In 2003 the national NGO “Committee of Voters of Ukraine” continued implementing its regular programs, improving and tuning them to the situation in the country. The implementation of the non-election monitoring programs was a novelty for CVU this year. The holistic approach to implementing versatile activities as well as a number of organizational events enabled CVU to preserve and sometimes even build up the potential used in the 2002 campaign.

In 2003 CVU reregistered its local chapters. As of December 2003 CVU structure incorporates:

 24 oblast branches as well as separate branches in Kyiv and Sevastopol

 1 representative office

 99 rayon and city branches;

 70 rayon and city representative offices;

CVU held a pilot organizational self-evaluation. Both the oblast branches and the central office staff were involved in this project. More than 150 CVU activists participated in the evaluation. As a result the evaluation team identified strengths and weaknesses in the national organization’s activities and branches in particular. This information was used for planning further activities of the organization.

In its work CVU partnered with other Ukrainian and international NGOs, government institutions, political parties and the media.

CVU was one of the initiators of founding a civic coalition “New Choice – 2004” in October 2003. The Committee also took an active part in developing the strategy of the coalition’s work during the Presidential elections in 2004.

Democratic Monitoring Program

The goal of the program was to research the exercising of citizens’ political rights guaranteed by Ukrainian and international legislation. The subject of the monitoring was the implementation of the pre-election programs and promises by the elected officials, the quality of the managerial services, government’s transparency, preparation and administration of the coming Presidential elections and by-elections at all levels etc.

All the monitoring reports comprised conclusions and recommendations on improving the situation in the spheres subject to monitoring. The reports were available for the government representatives, political parties, Ukrainian and foreign NGOs and research institutions. They were also widely covered in the media.

Monitoring election campaigns in Ukraine in 2003

Despite the fact that there were no national election campaigns in 2003 in Ukraine, CVU monitored violations during the pre-election preparation and the administration of more than 50 by-elections to different governmental bodies, among them by-elections in constituency # 206 (Chernihiv oblast), Sumy mayor elections, Zaporizhzhya and Mukacheve mayor elections as well as other less resonant campaigns.

On June 8 by-elections to Verkhovna Rada were held in constituency # 206 (Chernihiv oblast), where CVU organized long-term observation over the preparation and election administration. On the Election Day 15 CVU observers having the status of “Tochka Zoru” journalists attended about 50 PECs in this constituency. Press center “Elections 2003” organized by CVU was also organized in Chernihiv. According to CVU’s estimates, elections in constituency # 206 did not comply with some Ukrainian and international democratic election standards.

More than 500 CVU volunteers participated in monitoring 2003 election campaigns in Ukraine in 2003.

The biggest problems determined by CVU in the course of monitoring election campaigns in Ukraine were the administrative resource abuse (at all the elections), canceling the registration of the campaign leaders on minor causes and using courts in order to distort voters’ will.

Monitoring elected officials’ activities

In 2003 CVU monitored MPs’, mayors’ and local council deputies’ activities. The program included collecting, analyzing and disseminating information about the monitored subjects among the voters. The monitoring program consisted of two parts: legislative activities of the deputies and voter contact.

CVU implemented this program together with its partners “Laboratory for Legislative Initiatives F-4” and “Open Society” foundation. These joint activities resulted in reports on the MPs’ activities during the II and III-rd sessions of the Ukrainian Parliament of the III-rd convocation. These reports were publicized at the press conferences in Kyiv and 8 oblast centers in Ukraine. They were given extensive publicity. The analysis of the single-mandate MPs’ activities in their regions became part of the “Open Society” publication series “How does your deputy work?”

The results of monitoring MPs’ activities were part of the CVU and Public Radio’s joint initiative “Transparency of the elected government’s activities”. The initiative incorporated a weekly radio program meant to give voters a chance to ask questions and get to know about every single-mandate MP’s work and how it meets the interests of the constituency and the region.

One of the success criteria for this program is the fact that some deputies started sending reports about their activities to CVU on their own initiative, others became more active in their work with voters.

Local CVU branches monitored local deputies’ activities.

Monitoring political party activities in Ukraine

At the beginning of 2003 CVU prepared a final report on monitoring the state and problems of political parties in Ukraine. The program was started yet in 2002. The final report was publicized on February 3 at the round table “Political parties in Ukraine after the Parliamentary and on the eve of the Presidential elections” organized by CVU and supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Ukraine.

