News

The First Human Rights School for new national police: Citius, Altius, Fortius

Kyiv, 9 June 2016 – The Human Rights School kicked off bringing together 33 patrol police officers from 16 regions and the central office to acquire new knowledge and master practical tools in the area of access to public information and personal data protection.


27672798436 6b1abe941fContributing to the ongoing police reform, the Ombudsperson's Office and the Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors in Law Enforcement (UMDPL) with UNDP support jointly organized the 3-day intensive School. Its purpose was to assist police officers to gain deeper awareness on and competency in access to public information and personal data protection. Leading experts of the Ombudsperson's Office and CSOs delivered lectures and provided real-life case studies, exercises, and tests for participants.

"Access to public information is a key to the effective fight against corruption as well as promotion of democracy and freedom of speech in Ukraine. Since its adoption in 2011, the legislation on the access to public information has ensured getting information from a source directly. However, its actual implementation is still very challenging and leading to a large number of complaints to the Ombudsperson's Office," emphasized Iryna Kushnir, Representative of the Ombudsperson.

27632287661 c234d05d3eIn her welcome speech, Svitlana Kolyshko, Project Coordinator of UNDP's Strengthening Capacities of the Ombudsperson's Office Project, expressed high hopes that this School would facilitate profound changes to increase transparency and accountability of the police system.

While presenting a civic initiative "Open police," UMDPL leading expert Uliana Shadska has inspired participants by success stories of the patrol police officers from Germany, Canada, and the USA.

The guest speakers Olena Bila and Svitlana Kryvda, experts of the Ombudsperson's Office, run the sessions on access to public information and personal data protection, which allowed the participants to link first-hand with an institution responsible for upholding the right to information and shed light on the analysis of typical violations and some of the approaches that could be used to make sure that this right is indeed fulfilled.

085A4445 The training ended on a high note with an impressive practical discussion addressing a wide spectrum of issues related to the right to access information in patrol police's day-to-day work. All participants were awarded certificates.

The School was supported by the Strengthening Capacities of the Ombudsperson's Office Project, implemented by UNDP and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.