)
• Researchers and analysts working with data on vulnerable groups

Background

The ongoing full-scale war in Ukraine continues to reshape both the nature of harm experienced by society and the needs of individuals affected by the aggression. While in the early years the focus of state institutions and humanitarian actors was on immediate assistance, it is now evident that the war has produced new, far more complex and diverse categories of affected populations. These groups extend far beyond traditional categories defined in legislation or social programmes. They include people living in chronic stress for years, those repeatedly displaced, individuals who have lost family members, people who have been held captive, or those who lived for prolonged periods under occupation or in active combat zones.

Vulnerable groups include, among others: residents of frontline communities; children whose entire childhood has unfolded in wartime; families of servicemembers living in constant uncertainty; civilians held in captivity for years; veterans with complex trauma and their families; elderly persons; and women who have become sole caregivers.

The war has entered a phase of accumulated trauma. After four years, not only acute but deeply rooted psychological, social, and economic consequences persist. Cases of complex PTSD, moral injury, long-term loss of social ties, chronic exhaustion, and uncertainty are increasingly prevalent. Children who have spent their formative years during the war face lasting effects of prolonged stress—affecting their behaviour, learning, development, and social adaptation. Families of servicemembers—especially those whose loved ones are in long-term captivity, missing, or deceased—live in a state of ongoing trauma.

Despite significant assistance, support for affected individuals remains fragmented. Organisations work with different groups, but these efforts do not form a coherent system. The state often responds through isolated programmes that do not create sustainable infrastructure. As a result, assistance is uneven: some groups receive help from multiple actors, while others remain effectively “invisible”.

As of 2025, Ukraine does not have a unified system for defining categories of people affected by the war, a methodology for assessing vulnerability, a national registry of victims, or data-collection standards to inform policy development. Needs are documented in a fragmented way by various agencies, NGOs, and humanitarian actors—without systemic coordination or analysis. This creates a risk that recovery, compensation, rehabilitation, and transitional justice policies will be based on assumptions rather than evidence.

Ukraine risks replicating the mistakes of other countries where transitional justice models were developed without sufficient attention to real needs—resulting in loss of trust, inefficiency, and weak outcomes. For Ukraine, transitional justice must begin not with institutions or procedures, but with people—their experiences, trauma, losses, and needs. The first task is to identify which groups are vulnerable in the context of war, understand how aggression has affected them, and build human-centred policies based on this evidence.

Key Questions for Discussion:

• How should Ukraine identify which population groups are vulnerable in the context of war?
• What criteria—legal, social, psychological, economic—should be applied? Should there be a unified methodology, and who should develop it?
• Which categories of victims currently remain “invisible” in state policy?
• What data should be collected about affected groups to form an accurate picture of their needs?
• How can Ukraine transition from fragmented humanitarian or legal interventions to a systemic policy of support for victims?
• How can real—not symbolic—participation of victims in shaping transitional justice policies be ensured?

Agenda

Moderator: Inna Liniova, Director, Human Rights Institute of the UBA

15:00 – 15:15 | Opening remarks:

Representative of the Ukrainian Bar Association

Representative of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights

Representative of the Ministry of Social Policy

15:15 – 16:15 | Exchange of views: Vulnerable groups in Ukraine: identifying needs and developing a comprehensive state policy

16:15 – 17:00 | General discussion: Developing recommendations for a comprehensive analysis of the war’s impact on vulnerable populations

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This activity is implemented within the Programme “Human Rights Infrastructure for Ukraine” (2025–2027), financed by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and carried out by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law with the Ukrainian Bar Association as an implementing partner.