The goal of the program was determining the potential of the political parties on the eve of the Presidential elections, defining their capacity to solve social problems, to impact the state policy, promote their ideology and recruit new members. Only those political party structures meeting common political party standards were subject to research. CVU selected 13 parties (CPU, SPU, SDPU(u), “Batkivshchyna”, UPP, “Sobor”, “Labor Ukraine”, “Party of Regions”, Agrarian Party of Ukraine, NDP, Rukh (Tarasiuk), Rukh (Kostenko), Reforms and Order, the Green party) and monitored only their activities.

CVU researched the activities of more than 300 central and local political party branches in Ukraine.

Monitoring the public discussion of the political reform

In March-May 2003 CVU monitored the public discussion of the political reform initiated by the President of Ukraine. The two-stage monitoring aimed to find out whether the discussion process complies with the Ukrainian legislation and common democratic standards.

When monitoring, CVU applied the following criteria: voluntary participation in the discussion, equal access of all the participants to the discussion, considering all the opinions as a result of the discussion, transparent and target use of financial and tangible assets in this process, active participation of civil society institutions in the discussion etc.

As a result of the monitoring CVU stated, “the fact of citizen participation in approving important government decisions undoubtedly became a positive tendency in the development of the Ukrainian democracy. However, the character of the discussion, violations of citizens’ rights and freedoms in the course of the discussion hampered reaching the goal and objectives set”.

Monitoring government’s openness and transparency

In June-August 2003 CVU implemented the program of comprehensive monitoring of the openness and transparency principles in the activities of national and local executive bodies and local government.

CVU oblast branch experts held the monitoring program in all the oblasts of Ukraine, Crimea, the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol. The information was taken from the open sources: resolutions and statements of the governmental bodies, from mass media and internet resources. The experts also submitted requests for information and participated in the events organized by local government.

On summarizing the monitoring results, CVU stated ”President’s decrees and government’s resolutions regarding publicity and openness of the government bodies are implemented in Ukraine not to the full extent. Some of the resolutions are merely ignored. Pretty often the implementation of the standard acts mentioned above is pretty formal for the local government and is implemented merely for the reporting, but not for giving multi-faceted and full information to the citizens”.

Election Legislation Reform

In 2003 CVU worked very actively on implementing the election legislation reform program. The basis for CVU’s work was the results of election observation programs, pre-election education programs, the analysis of major and typical violations during the preparation and administration of the elections.

So, during the year CVU together with the Laboratory for Legislative Initiatives and the Political Analysis School held a large-scale research ”Election Legislation: ways to reform it, Ukrainian and international experience”.

The research became practically the only one in the NIS. The methodological basis was the comparative analysis of the international standards, national legislation of other countries, the Ukrainian election legislation regarding the legal regulation of the electoral procedures.

The book mentioned above was published with the circulation of 2,000. It was presented at 6 topical round tables in the regions of Ukraine and at the final round table in Kyiv. This book was also distributed among MPs, scientists and government officials.

Public Consulting Program

CVU activities on the public consulting program in 2003 were held in compliance with the “CVU stationary public hours network” project and “Public Advocate” program.

According to the stationary public hours project the public hours network functioned in all the oblasts in 2003. In December 2003 there were 69 offices in Ukraine. CVU public hours functioned in the following settlements:

