On September 19-25, 2016, the Scottish Police College held the international master class on the problems of civilian security sector reforms. Participants of the master class were senior police officers from Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, the United States of America and Germany, who are preparing to work in international institutions such as the European Union Advisory Mission Ukraine.

The civilian security sector reform is a highly important issue for Ukraine’s society, as it covers the activities of almost all law enforcement agencies. Several innovative ideas of reforming this sector were recently enshrined by the concept of development of Ukraine’s security and defense sector (Decree of the President of Ukraine of March 14, 2016, № 92/2016). Besides, the civilian security sector reform is a part of a wider reform of the modern concept of Ukrainian society – transitional justice.

The transitional justice as a model society in transition from authoritarian rule to democracy and from armed conflict to post-conflict period is today the most modern approach to solving the problems that Ukraine has to do since the end of 2013.

With the ultimate goal of the process of reconciliation in society, the concept of transitional justice involves the simultaneous activity of the state in four areas: effective operation of the Criminal Justice (Criminal prosecutions), compensation for victims (Reparations), institutional reforms to prevent a repetition of the past (Institutional reforms) and official statement of the historical truth (truth-telling).

The participants of the master class discussed the situation in Ukraine through institutional reforms. Oleh Martynenko, the Head of Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union’s Analytical Department, as one of the authors of the Strategy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, reviewed the problems related to the participation of non-governmental sector in reforming the security forces. A separate topic of discussion was the crisis with fulfilling the obligations the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the field of human rights, and the lack of European principles of law enforcement.

Additionally, they discussed the possibility to combine the efforts of international institutions and Ukraine’s human rights organizations in implementing the core principles of transitional justice in the security sector reform.

Photo – SCQF Partnership