Project title

Joint European Union and Council of Europe Project “EU and Council of Europe working together to strengthen the Ombudsperson’s capacity to protect human rights”

Country

Ukraine

Budget

988 500 €

Funding

European Union and the Council of Europe

Duration

24 months (9 July 2019 – 9 July 2021)

Partners  and beneficiaries

Policy-makers, public servants, civil society representatives, including, but not limited to Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the Supreme Court of Ukraine and

Superior Specialised Courts of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, other central and local authorities, as well as relevant NGOs and other civil society groups.

Main objective

To ensure better protection of the human rights in Ukraine as a result of alignment of Ukrainian legislation with the European standards and enhanced operational capacities of the Ombudsperson’s Office in the areas of personal data protection and prevention of ill-treatment in places of deprivation of liberty.

Expected results

1.       Legal and regulatory framework of the Ombudsperson’s Office work, its institutional structure and internal procedures are in line with the best European standards including those on gender equality;

2.       Capacities of the Ombudsperson’s Office to effectively protect against serious human rights violations via efficient realisation of the NPM functions are strengthened with the relevant rehabilitation services created for the victims of torture;

3.       The right to privacy and data protection are better guaranteed as a result of amended regulatory framework which is implemented in line with the international and European standards;

4.       Awareness of the Ombudsperson’s Office role and functions is raised within the institutional stakeholders and public in general via communication campaign of the Ombudsperson’s Office as well as its close co-operation and joint actions with the civil society and other institutional partners.

Implemented or planned activities

-       Development of the amendments to the Law on Parliament Commissioner in part related to enhancement of efficiency of the complaint handling procedure.

-       Elaboration of the Concept of Independent supervisory authority on protection of individuals with regard to processing of personal data.

-       Consultations with the international and Ukrainian experts to define the general concept of the amendments to be introduced by the draft Law of Ukraine "On Personal Data Protection" and further legal analysis of the final text of the draft Law.

-       Preparation of the assessment report on state of the NPM implementation.

-       Development of the Code of Conduct of the NPM monitors in close coordination with the leading NGOs in the field of human rights.

-       Development of the training course on basic principles and standards of ill-treatment prevention based on materials of the HELP programme courses that will be used as a basic training for the Ombudsperson's Office NPM staff and monitors.

-       Piloting of the training course on basic principles and standards of ill-treatment within a series of trainings for NPM staff and regional monitors carried out by the certified trainers on the course.

-       At least 5 trainings for senior managements and staff members of mental health facilities conducted in the different regions of Ukraine based on the "Ensuring Good Quality Treatment & Care for In-Patients in Mental Healthcare Establishments in Ukraine: A Human Rights Based Guide for Professional Staff".

-       Joint trainings conducted for the NPM staff members, monitors and staff members of the mental health facilities during the monitoring visits to such establishments under mentorship of the Council of Europe experts.

-       Study visit of the group of managers of the mental health facilities and the NPM representatives to the mental health care establishment in one of the European countries aimed at familiarisation with best practices, alternative approaches to provision of medical and social services in line with the human rights standards.

-       Mapping analysis and development of the recommendations as regards amendments in the regulatory framework on mental health care for Ukrainian authorities and relevant state agencies to eliminate systemic shortcomings contributing to the ill-treatment occurrence in mental healthcare facilities.

-       Series of special trainings (at least 5) for the NPM staff (central and regional offices) and civil society monitors on application of the methodologies of monitoring visits (initial and follow-up) to different detention intuitions and other specific topics.

-       Analytical report presenting analysis/assessment of the current legal, social and administrative grounds for creation of rehabilitative mechanism for victims of torture in Ukraine

-       Analytical report on the European practices of rehabilitative mechanism creation for victims of torture.

-       Development of the communication strategy for NPM and of the action plan for its implementation.

-       Peer-exchange meetings (at least 2) with the experts from  states where war conflicts took place to exchange experience on methodologies applied to assess the adherence of human rights at such territories.

-       Development of the training course on basic principles of data protection with due reference to the relevant courses of the HELP programme and recommendations of the Twinning  Project that will be used as a basic training for the Ombudsperson's Office data protection staff.

-       Piloting of the course on basic principles of data protection within the series of trainings for regional representatives of the Ombudsperson and representatives of different state agencies, carried out by the Ombudsperson Office staff trained on the course.

-       Series of trainings on the latest developments in the data protection field for the Ombudsperson's Office staff.

-       Development of Special on-line toolkits on principles of data protection for the state agencies that operate different data-bases and public in general available at the Ombudsperson’s Office web-site.

-       Study visits for exchange of best practices on effective handling of individual complaints, protection of personal data and effective realization of NPM to the peer institutions in Europe.