The President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Leendert Verbeek, and the Secretary General Mathieu Mori, met with Dmytro Lubinets, the Human Rights Commissioner of Ukraine on 31 January 2023 in Strasbourg.

During the meeting, the Commissioner presented his strategy to decentralize his activity by appointing one of his representatives in each Ukrainian region.The discussions focused particularly on the prospects for cooperation between the Commissioner's decentralized services and the Congress in the context of its activities in the field of local democracy and human rights.Training needs exist for regional commissioners who must be able to understand the local and regional specificities of the country to carry out more effective action on the ground. Ukrainian local and regional elected representatives must also be made aware of the work of the Commissioner in order to make use of this institution in a useful way.

A plan to work on human rights at the local level in times of war or major crises at the local level was also discussed.

The Congress welcomes the prospect of cooperation with the Human Rights Commissioner of Ukraine and reiterates its support for Ukraine in its process of localizing human rights. This meeting is also part of the strengthening and development of the Congress' activities on human rights.

See more: Special file : Ukraine