The biggest violation of human rights among law enforcement agencies come from the SBU

What reforms have taken place in the judicial system of Ukraine during the reign of the new government and President Poroshenko and what prospects are opening up in the power department in the near future in an exclusive interview to the online edition of the Ukrainian News – From-UA has told the human rights activist, member of the Board of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Director of the Kharkiv Human Rights group Evgeniy Zaharov.

Ukraine News – From-UA: Eugene E., good afternoon! What changes do you see in the law enforcement system since the arrival of the new government? The police, the prison service, the prosecutor’s office, the courts, the Ukrainian Security Service?

Evgeniy Zaharov: You see, in fact, comprehensive reform of the entire system of criminal justice, unfortunately, is not happening.

There are some changes in the police, which no longer exists, since the 7 th November 2015 it was replaced by the police.

A new patrol police in the 35 cities of Ukraine, except in rural areas set up, tested, tested and is now being implemented – a new model of public order, based on the rapid response groups. It was first in Sambor, then another nine district department, and then the model has been implemented in three areas since February 2016 years: in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv, most recently in the Khmelnytsky and is now preparing to Volyn. That is, there is reform.

Nevertheless, we must clearly understand that this is only part of the police, which deals with the protection of public order and that has not affected the criminal unit, departmental system of medicine and education. And still a lot to do in order to continue to pursue this reform sequentially.

A major obstacle to this – is a lack of funding. The budget of the police and the Interior Ministry as a whole is very much curtailed, and a situation where a young patrol, who studied for three months, six months or a year of work, and get a much higher salary than the investigators or investigators with experience of 10-15 years – it’s not normal, so do not be must. But the funds to fix it, to raise the salary of those who have passed the certification, simply do not have today. And this is one of the main obstacles of the reform.

If we compare the way that we run the 100m, the 15 meters we already ran. But we need to run further and do not stop, because any stop will be fraught with the fact that all these improvements will be leveled. And the existing police system, which, alas, yet will not go away (because in many ways it continues to persist and everything appeared new can adapt to fit your habits and rules), will remain the same. This danger is, and it must be clearly understood. Because it can not police with a salary of 3-4 thousand hryvnia per month, especially in the big cities, to feed his family, and this will inevitably push him to some other acts of unlawful ways of earning.

If we talk about the prosecutor’s office, the courts, the prison system, the SBU, in my opinion, were only trying to initiate reforms in these bodies, but they failed. More specifically, I am referring to the prosecutor’s office and the courts, because what was done was done poorly. But it has its own reasons, and they can be viewed separately.

Beginning of the reform of the penitentiary system changes the structure of the State Penal Service and not for the actual penal institutions. That is life in the colonies so far has not changed the fact that these reforms have begun. And in fact, here you need to change a lot in practice and in law. But these changes are very difficult, they are harder to do than the police or the prosecutor’s office.

The order, which was formed there, break is not so easy, and if it is broken, then the situation in the colonies will be even worse, because they are financed disgusting. For them, the budget recorded two times less than you need, and they eventually receive half of that half. And actually financed at 25%, only to escape the fact that in each colony are looking for some way to make extra money. And where the administration of the colony successful, there is a better, where unsuccessful – there is worse.

A lot depends on whether the colony is “on the ground”, for example, as it can grow their own fruit and vegetables, in addition to budgetary allocations. And if they still grow and sell, so it’s even better.

And if it’s industrial zone, and there is something made, as is known, such a forced labor – not very productive, and businesses which employ convicted, it is difficult to compete. There’s basically an old worn-out equipment, old dirty technology … But this is a business that is closed from public scrutiny, and there occurs a serious enrichment of those who supervise them, despite the fact that the prisoners themselves receive a penny. And cut this Gordian knot is not possible, because simply these colonies is nothing to exist, even though a significant portion of the money takes the administration of enterprises, which are created when the colonies. Still, at least something, but remains a prisoner. If it will not, the situation will worsen significantly in the colonies. So just this problem can not be solved,

As for the prosecutor’s office – as long as I do not see major changes. It only point changes on staffing levels, or in some individual cases. But they are after the new Attorney-General, and should welcome the fact that he was engaged in such things – the most severe human rights violations in an attempt to eradicate them. Such as, for example, long-term maintenance portion accused detained in prison without penalty. You can also welcome his desire to make personnel changes. But in fact this is just all half-measures, and serious reform of the prosecutor’s office has, in fact, did not start. There is a problem with the presence of the frame, as is the case with the police and the prison system.

Ukraine News – From-UA: Over the past few years, we have changed three times Attorneys General. What is the reason, in your opinion?

Evgeniy Zaharov: This is due to the fact that they could not cope with the tasks that they are being given society and what is waiting for them. They have not been able, nor Oleh Makhnitskyi nor Yarema nor Shokin, to investigate crimes on the Maidan in full. And indeed they were unable to carry out any reform or change the entire system of prosecutors.

One of the reasons lies in the fact that all prosecutors are accountable to the President, and they worked in manual mode. I do not know if it’s true, but argue that the Attorney General Shokin literally daily reports to the President about the work that he did. That is, he received direct orders, what to do in any given situation, and be accountable for it.

It is this dependence Attorney General from the main official in the state – it’s completely normal. This is our problem: our political forces want to control the courts, prosecutors, law enforcement agencies and use them as an instrument for solving their political problems. It should not be. And it was when all power, a greater or lesser extent, and now it continues. And in this conflict and tied inside the prosecutor’s office, for example, Deputy Attorney General Kasko, Sakvarelidze and with so many such things.

