The Place and Role of Advocacy and Notary in the System of Protecting the Rights of Servicemen

This article is dedicated to exploring the role of advocacy and notary institutions in the context of the increasing importance of human rights mechanisms in the process of establishing the rule of law in Ukraine. Attention is focused on the necessity of ensuring real opportunities for the implementation and protection of guaranteed rights and freedoms of citizens in the conditions of the legal regime of martial law, creating legal, economic, political, social, and other conditions for their implementation. Within this article, the content of the right to defense, which is ensured by a special mechanism through which servicemen implement the constitutional provisions of the right to legal assistance, is analyzed. Emphasis is placed on the legal nature of the advocacy institution as an important element of the human rights mechanism of civil society, which performs functions of representation and protection of the rights and interests of citizens and servicemen in particular. Based on the analysis of current trends in the practice of protecting the rights of servicemen, a number of factors have been identified that could negatively affect the provision of effective and fair protection and therefore require joint efforts of military personnel, human rights defenders, and legal experts, namely: post-traumatic stress, access to up-to-date information, the specificity of military discipline and military hierarchy, insufficient understanding of the content of rights and protection possibilities and so on. The article examines the activities of notaries, which are a type of legal activity aimed at realizing the rights and interests of citizens and legal entities through the use of various institutions by performing notarial acts and contributing to the protection of the lawful interests of the respective subjects. The conclusion is drawn that according to the fifth part of Article 55 of the Constitution of Ukraine, everyone is guaranteed the protection of their rights, freedoms, and interests from violations and unlawful encroachments by any means not prohibited by law. Based on the content of this constitutional norm, the possibility of applying means and methods of protection of rights, including those not provided for by procedural norms, is envisaged. Such an approach corresponds to manifestations of the rule of law, which is not limited solely to legislation but also includes other social regulators, norms of morality, traditions, customs, etc.