The People´s Deputies of
Ukraine, the Ombudsperson
of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, representatives of the Cabinet of Ministers
of Ukraine, the Ministry
on Foreign Affairs, the General Prosecutor
Office, the Ministry on
Justice, international and non-governmental organizations on observance of
human rights attended the
meeting.
Viktor Shvets, Chairman of the Committee, opened the meeting, and declared that the analysis of citizen´s appeals proved that activity of the internal affairs bodies of Ukraine gave rise to serious concern in the sphere of human rights observance. "We are aware of the numerous facts of investigative tortures and other forms of violent treatment on the part of officers of the internal affairs bodies ", V.Shvets stated.
He informed that the Committee had received several appeals from the People´s Deputies, Deputies of the local councils concerned about the lack of transparency in the activity of the Ministry on Internal Affairs and non-elucidation of the information on the violation of human rights at the internal affairs bodies.
V. Shvets declared that the Committee had been sending the mass media publications on the facts of unlawful activity of the police officers to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Deputy Minister on Internal Affairs Vasyl Farynnyk declared that the fundamental principle of the activity of law-enforcement agencies is absolute observance of the human rights in the course of law-enforcement activity. Work of the police is based on the Constitution and other normative-legal acts.
"The internal affairs bodies have been actively preventing the crimes that severely violate human rights and liberties. Namely, 246 facts of human trafficking were investigated, 226 victims of trafficking in humans were returned to Ukraine, 33 out of them being minors, 12 organized criminal groups were liquidated", the Deputy Minister informed.
Deputy General Prosecutor Evhen Blazhivskyi declared, "Analysis of the criminality rate proves that it poses a threat to the national security."
E. Blazhivskyi announced that for the years of independence nearly two million of crimes have remained unsolved, half of them being especially grave crimes. This year only, 25 similar crimes were investigated.
Nina Karpachova, Ombudsperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, gave several examples of high-profile cases that disgraced the name of the law-enforcement agencies.
N.
Karpachova reminded that in 2001 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine had fixed criminal responsibility for the tortures in
the Criminal Code. However,
"the essential clause of the Criminal Code was changed, and a special subject
law-enforcements officers were
excluded from it," she admitted.
The Ombudsperson briefed on other problems in the sphere, "Despite positive changes in the conditions of detention in numerous specialized institutions, the conditions in detention facilities in Evpatoria, Saky, Bakhchisarai, Simferopol, Sevastopol, Berdiansk and Odesa do not stand up to criticism."
N. Karpachova declared that the situation concerning law-enforcement agencies reflected the general situation in the state. She called for strengthening the parliamentary and public supervision over the activity of the police.
The participants drafted the guidelines of the parliamentary hearings.