A 3-day training aimed at enhancing capacities of Ukrainian law enforcement officials to combat and prevent ill-treatment was delivered in Kyiv on 6-8 December 2016. The prosecutors from the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, prosecutor’s offices of Kyiv and Kyiv region and representatives of the Human Rights Directorate of the National Police of Ukraine participated in the training.

The activity was organised by the Council of Europe Projects “Continued Support to the Criminal Justice Reform in Ukraine”, funded by the Danish government, and the Joint EU/CoE Programme “Strengthening Implementation of European Human Rights Standards in Ukraine”, in cooperation with the non-governmental organisation “Expert Centre for Human Rights”.

The training focused on the prevention of torture and ill-treatment in the places of deprivation of liberty taking into consideration relevant systemic problems identified in the European Court of Human Rights judgments against Ukraine along with the reports of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). International standards, safeguards enshrined in the national legislation and practical mechanisms for detecting and reacting to respective violations were discussed. The participants were familiarized with the best practices of monitoring of places of detention, including the methods and tools used by the CPT. The third day of the training was conducted in one of the detention centres in Kyiv, where the participants had an opportunity to carry out monitoring of the detention facility together with the CoE experts.

The training was delivered by the former head of the CPT - Latif Huseinov and the trainers of the Expert Centre for Human Rights - Yuri Belousov and Victor Chuprov. A presentation on the early access to a lawyer and the role of free legal aid system was delivered by the representative of the Coordination Centre for Legal Aid Provision, Victoria Mitko.