Findings of the analytical research on the system of officials responsible for ensuring the protection of the rights of persons detained by the police was presented on 13 July 2017 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The research was initiated by the Joint Programme between the European Union and the Council of Europe “Strengthening Implementation of the European Human Rights Standards in Ukraine” and carried out by the national experts representing Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner on Human Rights and NGO “Expert Centre for Human Rights in close cooperation with the Human Rights Directorate of the National police of Ukraine”.

The research is mostly focus on shortage of practical implementation of Article 212, the progressive character of which was highly assessed by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as well as national human rights institution at the time of adoption of the new Code of Criminal Procedure. Unfortunately, due to some obvious reasons Article 212 did not find proper implementation in practice. The reasons are analysed in the research that mostly touch upon two aspects: i) detention in criminal process and role of the responsible officials as related to the shortcomings of legislation so as practice of its application when it deals with the measures of constraints used by police during detention; II) operation/non-operation of the institute of officials responsible for detained persons in police.

In the framework of the analytical more than 52 randomly chosen police stations in 7 regions of Ukraine were visited by the expert group and more than 300 interviews and discussion with the officials of all the hierarchical levels were carried out, as well as national legislation and internal regulations of the Ministry of Interior and the National police were thoroughly analyzed. Research aimed at collection of factual data on the level of protection of detained persons in the police and identification of the shortcomings in legislation, internal regulations or established practice leading to violations of human rights.

The analytical report contains statistical data collected during the mentioned visits to the police stations, but also recommendations for a reformulation of the relevant legislative provisions, introduction of the institutional changes and necessary training activities.

The full text of the analytical report