Crimea Simferopol 1

Vinnytsya Vinnytsya 1

Volyn Lutsk, Novovolynsk 2

Dnipropetrovsk Dnipropetrovsk, Nikopol 2

Donetsk Donetsk (2), Yasynuvata 3

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr (2), Korosten 3

Zakarpattia Uzhgorod 1

Zaporizhzhya Zaporizhzhya, Melitopol, Berdiansk, Mykhailivka 4

Ivano-Frankivsk Ivano-Frankivsk 1

Kyiv Bila Tserkva (2), Brovary 3

Kirovograd Kirovograd (2), Olexandria, Svitlovodsk, Znamenka 5

Luhansk Luhansk, Severodonetsk, Rubizhne 3

Lviv Lviv (2), Drohobych (3), Truskavets, Stebnyk, Boryslav, Sokal 9

Sevastopol Sevastopol 1

Mykolayiv Mykolayiv

Odessa Odessa (2) 2

Poltava Poltava, Lubny, Kremenchuk, Globyne 4

Rivne Rivne, Sarny, Dubno 3

Sumy Konotop, Shostka, Glukhiv 3

Ternopil Ternopil 1

Kharkiv Kharkiv, Izium, Chuhuyiv, Lozova 4

Kherson Kherson, Skadovsk, Nova Kakhovka 3

Khmelnytsky Khmelnytsky, Kamianets-Podilsky, Shepetivka, Iziaslav, Dunayivtsi 5

Cherkassy Cherkassy, Smila, Uman 3

Chernivtsi Chernivtsi 1

Chernihiv Chernihiv 1

CVU experts consulted the public hours visitors and helped them write appeals to national and local government. The public hours consultations were given individually as well as via phone and mail. CVU experts consulted about 28,000 visitors in 2003.

Another public hours activity was establishing contacts with deputies’ and other elected officials’ public hours teams as well as cooperating with as many NGOs as possible.

Mobile CVU public hours

Part of CVU branches implemented the mobile public hours program. Their goal was villagers’ education in Ukraine. During their 250 visits to the villages the experts delivered lectures on the topics of interest for the village population. They also gave individual consultations. The mobile public hours program was implemented by CVU due to locally raised funds.

Public Advocate

“Public Advocate” project started in 2003 aims at giving qualified legal assistance to the citizens and providing them with legal defense in courts on the basis of CVU public hours. On the examples of successful court cases CVU showed the citizens realistic possibilities to defend their rights. To reach this goal the organization distributed information about such successes in the media, through NGOs and public at large.

Lawyers and advocates primarily focused on the cases that regard:

 public at large

 human rights violations by the government

 electoral processes

In 2003 16 professional lawyers and advocates worked on the program in 12 oblasts of Ukraine.

The work of 7 lawyers and advocates in Vinnytsya, Volyn, Zakarpattya, Luhansk, Chernivtsi oblasts is funded by Charles Stuart Mott Foundation. The work of 9 lawyers in Sumy, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk, Rivne, Kherson, Khmelnytsky oblasts is funded by ABA/CEELI.

In the course of program implementation the lawyers helped 1,578 visitors. The cases considered by those lawyers regarded the following issues: low quality communal services, accommodation privatization, pensions, labor contracts and compensation packets, land sharing and privatization, illegal firing, restructuring communal debts, gift certificates and inheritance issues.

CVU consultants also took an active part in court cases (273 cases). Those mostly regarded moral and financial compensation, credit debts and other issues. The court cases also covered such aspects as alimony, the compensations for car accident victims, consumer rights defense, disputing the illegal actions of the doctors in the hospital and others.

The bulk of public hours clients are pensioners (39%) and unemployed (20.3%). The case led by the CVU Zaporizhzhya lawyer deserves special attention. The teenage grandson was deprived of his grandmother’s guardianship. This case was pretty complicated and resonant. It was first widely covered in the local press and then the national channel “1+1” program “Without taboo” highlighted it as well.

Local Government and Community Board Development

“Resource Centers for Community Boards” Program

In 2003 CVU successfully continued this program in 4 oblasts of Ukraine (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Cherkassy). It is a pilot program on creating and maintaining special resource centers on the basis of existing CVU branches. The centers would contribute to the development of local community boards.

The goal of the program is to contribute to local government development in Ukraine by stimulating the creation of community organization boards and maintaining their activities.

The program objectives are:

 to catalyze the developmental processes and activities of specific community boards and particular citizens’ participation in local government development

 to provide methodological and other kinds of assistance to community organization boards

 to secure informational exchange between different community boards

 to facilitate the improvement of the legislative basis regulating community board activities at the local level

Within the framework of program activities CVU either independently or together with other organizations and local government bodies held 192 different informational and educational events (65 seminars, 40 lecture courses, 40 round tables, 32 presentations, 5 press conferences, 2 public opinion polls and others). The total number of the participants equaled more than 8,000.

The RCCBs initiated, organized or co-organized 3 public hearings and 4 village assemblies as well as implemented more than 12 local initiatives on community issues in different cities and villages of the pilot oblasts. 7 community charters were either already approved or are at the approval stage due to the professional expertise of the CVU specialists.

