Volunteering in Ukraine: historical and legal aspects

Abstract

The study is devoted to the analysis of modern volunteer activity in Ukraine in terms of the historical development of this social phenomenon and a retrospective of changes in the legislative framework for regulating volunteer activity. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that volunteer activity in modern Ukraine is, firstly, a fairly young phenomenon that emerged only after 1991 and is still insufficiently studied, and secondly, today the scale of involvement in various volunteer activities is more than 80 % among Ukrainian citizens, which also requires appropriate scientific analysis. The state of academic research on the national volunteering development has been studied; the range of scientific discussions on various aspects of volunteering has been outlined; the terminological basis of the volunteering phenomenon has been clarified; the reasons for the development and implementation of Ukrainian laws on volunteering have been given; changes in legislation on this issue and their reasons have been analysed. The main stages of the volunteering development in Ukraine have been analysed, and significant events that influenced its development have been outlined. The events of 2014–2023 related to the military aggression of the Russian Federation against independent Ukraine have given rise to the formation of a powerful element of civil society that is volunteerism. The uniqueness and difference of the Ukrainian volunteer movement from global practices is that the development of volunteer activity was far ahead of the process of developing a legislative framework that regulates this phenomenon. The formation of volunteering in Ukraine was driven by the initiative of citizens and required legislative formalisation of existing volunteer practices. The changes in the Ukrainian legislation on volunteering were caused by the ongoing military operations and the involvement of a significant number of Ukrainians in volunteer activities, as well as the expansion of the range of problems addressed by volunteer organisations.