The Regional Public Charitable Foundation “Law and Democracy” (“the Foundation”) was created in 1994 with the establishment of the first public pro bono legal consultation clinic in the Lviv region. On 12 December 1996, the Foundation was officially registered with the Lviv Regional Administration of Justice as a private non-profit organization. The Foundation now has over sixteen years of experience in legal-protection work - in particular, monitoring activity - and takes an active role in the cooperation process between NGOs, on the one hand, and national and local government authorities, on the other.

The main areas of the Foundation’s activity are: pro bono legal assistance; monitoring of violations of human rights in the region and throughout the territory of Ukraine; reform of the Ukrainian court system and enhancement of people’s access to the courts; legal education; development of local self-government; prevention of torture and ill treatment in jails and police stations; and the establishment of a Western-Ukrainian network of NGOs dealing with the protection of human rights.

The Foundation has engaged in the following projects:

In 2010 and 2011 the realization of the project “Public Monitoring of the Level of Accessibility to Appeal Court of Lviv Region”. The main issue to be researched during the monitoring is to define the main criteria which influence on the level of accessibility of citizen to the courts. On the result of the monitoring the recommendations and proposals will be developed. The project is conducted with support of United Nation Development Programme.

In 2009 and 2010, the Foundation implemented the project “Monitoring the Accessibility of the Courts and Effectiveness of their Activity for Citizens”, with financial support from the USAID project, “Ukraine Rule of Law.” In this project, monitoring and research were conducted in four district courts of the Lviv Region and six courts in the City of Lviv.

The project “Monitoring the Accessibility of the Courts in the City of Lviv” was accomplished, with the cooperation of the USAID project “Ukraine Rule of Law”, in 2008 and 2009.

2008 to 2009 saw the realization of the project “Monitoring International Experience of the Magistrate Judge, Jury Trial, and People's Assessors and Development of a Proposal Regarding the Possibility of Application of the Practice of above Legal Institutions in Ukraine”, with financial support of the International Renaissance Foundation.

The project “Monitoring of Courts’ Accessibility” was carried out by the Foundation in 2007, with the support of the USAID project “Ukraine Rule of Law”.

In 2006 and 2007, the Foundation performed the project “Center for Legal Assistance to Citizens on Issues Relating to Housing Services”, with the support of the Stephan Batory Foundation under the program “Public initiatives in Eastern Europe“. The priority of the Center was to raise awareness of the advantages of creating unions of joint owners of apartment buildings and provide legal assistance to establish groups of residents.

During 2004 and 2005, with support from the European Commission European commission, the “Civil Consultative Center for Legal Aid to Citizens in Conflict with State Authorities” project was completed. Within the framework of this project, educational and legal materials were distributed and free legal aid was provided to citizens.

From 2003 to 2005, with support from the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the Foundation implemented the project “Strengthening Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy in Ukraine”.

In 2004, supported by the “Democracy Grants Program" of the Public Affairs Section of the “U.S. Embassy“, the Foundation implemented the project “First Choice": the main activity of which was an information and education campaign to mobilize the electorate and strengthen and consolidate civil society in Ukraine.

In 2004, under the Program “Democratic Grants”, the Foundation accomplished the “Creation, Support and Administration of a Website for “The Monitoring of Human Rights and Freedom of Speech Violations”.

With the support of USAID, in 2003, the Foundation effected the project “Electronic management in the town of Lviv". Through this project, a regional office for electronic information and an electronic database of the decisions of Lviv City Council were created.

During 2002 and 2003, within the framework of the anticorruption program Foundation was engaged in the project “Network of Partnerships" - which provided consultation on questions of corruption and representation of citizens’ interests in court - was implemented. Additionally, in 2003, the projects “Human Rights and Judicial Reform in Ukraine” and “Human Rights and Administrative Reform in Ukraine” were carried out, with the support of the Danish Institute of Human Rights.

In 2002, the Foundation executed the project “Reorganization of the system for the provision of administrative services". This project introduced modern practices for the organization of the system of administrative service provision in Lviv.

The Foundation, together with the NGO “Fund for Regional Initiatives", carried out “Civil monitoring for violations of the franchise of citizens of Ukraine during the preparations and elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and local government in 2002" during 2002. Under the project, the organizations provided consultations to citizens on issues regarding electoral legislation and monitored the media in order to prevent violations of the electoral law.

In 2000, the Foundation implemented two monitoring projects: the "Availability of courts for citizens in Ukraine" and the "Conditions of detention of prisoners and workers in places of imprisonment in Ukraine", with the assistance of the International Renaissance Foundation, Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights (Warsaw), and Open Society Institute (Budapest).

Since 1994, the Foundation had maintained a public pro bono legal consultation clinic for people who cannot afford legal services from commercial firms. In 2000, the lawyers of the Foundation won a major case against Lvivoblenergo, the regional electricity service provider. Based upon the court decision, the plaintiff received compensation for the damage caused to his health. This set a precedent: the first case of its kind in Lviv, not to mention in Ukraine, and had a significant impact on the subsequent provision of services by this company.

Details, in Ukrainian, of all the aforementioned projects can be found on the projects page

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