Within the framework of the RCCB program CVU had more than 200 meetings with the heads of oblast, rayon, city and village councils as well as local council deputies of all levels on different RCCB issues. The RCCB representatives participated in a couple of local council sessions of different levels and in the deputy committees’ sittings. At the request of the local government bodies or on their own initiative RCCBs prepared more than 20 draft resolutions, expert assessments, analytical materials, research, etc.

RCCB teams gave different kinds of assistance (information, consultations, methodological advice) to 573 COBs (150 – Donetsk RCCB, 276 – Luhansk, 70 – Kherson, 77- Cherkassy). Due to the participation of the RCCB experts or due to their active support 139 different COBs were created (45 – Donetsk, 45 – Luhansk, 23 – Kherson, 26 – Cherkassy).

The RCCBs published and distributed 9 special brochures and 4 public education booklets with the total circulation of 12,050 (Donetsk RCCB – brochures “Here is the city charter” (circulation 1,000) and “The typical project on creating a condominium” (circulation 500); the Luhansk RCCB – brochures “The Guide of the Village Council deputy: why and how can you involve citizens in direct local government?” (circulation 1,250) and “The Guide for a COB Leader” (circulation 2,500), booklets “RCCB consultation center” (circulation 200) and “Severodonetsk charter” (circulation 100); Kherson RCCB – brochures “The Magdeburg Law: deputy’s handbook” (circulation 1,000), “The government and the community: transparency in the relationships” (circulation 500) and “The Government and the community: from contradiction to cooperation” (circulation 700), booklet “How can a local council deputy defend your rights?” (circulation 1,000); Cherkassy RCCB – brochures “Community organization boards – creation and management” (circulation 1,500) and “Organization and holding village assemblies” (circulation 1,500), booklet “Citizens’ appeals are your weapon in the fight for your rights” (circulation 300).

Luhansk CVU branch published 7 issues of the independent oblast newspaper “The Third Sector”, the Kherson RCCB published 16 issues of the independent oblast newspaper “Free Choice” where the bulk of the materials was dedicated to the RCCB issues. The Kherson CVU branch held their part of the radio program “RCCB News” within the “Political studies” analytical program on the oblast radio. There were 8 such programs. Other CVU branches not having the Resource Center program, regularly highlighted RCCB issues in the oblast media. As a result 39 regional media informed their audience about the RCCB activities and about the program in general more than 140 times.

On the whole in 2003 RCCBs gave consultations and information on different community board and local government issues to more than 4,000 activists, representatives of local NGOs, COBs, local government leaders and officials.

CVU’s Informational Programs

“Political Ukraine” (www.polit.com.ua)

The work of the internet portal “Political Ukraine” (www.polit.com.ua) was the key informational project for Committee of Voters of Ukraine during the year. Within the framework of project implementation the journalists of 26 CVU oblast branches wrote articles and analytical materials regarding major political events in the region, executive bodies’ activities, violations of election and other kinds of legislation by the participants of the electoral processes. During the year they also updated the directory materials on the individuals, political parties, NGOs etc. The “Library” section was also regularly updated.

During the year 7,500 informational and 650 analytical materials were put on the portal, 950 directory items were also added.

“Political Ukraine” remained one of the most popular political internet projects during the year in Ukraine. According to the “ping” rating system “Political Ukraine” has always been 3rd or 4th among Ukrainian political e-resources; according to the “bigmir.net” rating system they have been 2nd and 3rd.

Publication of the regional newspapers, e-media of CVU oblast branches

Throughout 2003 a number of CVU oblast branches published regional newspapers, newsletters, special “Tochka Zoru” issues and regional e-media of the organization. More than 150,000 readers had a chance to read CVU publications in 2003.

Within the framework of “Toloka” project implementation, 5 CVU oblast branches published regional newspapers focusing on local government development in Ukraine.

