President of LCN delivered charity support to Ukrainian notaries in Kiev and took part in international conference
On 8-10 December the president of the Lithuanian Chamber of Notaries Marius Stračkaitis visited Kiev, where he took part in the international conference “Lines of Strategic Development of Latin Notariat in Europe. Problems and Prospects”, met former and current management team of the Notary Chamber of Ukraine and handed over charity support donated by Lithuanian notaries.
International Research-to-Practice Conference was organized by the Institute of Theoretical and Practical Research in the Field of Law, established several months ago, specialized in matters related to notary’s profession. During the conference Swiss notary, chairman of the International Notarial Cooperation Commission of the International Union of Notaries (UINL) Michel Merlotti has presented a report on deontology, abiding by moral standards by notaries, principles of organization of Latin Notariat. M. Stračkaitis has presented a report on advanced vocational training and formal evaluation of notaries in Lithuania.
M. Merlotti and M. Stračkaitis have also visited the Notary Chamber of Ukraine, where they met its chairman Natalya Vasilina, members of the Chamber’s Council and representatives of the public organization “Notariate Academy”.
During his visit to Kiev M. Stračkaitis has communicated much with Ukrainian notaries and got detailed information about trials suffered by notaries due to annexation of Crimea by Russia and combat operations in Donetsk and Lugansk Regions supported by it. Prior to the conflict about 500 notaries had been working in Donetsk Region and more than 350 notaries in Lugansk Region. After the beginning of war most of them had to terminate their activities and depart by leaving their offices. They didn’t have a possibility to evacuate archives, so one part of archives was destroyed and the other part was ransacked. Considerable number of notaries was entered in a list of persons condemned to die as officials of Ukrainian authorities.
Notaries, who are in the immediate battle area, are trying to save archives, scanning documents on a mass basis to have a possibility to recover them later. In Crimea the most of notarial archives were picked up by Russian authorities. Majority of notaries terminated their activities and departed to Ukraine, but there were some notaries, who stayed, was naturalized in Russia, retrained, and started working in compliance with Russian Law.
Manu notaries with their families left military conflict area and settled down in central and western areas of Ukraine. Notaries demonstrate mutual solidarity and help each other in every possible way. Some escaped notaries have been employed to offices of colleagues as lawyers or their assistants; however, dozens of notaries are not just unemployed but also don’t have a permanent place of residence. For that reason charity support is being collected and provided to them.
Ukrainian notaries actively participate in activities of volunteers by being engaged in collection of money and personal belongings for soldiers of their country, treatment of the wounded; they also help to take care of the wounded. One of Ukrainian Notaries Nikolay Biller is searching for captured Ukrainian soldiers in the area of the conflict and mediating in order to return them back home.
M. Stračkaitis delivered charity support to Ukrainian notaries donated by Lithuanian notaries during the event in Kaunas and allocated by the Lithuanian Chamber of Notaries – 3 thousand Euros in total. These funds will be used to render aid to notaries affected by war.
On 10 December M. Stračkaitis visited Lithuanian Embassy in Kiev, where he met Consul Petras Vaitiekūnas and Minister Counsellor Gvidas Kerušauskas.
Intentions of Lithuanian and Ukrainian notaries, such as participation in conferences, meeting of Ukrainian delegations in Lithuania coming in order to improve, were discussed during the session. Political and economical situation in the country, reform trends were also discussed. The consul has promised to provide consular assistance in organization of visits of Ukrainian notaries to Lithuania.