Reforming the Ukrainian security forces in the provinces: a real challenge for the EUAM Ukraine mission
(BRUSSELS2) Sixteen officers from the European Advisory Mission for Civilian Security Sector Reform in Ukraine (EUAM) toured the country for three months. This fieldwork enabled the experts to assess the implementation of legislative reforms at the regional level. A report is being drawn up to inform the European and Ukrainian authorities. First elements.
Three months and 445 meetings in Ukrainian provinces
After three months of deployment in the twelve regions of Ukraine, experts from EUAM Ukraine returned to their headquarters in Kiev. According to a first assessment, four teams conducted a total of 445 meetings with police commanders, prosecutors, judges, NGO representatives, free legal aid centers, local authorities and border guards across the country.
A desire for change within the security forces... but there is still work to do
Experts say they have witnessed many cases of struggle for change in the country. “Ukraine is going through a process of transformation, and it is in our interest to ensure that the wheels of reform turn in the right direction” according to Kalman Mizsei, head of EUAM. In this sense, the Europeans believe that the current selection process for police and judicial bodies "Allows almost anyone to apply". But at the mission, we do not deny that there is still much to do. THE "Law enforcement structures should be reformed comprehensively and strategically".
A lack of coordination between services
One of the challenges for Ukraine's security forces, apart from the reform process itself, is the restructuring brought about by the decentralization process. The process of territorial reorganization of law enforcement and justice bodies “does not seem to be done in coordination with the new territorial administrative divisions”, experts say. They propose that law enforcement agencies seek to resolve some current shortcomings: overlapping functions, a reporting system and functional evaluation, Kyiv's lack of internal communication to regions and backwards . The EUAM survey notes, for example, a general consensus that the investigative units should be merged with those of the detectives. Currently, they belong to two different units with tasks related to criminal investigations.
The acquittal: a failure
From the survey of the Europeans results a conclusion, “the effectiveness and efficiency of organizations (police and judicial) must be assessed differently”. The focus should be on public satisfaction and crime reduction, not statistics. For example, Ukrainian prosecutors consider an acquittal a failure. Only 1% of the accused are thus acquitted by the courts...
(Leonor Hubaut)
Read also:
