Observance of the rule of law principles in registration services provision in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv Region

Registration services both in regional centers and in small towns have become among the most popular and claimed administrative services to be provided by the local authorities. The mandate of the municipal councils to provide the registration services is relatively new, since the powers have been devolved from the executive authorities thereto in the process of the decentralization reform. That was done, firstly, to divide the responsibilities between the local authorities and the state executive authority at different levels of administrative and territorial structure, and secondly, to improve procedure and conditions of providing administrative services.

Considering the small duration of the introduced legislative changes and, consequently, the short time allowed for the development of new powers by local authorities, the implementation of this project for the Chuhuiv Municipal Council is of big importance in view of possibilities for solving problems that arise in the process of work of the state registration departments at CMC with observance of the rule of law principles. 

The study of compliance with the principles of the rule of law at the registration departments of Chuhuiv Municipal Council has been held as part of the project “Local Self-Government and the Rule of Law in Ukraine”, which is being implemented by Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) in 2014-2017 and is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The assessment was conducted by the FAMA Sociological Agency in April 2017. In Ukraine, a similar project has already been implemented in Mykolaiv, Yuzhne in Odesa Region, Sambir in Lviv Region, Dolyna in Ivano-Frankivs’k Region, Voznesensk in Mykolaiv Region, Ivano- Frankivs’k, and Kharkiv.