Police officers of Department of Main Inspection and Human Rights (Department) work in all regions of Ukraine to ensure protection of human rights by the National Police. They mentor their colleagues – investigators, local police officers, operatives, patrol police, community police officers, police units management – on practical issues of implementation of human rights protection standards during discharge of functions.
The war requires police officers to deepen and acquire new knowledge, including on correlation of international humanitarian law, which operates during armed conflicts, and international human rights law. Ability to analyze circumstances of specific cases that police officers face daily through the prism of all relevant standards, guarantees, scope, limitations is an extremely important skill that helps translate concepts with very broad and at times, seemingly, abstract meanings into something very concrete and specific.
Such knowledge and skills were acquired by police officers of the Department from 15 different regions and Kyiv on 1-2 November 2023 with Council of Europe experts’ support. During the training "Standards and obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law: war crimes and gross human rights violations in the context of war in Ukraine" participants covered the following issues:
- correlation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law;
- key concepts, guarantees, standards, requirements and obligations that operate under the Geneva Conventions;
- types of war crimes through the prism of real Ukrainian cases of nowadays;
- European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case-law related to armed conflicts where the Russian Federation acted as a driving force;
- obligations under the Convention with regard to preservation of life, control over territory, effectiveness of investigation and responsibility;
- practical aspects of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the context of daily discharge of duties by the National Police.
The training was organised within the framework of the Council of Europe project "Strengthening Ukrainian Law Enforcement Agencies During War and Post-War Period".
