OSCE supports training course on trial monitoring for civil society organizations

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and USAID’s “Fair Justice” project organized a two-day training course for 22 representatives of civil society organizations on trial monitoring, which concluded on 10 December 2015 in Kyiv.

The participants discussed trial monitoring methodology developed by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) as well as selective substantive fair trial rights and variety of trial monitoring practices depending on the purpose of the trial monitoring intervention. They emphasized the important role of the trial monitoring in supporting the judicial reform process.

“It would first and foremost measure compliance with the fair trial rights and standards, based on the main principles of trial monitoring: non-intervention and objectivity, as well as impartiality, professionalism and confidentiality,” said Taras Kalmykov from the Institute of Applied Humanitarian Research, a local NGONGO
non-governmental organization.

The training course was organized as part of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine’s work on safeguarding human rights through courts. This project is funded by the Government of Canada.