Lesia Vasylenko is a founder and the chairwoman of the Legal Hundred NGO, which provides legal assistance, guidance, and representation of combatants and veterans in Ukraine. A lawyer by training, Lesia is dedicating her efforts to veteran rights’ protection and the establishment of a fair social care system in Ukraine. She is a 2010 World Wide Studies Fellow, a 2011 UCL LLM and 2017 John Smith Trust Fellow. Her areas of interest are social and legal rights of the military, ex-combatants, informational defence and security, public diplomacy and counter-propaganda measures in military conflicts.
This article addresses the overlooked issue of lack of information and communication strategies in disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) programmes. Particularly the author is concerned with the low awareness level (25%) of Ukrainian ex-combatants about access to the reintegration programmes and benefits. The experience of a number of post-conflict African countries is analysed in an…
