Public activists of Chernihiv region learned about mechanisms for public control over security services

On October 19-20, 2021, a training session “Effective Public Control over the Activities of Law Enforcement Agencies” was held in Chernihiv for public representatives and human rights defenders of the Chernihiv region.

The relevance of the training is related to the ongoing discussion among civil society institutions, including those of the Chernihiv region, regarding appropriate mechanisms for democratic control over the activities of state bodies.

Thanks to the participation of experts from the Ukrainian Institute for Human Rights NGO, Valentyna Kumeda and Zhanna Lukyanenko, during the training, the participants:

– analyzed the problems that arise with public oversight of state bodies in the Chernihiv region and Ukraine, including security services;

– learned about effective mechanisms of public control; – received information about the features of the formation of public councils and their activities, including those of security agencies;

– learned to exercise their right to access public information, in particular, to distinguish public information by features, familiarize themselves with the procedure for obtaining it, requirements for drawing up requests, learn about special procedures for obtaining information, obtaining information about themselves;

– learned to determine the validity of a refusal to provide information and learn about ways to protect their rights.

The participants were most interested in questions regarding the qualification requirements for members of public councils, the transparency of the activities of public councils, the balance of rights to freedom of expression and respect for privacy, the possibility of restricting human rights and civil society institutions, in particular during the quarantine period, as well as the conditions for receiving responses to a request for public information.

The most frequent questions of the participants concerned the procedure for forming the composition of the public council, ensuring the transparency of its activities, real opportunities to ensure the effectiveness of consultations with the public. The participants also learned to determine an effective form of public control depending on the situation.

The event was organized by the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights as part of the implementation of the project “Public Control over Law Enforcement Agencies in Chernihiv Oblast” with the support of Freedom House Ukraine.