That will be obtained from Lutsenko how he will behave in this situation, it is difficult to predict. But it is also clear that there have been delivered as a person close to the president, the former head of PPO fractions, and again you can expect from it will require certain actions in certain cases.

In general, public prosecutors should be independent, as well as the judges. And if that were the case, and they are not crushed, it would be much better. But prosecutors, like judges, there is a danger canned in its own system without any control and it was not changed, and their acceptance of the illegal and unjust decisions on someone’s orders then it will be difficult to correct. And there, and there is very difficult to pass between these two extremes.

Yuri V. started with some positive steps, private, essential, but how much he will be able to reform the system as a whole, we’ll see.

Everywhere very big problem with the staff. But by the way, if we talk about the staff, the best thing to do with this situation in the judicial system. There’s a lot more experienced and trained judges than the illiterate. But the trouble is that from the undue pressure that they get bored, they massively retire. And in a lot of police, who left because they did not want to undergo the procedure, which they were offered.

Although there is another point of view, they are weak people, once they had done so, and God is with them – and I fully understand it. Because it is a strong point of view: put on the form – to serve and to carry out all that is needed. And this is in fact the action of the Bible principle: “Do what you must, come what may.” And if you ran away, then you are a coward – that masculine approach. But such strong people very little, and those who is such, they are very uncomfortable, because they always do what they think is right, and not as orders superiors, and therefore always be under attack.

Ukraine News – From-UA: In one of the political talk show Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andrew Paruby called judicial reform – a major “victory” of the season in the parliament. Do you agree with this?

Evgeniy Zaharov: Unfortunately, he is mistaken. I appreciate the personal qualities of courage, integrity and honesty Parubiya, but I fear that he did not really understand the judicial system. And to say that judicial reform – a major victory in parliament, it is a mistake, in my opinion. Because in fact what happens is that the judicial system is now collapsing under the influence of such reforms.

Here is a very difficult task. On the one hand, the need to ensure the independence of the court, since it will not be open-minded and objective without it. If he is dependent, then it will be easy to pressure. But unfortunately, in this regard the so-called reform is quite Direction: they put the judges even more dependent than before. This is motivated by the fact that the judicial system – corruption, inadequate, does not meet the requirements of the time, and judges are flying all the accusations.

But I think that the judicial system is not more corrupt than any other in our country, and the fact that so judges are generally wrong. After all, judges are different: there is corruption, but there are those who will never take bribes, they just do not allow such cases, where they were waiting for the “right” decision.

So, unfortunately, judicial reform hinders the desire to take executive control of the judges. And whoever is in power, is manifested. With all the presidents since it was, and continues under President Poroshenko same. This is a big mistake, because it is impossible to treat with the judges, requiring them to take the “right” decision. This applies, above all, capital ships, the higher courts. The rest of the ships the same thing happens at the local level. And it turns out that judges are dependent, they are not free in their decisions. What judicial reform can be with such a situation? Yes, no, quite simply.

And then there was noticeably worsened access to justice by banning conventional lawyers, not lawyers, to take part in civil and administrative cases!

Ukraine News – From-UA: Yevgeny Yefimovich, what reforms are experiencing today, the Security Service of Ukraine?

Evgeniy Zaharov: With regard to the Security Service of Ukraine, the situation there is very bad, she did not reform. And today I can say that the greatest violations of human rights among law enforcement agencies come from the Security Service, which is very violates the right to liberty and security of person, the right to protection from torture and so many other rights. The balance between human rights and national security protection solutions quite clearly in favor of national security. And there are so many criminal enterprises, opened the SBU, which, to put it mildly, questionable.

What is happening there is, unfortunately, very often the real outrage. What could make more than once, considering the specific case of criminal prosecutions in the National Security Service. I do believe that this centaur – both intelligence and law enforcement authority – an anachronism, it is not normal, and this is not in any civilized country of the world.

We do not compare ourselves with Russia, we are talking about European countries. Intelligence agency must deal only with data extraction for senior government officials, her job – intelligence and counterintelligence. But the investigation of crimes – this is not her business. And if these functions have dramatically SBU take, it may be, would be transformed into a normal special service.

And today it’s just a body, which is taking advantage of its unique position, that is the main body for the protection of national security, which protects us against terrorism, which actually runs the ATO (and that’s how it is served) is really a body, for which there are very serious tyranny and human rights violations. security service need to take place to put it, and not the one that she now occupies.

Ukraine News – From-UA: What are the prospects in the law enforcement system you see in the near future?

Evgeniy Zaharov: I believe that the reforms could be done, it is a very real thing. But this requires a number of conditions.

The first – the mandatory funding. Here’s what the police reform can be done without additional funding, almost everything has already been done. But in order to move forward, we need the money, which is not. It is necessary to firmly grasp the rule: reforms cost money, and if you do not give money, the reforms will not. And those systems that need to be reformed, without the money will remain in its old state, and then rot.

And the second – political will is needed to implement these reforms. You need to have people who have a clear understanding and have a clear vision of what and how they want to do. To these were new teams that would have sufficient authority and political will to transform the system.

Police experience shows that this is possible in principle. But on the way people who do such things, a lot of difficulties, obstacles, problems. And of course, the reform of the law enforcement system of Ukraine – it is cleaning the Augean stables. And, nevertheless, the reforms could be done despite the fact that it was supported by the state and society, despite the fact that there is sufficient funding – it would all really.

But the obstacles are many: and the wrong political guidance on many issues, and the lack of funds, and perhaps most importantly – the lack of personnel.

Interviewed by Julia Protsyshena

Sourse, 20/07/2016