Obtaining a medical death certificate in the absence of family ties

In January, Ms. Tetiana* turned to the lawyers of Caritas Kharkiv. She said that the mother of her common-law husband, Oksana*, had died in hospital. The mother-in-law had been an IDP from Luhansk region since 2017 and lived with her son and daughter-in-law in Kupiansk, Kharkiv region. In 2022, they moved to Kharkiv to a dormitory and continued to live together. Oksana had no family members besides Tetiana.

While she was still alive, Oksana lost her passport, wrote a corresponding application, but did not have time to get it back.

To get a medical certificate of death, Tetiana went to a medical facility. Among her mother-in-law's documents, she had only copies of her passport, copies of the IDP certificate, and the original TIN certificate, but she was denied a certificate because she did not have the original passport and was referred to the State Migration Service (SMS) to obtain a certificate in Form 1 to establish the identity of the deceased and confirm the person's citizenship.

Employees of the SMS, for their part, referring to the lack of family ties to the deceased, sent Tetiana to the police station, where she was orally informed that there was no information about the death at all, so they could not provide any information or certificates.

In all instances, the woman was told that due to the lack of original documents of the deceased and family ties, she had no legal grounds to obtain a medical death certificate. In addition, various experts have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that the daughter-in-law was not allowed to participate in the burial of her mother-in-law in the event of a state-funded funeral.

A lawyer from Caritas Kharkiv, a DRC partner, helped Tetiana draw up an application for a medical certificate stating that she undertook to bury the deceased's body. The application was accompanied only by a copy of the applicant's passport, a copy of the deceased's IDP certificate and a copy of the contract for the organization and conduct of the burial.

After submitting the application to the office of the medical institution, Ms. Tetyana was issued a medical certificate of her mother-in-law's death. In addition, on the same day, she was provided with administrative support from a medical facility employee to the Civil Registration Department to obtain a state-issued death certificate.

Thus, thanks to the legal assistance of the lawyers of Caritas Kharkiv, Tetiana received the necessary documents and was able to finally bury and pay tribute to her loved one.

Caritas Kharkiv provides free legal aid to the war-affected population in cooperation with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) thanks to the generous support of the American people through the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).