News

Training civic monitors to ensure access to public information in law enforcement bodies

Odesa, 30 June - 1 July 2015 – The second workshop in a series of capacity enhancement activities on public monitoring of the right of access to public information in law enforcement bodies was organized by the Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors (UMDPL Association) and the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsperson) with support of UNDP Ukraine.

 
All interested stakeholders – Regional Coordinators of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, civic activists, and journalists from different regions of Ukraine – explored the ways to enhance their capacity in developing civil society, particularly in the area of access to public information.
 
Viewing accessibility of information as pivotal to all their activities, participants took part in the workshop to learn how to contribute to more quality public access to information and enhance public conversation on this important issue.
 
During different sessions of the workshop, attendees discovered the following:
 
- Key issues of access to public information in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine;
- Access to public information in Ukraine. The task of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in the implementation of the Law of Ukraine "On Access to Public Information";
- Public information and "right to know" in Ukraine. The right to information as a fundamental human right;
- Right to privacy or data protection in Ukraine;
- Practical aspects of controlling access to public information in public authorities' activity;
- Monitoring as a separate type of research (problem, purpose, object, subject, and working hypotheses).
 
In addition to gaining theoretical knowledge, the participants also took part in development of monitoring tools for the campaign "Public monitoring of the right of access to public information in law enforcement bodies of Ukraine," which will be a systemic research of trends, patterns, and typical shortcomings and violations that occur in ensuring the right to information by the police.
 
The trainees agreed it was a valuable and useful hands-on experience, and they would be looking for opportunities to continue working together and join the network of monitors to observe access to public information in law enforcement bodies. The network aims to carry out a systematic public control in this area along with the Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.