Human rights and gender in police internal oversight topic of ODIHR event in Kyiv

The practical integration of gender perspectives and human rights-compliant approaches into the work of police internal oversight bodies was the topic of a training seminar organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) for the newly created Human Rights Directorate of the Ukrainian National Police in Kyiv on 29 and 30 May 2017. Participating in the seminar were 24 participants (17 women and 7 men) from both the central and regional offices of the Directorate and representatives of the Interior Ministry.

“There are several endeavours supporting the improvement of police services to the general public in Ukraine, but so far internal police oversight has not received proper support as it is still a new topic in the country,” said Olena Suslova, a gender expert and one of the event´s trainers. “That is why efforts like this are an added value to the work of this new structure.”

The interactive sessions provided examples, tools and good practices from the OSCE region.

“The evaluation of police performance, as well as the identification of good practices for internal oversight, will be crucial in making the recently established Directorate a key resource for the Ukrainian National Police,” said Michael Kuehl, a retired police investigator from Germany and a co-trainer at the event.

Olga Kharchenko, Chief Specialist at the Human Rights Directorate, said: “This training is very much needed in Ukraine and we are motivated to learn how to integrate a gender perspective, also using the experience of other countries. We hope to continue our co-operation with ODIHR through follow-up training.”

The training event builds on the ODIHR Human Rights, Gender and Security programme´s current efforts to support security sector reform in Ukraine and the practical implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.