Police Record on Human Rights in 2011

The Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement (UMDPL) held a roundtable on 19 December at which they presented the results of their monitoring of police observance of human rights during 2011

Head of the Association and member of the MIA Public Council, Oleh Martynenko, explained that they had chosen a roundtable in the hope of achieving constructive dialogue between NGOs and representatives of the MIA and Prosecutor’s Office.

The discussion was attended by representatives of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, the Human Rights Ombudsperson; the MIA, the US Embassy in Ukraine, the International Renaissance Foundation, as well as representatives of international human rights bodies and NGOs.

The roundtable focused on the following:

Torture and ill-treatment by the police

As reported, a sociological survey has estimated that close on a million people may have suffered from unlawful police violence in 2011.

During the first 9 months of 2011 there were at least 34 deaths in police custody.

Reasons for this are seen in:

lack of control mechanisms over police stations, such as CCTV cameras; automatic registration of those entering stations;

poor procedure for dealing with complaints and allegations of ill-treatment.

Infringements of the right to peaceful assembly

The report finds that international standards are not being met, and there are frequent cases where pressure is brought to bear on activists and organizers of peaceful protests.

Public scrutiny of police activities

The MIA was criticized for blocking all forms of public scrutiny, many of them developed between 2005 and 2009.

Human rights activists say that despite numerous declarations, the MIA tried not to notice open letters, appeals from international NGOs and diplomatic missions. It also spurned attempts to establish working cooperation on human rights issues.

Responding to public pressure, in September the MIA in hasty and secretive manner set up regional public councils. However these were made up of business organizations, religious figures and media loyal to the local police.  The whole charade was condemned by civil society.

The campaign involving efforts by NGOs to carry out public monitoring of the central and regional police departments encountered serious obstruction from regional police departments.

From the report at http://umdpl.info/rus/index.php?id=1324321529