ULCNL and Stichting Gelukkige Jeugd ask for support in preparing a Congress of Ukrainians in the Netherlands

On 12 November 2026 the Ukrainian Legal Chamber in the Netherlands (ULCNL) and Stichting Gelukkige Jeugd sent a letter to UNHCR Netherlands and Stichting VluchtelingenWerk Nederland. The request is for support in preparing a Congress of Ukrainians in the Netherlands and establishing a Ukrainian Council in the Netherlands — a body the community itself elects and sends.

The reason is the transition phase: temporary protection runs until 4 March 2028, and the rules for the period after that are being written right now — without the Ukrainian community in the Netherlands having an elected voice on them.

#The problem: a large community without an elected representation

On 2 September 2026, 140,560 Ukrainians with temporary protection were registered in the Personal Records Database (BRP). At the end of August 2026 more than 97,000 reception places had been realised, with an occupancy rate of 99.7 per cent in emergency reception. In almost five years a community has thus emerged that is larger than an average Dutch municipality.

In those same almost five years, no body has been formed that the Ukrainians in the Netherlands themselves chose: no congress, no delegate assembly, no election. What does exist is a consultation group whose composition is determined by the Dutch side. In the blog of the Ministry of Justice and Security of 2 February 2026, a policy officer of the Directorate for Ukrainian Displaced Persons writes: „We unfortunately cannot talk to every Ukrainian.” The ministry maintains contact with representatives of Ukrainian houses and with „different Ukrainian representatives who have channels on Telegram, Instagram and YouTube”. That is a consultation instrument, but not a representation: nobody in that circle has a mandate from the community.

On 15 September 2026, teams of the ministries held focus groups with so-called key persons on temporary status, integration, the position of Ukrainian self-employed people, language courses, students’ access to higher education and the situation of reception facility residents. As far as we are aware, neither elected community representatives nor the legal profession took part. ULCNL twice requested in writing to be involved — on 7 November 2025 and on 15 April 2026. Both letters went unanswered for almost a year; only after a reminder and a complaint under Article 9:1 of the Dutch Administrative Procedure Act on 17 September 2026 did a reply follow.

There is a structural obstacle on top of that. Several organisations presenting themselves as the voice of the community have the legal form of a foundation. A foundation has no members under Dutch law (Article 2:285(1) BW): nobody elects its board and nobody can hold that board to account. This does not disqualify such organisations — it means that the legal form itself confers no mandate. A mandate has to come from a verifiable constituency or from an election by the community itself. For Ukrainians in the Netherlands no such constituency exists to date.

The result: the government hears signals, but nobody can speak, agree or disagree on behalf of the community. Decisions are made about people, not with people.

#Why this is urgent now

Temporary protection was extended by decision of 4 August 2026 until 4 March 2028. The second, transition phase begins after that, and its frameworks are being written at this moment:

• the Council Recommendation of 16 September 2025 on a coordinated transition out of temporary protection (C/2025/5129): durable return and re-integration in Ukraine, transition to other residence statuses, voluntary return programmes and Unity Hubs as contact points;
• the government’s letter to the House of Representatives of 28 November 2025 (Kamerstuk 19637, no. 3497) on the transit document: a temporary residence permit for three years;
• the collection letter of 25 September 2026: the implementing legislation is to be put into consultation as soon as possible, the first transit permits are to be issued in March 2028, and the Administrative Agreement Framework is to be revised into BAK 3.0.

That same collection letter describes no form of consultation of the Ukrainian community itself. The rules that will determine the fate of tens of thousands of families are therefore being written now — without a representative body of those concerned. A congress takes preparation time: if it is held in the first half of 2027, roughly a year remains in which an elected Council can genuinely contribute to those rules. If nothing happens now, the community will only get a seat once the decisions have been taken.

#The legal basis: why UNHCR and VluchtelingenWerk in particular

Directive 2001/55/EC provides in Article 3(3) that regular consultation on the establishment, implementation and termination of the temporary protection regime is to take place with, among others, UNHCR. UNHCR is therefore not a spectator in the transition phase but a formal consultation partner. Article 21(1) of the same directive requires that decisions on return are taken with the persons concerned. Knowledge of the matter does not come from information alone, but from a community having its own elected voice that can ask questions and test answers.

The Global Compact on Refugees goes further: paragraph 34 states that responses are most effective when they actively and meaningfully involve the people they seek to protect, and calls for the support of consultative processes in which refugees help shape the answers. UNHCR’s 2018 Ageing and Disability Policy makes participation and inclusion a core obligation. What is proposed here is precisely such a consultative process — set up by the community itself.

VluchtelingenWerk Nederland is involved because no organisation knows better what this requires. Vluchtelingenorganisaties Nederland was one of the eight umbrella bodies admitted to the national consultation under the Minorities Consultation Act, and VluchtelingenWerk’s regional network reaches into the reception facilities where a substantial share of the future delegates live.

#Representativity has always been a condition in the Netherlands

The Netherlands has a long practice of working with representative bodies of communities, and that practice has always rested on testing representativity:

• the Minorities Consultation Act (1997): consultation on policy proposals at least three times a year with admitted umbrella bodies (Article 2). The law described such a body as a foundation admitted by the minister which, according to its statutes, promotes the interests of a minority group „and is representative of that group or groups” (Article 1(c)). The legal form was therefore not decisive — the verifiable constituency was; the minister could withdraw admission (Article 4(1)). Eight bodies were admitted.
• the Contact Organisation for Muslims and Government (2004): minister and parliament made it a condition that only a structure that genuinely represents the community would be recognised as a partner. After independent research the organisation was recognised; through its associations some 380 mosques are now connected — about 84 per cent of all mosques in the country.
• the Social-Economic Council: seats are distributed according to the size of the organisations, with their own rules for testing representativity.

Current law sets the same requirement. For a collective action an organisation must be sufficiently representative with regard to its constituency (Article 3:305a(2) BW); the Supreme Court confirmed this on 17 July 2026 in ECLI:NL:HR:2026:1198. The conclusion is simple: the Dutch state recognises as a partner whoever can demonstrate support from their own community. Ukrainians in the Netherlands have not yet been able to form such a partner, because nobody has carried the cost and the organisation of doing so.

#What we propose

the Council takes the legal form of an association, whose members are registered Ukrainian organisations in the Netherlands and elected resident councils of reception facilities; each member votes in the general meeting (Article 2:38(1) BW).

the delegates to the Congress are chosen by the members according to transparent quotas; the Congress works with a quorum and minutes and elects the Council’s organs for a fixed term.

the Council acts on the principles of political neutrality, openness to all Ukrainian organisations and transparent financing.

preparation lies with an organising committee that keeps a public register of participants; the Congress is planned for the first half of 2027, well before the end of temporary protection.

Stichting Gelukkige Jeugd takes on the organisation, the regulation, the administration and the accountability for the spending of funds.

The initiative also lies with the Ukrainian state. On 16 September 2026, Stichting Gelukkige Jeugd, supported by ULCNL, approached the Ambassador of Ukraine in the Netherlands, H.E. Mr Andrii Kostin, with the same proposal.

#Our request

Financial support: a project contribution or co-financing for the preparation and execution of the Congress, in particular for:

• hall rental, technical equipment and security at the Congress;
• interpretation and translation (Dutch, Ukrainian, English) of the Congress documents, the statutes and the regulation;
• the notarial incorporation of the association and registration with the Chamber of Commerce;
• setting up and independently supervising the delegate election, including digital voting and a members’ register;
• communication and outreach in every province, so that Ukrainians outside the large cities and in reception facilities are reached too;
• travel-cost compensation for delegates living in reception facilities who have no means of their own;
• an external process facilitator for the organising committee.

Methodological support from UNHCR: guidelines and practice examples on meaningful participation and refugee-led organisations, tailored to temporary protection; advice on the yardstick of representativity; observation of the election and the Congress; and where possible a link with the Unity Hubs and with the consultation envisaged in Article 3(3) of Directive 2001/55/EC.

Methodological support from VluchtelingenWerk Nederland: access to the regional network and the local branches; experience with representative refugee bodies, including Vluchtelingenorganisaties Nederland; training for the elected representatives on the Dutch administrative system, participation in municipalities and representation; and the participation of an adviser or observer from the organisation in the organising committee.

Finally, we ask to be received for a conversation in the short term. An elected representative body is not an end in itself: it is the condition under which the transition phase can proceed carefully — a negotiating partner with a mandate for the central government, a contact point that can speak on behalf of residents for municipalities, and for the people themselves the certainty that their future is not decided without them.

#The document

The full letter to UNHCR and VluchtelingenWerk Nederland — with the substantiation, the draft budget, the draft project plan and the draft regulations of the Congress and of the delegate election — is deliberately not published on this website. It is a working document that still requires consultation, alignment and political discussion. The complete document is available on request.

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