Ukrainian law enforcement trainers build skills at ODIHR workshop on human rights-compliant policing of assemblies

International human rights standards guaranteeing the freedom of peaceful assembly and good assembly policing practices were the focus of a train-the-trainer workshop for representatives of Ukrainian law enforcement training institutions and police, which took place in Kyiv from 27 to 31 August 2018. The training was organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).  

The workshop brought together 15 participants (8 women and 7 men) from the National Academy of Internal Affairs, the State University of Internal Affairs in Dnipro, Lviv, Odesa and Kharkiv, and the National Police. The training was based on the ODIHR Human Rights Handbook on Policing Assemblies.

“Upholding the right to freedom of peaceful assembly is vital for any democracy as it allows people, including groups with little or no political power or influence on public life, to call attention to their concerns,” said Anita Danka, ODIHR’s Human Rights Adviser and a trainer at the course. “Facilitating assemblies in a human rights-compliant way is not only an obligation of the police, but also an opportunity to increase public confidence in police work and thus make it more efficient.” 

“The training underlined how crucial it is to facilitate people’s freedom to assemble peacefully, a topic which is extremely relevant in Ukraine,” said Vasyl Polyvaniuk, Senior Lecturer at the Dnipro State University of Internal Affairs. “I am looking forward to sharing with my students the key components of the course, such as the applicable human rights framework, the planning and decision-making model and the human rights assessment of various crowd management tactics.”

The workshop was the latest in a series of similar capacity-building events for Ukrainian law enforcement officers organized by ODIHR over the past two years.