Among other publications issues by CVU regional branches we should mention:

 “Third sector” newspaper (Luhansk CVU)

 “Tochka Zoru. Rivne” newspaper (CVU Rivne)

 “Free Choice” newspaper (Kherson CVU)

 special issues of “Tochka Zoru” “Voters and the Government” CVU Bila Tserkva, Kyiv oblast)

In 2003 the following e-projects of CVU regional branches functioned in Ukraine:

 internet-newspaper “Vinnytsia Post” (CVU Vinnytsya is a co-founder)

 “Political region” (CVU Kherson’s project)

 “Podillya Center” (CVU Khmelnytsky’s project)

 “PRO Crym” (CVU Crimea e-publication)

Publishing the collection of the analytical materials “New Government”

In 2003 the Committee of Voters of Ukraine continued publishing the collections of analytical materials “New Government”. During the year 3 issues of the collections were published with total circulation of 2,700. The electronic versions of the collections were publicized at the CVU’s portal “Political Ukraine”.

The collections were circulated by CVU oblast branches and were sent to MPs, executive government officials, political parties, NGOs and the media.

The main informational materials of the collections were CVU’s analytical reports on the results of the election campaigns and on monitoring MPs’ activities in their constituencies.

A separate issue of the collection was dedicated to the analysis of the state and problems of political party activities in Ukraine that was prepared on the basis of the analytical reports and the materials of the CVU’s round table on the same issue.

CVU’s international activities

In 2003 the Committee of Voters of Ukraine continued expanding their international programs.

CVU representatives worked as LTOs within OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission at the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Armenia, at the Presidential elections in Georgia, Parliamentary elections in Croatia, Parliamentary elections in the Russian Federation.

CVU experts worked as OSCE/ODIHR STOs at the Presidentail elections in Azerbaijan, at the Parliamentary and Presidential elections in Serbia and Montenegro.

CVU representatives also participated in the work of other international election observation missions. These were Armenian Presidential and Parliamentary elections, constitutional referendum in Kyrgyzstan, Georgian Parliamentary elections as part of NDI mission, at the Presidential elections in Azerbaijan within the Eastern European Institute for Democracy.

The Committee of Voters organized its own election observation missions at mayor elections in Novorossiysk (Russian Federation), to the Russian State Duma.

Exchange programs with foreign partner organizations played a particular role in CVU’s international activities. CVU trainers and experts taught partner organizations in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Belarus and the Russian Federation.

CVU together with the United Nations Development Program (Kazakhstan) organized the training for the Kazakh delegation comprising the Parliament representatives, government officials, CEC and NGO representatives, here in Ukraine. CVU experts worked as trainers at the event.

CVU representatives went on a study mission in European youth center 9strasbourg, France), Klauzengof Academy (Rede, Germany) and on the “open World” program, (Washington, DC).

CVU experts participated in the following international conferences and seminars:

 international meeting on Human Dimension organized by OSCE (Warsaw, Poland)

 international conferences of the election observation NGOs within the OSCE region (Baku, Azerbaijan and Zagreb, Croatia)

 Remark Institute Forum

 The seminar on exchanging experience on public consulting (Minsk, Belarus)

 The work group of the Council of Europe on defending ethnic minority rights

 International conference on NGO development (Vilnius, Lithuania)

In 2003 CVU also continued playing an influential role in uniting election observation NGOs. Besides regular participation in European Organization Network meetings, CVU also develops a special web portal and participates in the development of international standards and new election observation techniques.

CVU maintains good relations and implements joint projects with foreign and international organizations that have their field offices in Ukraine.

CVU’s regional programs

In 2003 CVU oblast branches initiated, continued and completed many own programs. Besides, there is also a tendency to continue the activities started as CVU’s national programs.

We should mention a number of trends in the local branches’ work: monitoring programs (including sociological polls), education events, public education activities, organization and administration of the events, joint projects together with mass media, advocacy campaigns. The experts held seminars and trainings, delivered lectures, published materials, monitored local elections and elected officials’ activities.

The practice of sending requests to the elected officials and to the government became pretty common. A lot of attention is paid to receiving information and consequently to increased transparency in the government’s work. The letter campaigns are being held, the teams use the laws “About Information”, “About printed media (the press)”. The rejects are being disputed in the public prosecutor’s office.

The implementation of the long-term independent projects and related events made a valuable contribution to CVU’s work. On the average about 100 mentions of CVU appear in the regional printed press, on the radio, TV and internet. It is also important that local projects are implemented due to the funds raised by the branches independently. The total amount of the resources raised is equivalent to USD 60,000.

The regional programs significantly contribute to the recruitment of the new activists and professional development of the staff.