On 2-3 November 2010, the “Third East European Conference on National Preventive
Mechanisms, Combating and Investigating Ill-treatment”, took place in Odessa. The event,
which was organized by the PCU in cooperation with the Council of Europe/European Union
Joint Programme on Combating Ill-treatment and Impunity in South Caucasus, Moldova and
Ukraine, gathered 70 participants from nine participating States, experts from the OSCE and
the Council of Europe as well as Ukrainian civil servants, police and law-enforcement
officers. The event was devoted to the issues of enhancing the NPMs in Ukraine;
familiarizing the governmental agencies of Ukraine involved in the deprivation of freedom
with the NPM concept and best practices; gaining valuable experience from other East
European countries in implementing the OPCAT; and developing broader co-operation
between Ukrainian authorities and civil society in preventing torture and ill-treatment. The
conference resulted in concrete recommendations and policy proposals on furthering the
OPCAT implementation, and improving ill-treatment investigation procedures.
Trafficking in Human Beings
During 2010, the OSCE PCU implemented a number of activities aimed at assisting
Ukrainian authorities in combating trafficking in human beings. These activities were
conducted within the framework of projects funded from both the OSCE’s Unified Budget and
ExB contributions. The expertise of various OSCE institutions, including the SPMU, was
used in designing and implementing some of these activities, as described below.
In line with Ukraine’s State Programme on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, which
stipulates the improvement of national anti-trafficking legislation as one of its primary tasks,
the PCU provided legislative assistance to Ukrainian authorities focusing on the finalization
of a comprehensive anti-trafficking law and the development of a new State Anti-Trafficking
Programme for 2011-2015. During the reporting period, the PCU supported the Interagency
Working Group responsible for drafting these anti-trafficking documents. The drafts were to
be reviewed by the relevant national actors in 2011.
The PCU, in co-operation with the Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports continued with the
implementation of a three-year project on the development of a state-led National Referral
Mechanism (NRM). During the reporting period, two NRM pilot models were adopted and
have been tested in the Chernivtsi and Donetsk regions. To facilitate this testing, capacitybuilding training activities for over 200 representatives of regional NRM stakeholders,
including front-line and specialized police units, were carried out, with over 100 trainers
trained to cascade the acquired knowledge and skills on a sustainable basis at the regional,
and national level. The relevant training curricula for the stakeholder institutions were being
adopted, to be used as of the academic year 2011. Two monitoring visits by representatives
of both NRM governmental stakeholders on a national level, including police and
international organizations were made to the pilot regions in November 2010. As a result of
these visits, members of the NRM Monitoring Group were going to submit reports that would
serve as a basis for the national recommendations on which of the two pilot models could be
used most effectively throughout Ukraine.
As part of its efforts to support the development of the Ukrainian National Referral
Mechanism, the PCU, in co-operation with the MoI organized during May and June eight
one-day training course for the Heads of the Regional Departments of Precinct Police
Services in the Cherkassy, Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Poltava and Sumy
regions and in the city of Kyiv, followed by 48 training courses for field level precinct police
inspectors in the above mentioned regions. In total, over 1,100 participants benefited from
these courses. Furthermore, meetings, organized in co-operation with the regional antitrafficking NGOs, aimed at encouraging precinct police inspectors to strengthen their
outreach work in local communities and be more proactive in the prevention of human
trafficking as well as in identifying and referring victims of THB to further assistance.
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