#Community_Development

Project Summary: In response to the growing legal uncertainty surrounding the activities of local self-organization bodies (organy samoorganizatsii naselennia – OSNs) in Ukraine during wartime, our organization is launching a research and advocacy project aimed at adapting the previously developed Draft Law “On Bodies of Self-Organization of the Population” to the realities of martial law and the post-occupation context. This initiative builds on legal work initiated before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and recognizes the new and complex challenges faced by civic actors operating under duress, including in temporarily occupied territories. Key Problem Addressed: In many occupied communities, informal and semi-formal OSNs have played a crucial role in ensuring day-to-day survival: distributing aid, maintaining order, and coordinating with remaining municipal services. However, after de-occupation, such actions have at times been mischaracterized as “collaboration with the enemy” due to the absence of a legal framework that distinguishes between civic duty under…