On April 19-20, 2023, the second in-depth training on peculiarities of the NPM’s activity was held in Warsaw, Poland. The training gathered 20 newly joined staff members of the NPM Department of the Ombudsperson’s Office and the Ombudsperson’s regional representatives.

Within two days of training the participants got acquainted with the key principles of the NPM work, its core functions, monitoring methodologies that applied depending on the place of deprivation of liberty as well as interviewing technics. The training provided participants with the opportunity to obtain necessary practical guidance and tools on how to make their work more efficient both in part of monitoring and reporting especially the context of on-going military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

The participants had an opportunity to exchange with the international Consultants on the current state of the NPM work, planning, preparation and implementation of the monitoring visits, new challenges the NPM monitors encounter within the military context and feasible ways of their overcome. Bearing in mind practically focused character of the training, participants and Consultants carried out educational simulations of the monitoring visits during which the interviewing skills were trained.

Ombudsperson’s representative on human rights in places of deprivation of liberty, Mr Vitaly Nikulin underlined the importance of continuous training on international standards of the NPM work, monitoring visits with a special focus to be made on the monitoring of the institutions placed in the front-line zones and temporary occupied territories of Ukraine.

Therefore, the Council of Europe is going to continue a series of training initiatives on peculiarities of the NPM’s work to provide the Ombudsperson’s Office staff with the new, relevant to the context approaches and attitude towards monitoring work, enhance their professional competences in line with the Council of Europe standards.

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The Council of Europe project "Supporting Implementation of the European Human Rights Standards in Ukraine" is aimed at supporting the effective implementation of European human rights standards, combating ill-treatment and rehabilitation of torture victims, strengthening the operational capacity of the Ombudsperson’s Office, as well as supporting the protection of the right to privacy and personal data.