Declaring an individual dead in court

Thanks to the support of Caritas Kharkiv lawyers, Oksana managed to get her husband declared dead in court.

In the summer of 2024, Oksana*, who was forced to move from the city of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, due to military operations, turned to Caritas Kharkiv lawyers. Since 2022, she had been unable to obtain a death certificate for her husband, who had tragically died during a shelling in Kupiansk.

A Caritas Kharkiv lawyer carefully reviewed all the available documents and prepared an application to the court to declare her husband dead.

According to Ukrainian law, there are several grounds for declaring a person dead. One of them is when a person has gone missing under circumstances that threatened his or her life, or there are grounds to assume that he or she died in an accident. In such cases, if the person's place of permanent residence has no information about him or her for six months, the court may declare him or her dead.

In October 2024, the court granted Oksana's application, and her husband was declared dead. This decision gave her the right to apply to the registry office and obtain a death certificate.

In November 2024, the court decision came into force.

Oksana expressed her gratitude to the lawyers of Caritas Kharkiv for their help in resolving this difficult issue, which she could not solve on her own.

Caritas Kharkiv provides free legal aid to the war-affected population in cooperation with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) with funding from the Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine.

*Name changed.