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Russian Human Rights Council Not Impressed With Police Reform
Interfax - 4.14.12 - JRL 2012-70

The Council for Promoting the Development of the Institutions of a Civil Society and Human Rights under the Russian president held a special meeting on the police reform in Moscow on 10 April, Russian Interfax news agency reported on the same day. The meeting was attended by high-ranking officials from the Interior Ministry and other law-enforcement agencies. The meeting was chaired by the council's head Mikhail Fedotov.

Mikhail Fedotov File Photo
file photo
After the re-evaluation and reform at the Russian Interior Ministry the number of crimes committed by police has declined, head of the Interior Ministry's internal security directorate Lt-Gen Yuriy Draguntsov said at the meeting of the presidential council on human rights

"Last year, policemen committed 5,021 crimes, including 3,002 corruption-related crimes, which is 9 per cent less than in 2010," he said.

He said that of the over 5,000 crimes committed by policemen last year, 687 concerned bribes, 368 - abuse of office, 935 - exceeding authority and 825 - forgery.

The presidential council for human rights should also discuss violations of the rights of policemen, head of the personnel directorate of the Interior Minister Vladimir Kubyshko said at the meeting.

"Maybe the council should also deal with investigating the problem of the rights of policemen, as individuals and citizens," Kubyshko said at the presidential council's meeting.

According to him, 64,800 policemen were subjected to unlawful actions in 2011, and in the first quarter of 2012 the duty office of the Ministry of Interior received 140 special reports about injuries and deaths of the employees.

To evaluate its effectiveness, the Interior Ministry will analyse blogs on the internet.

"We need to establish an effective system of communication with the public on how to receive objective information about possible violations by police officers," Deputy Interior Minister Sergey Bulavin said at the meeting.

"We need not only to look into reports and respond to them promptly, but also independently study and analyse the media's informational programmes and the blogosphere," Bulavin said.

However, the presidential council on human rights believes there has been no proper reform in the Interior Ministry. The council proposes that an independent body be set up to deal with complaints about police.

"The reform in the Ministry of Interior was primarily an in-house affair, and civilian control was largely perfunctory," it says in a draft of the council's recommendations on police reform.

"The largely perfunctory character of citizens' participation in this process did not help to increase public confidence in the police. The lack of clarity with the criteria of the re-evaluation allowed people with pathological and criminal tendencies to penetrate into the police ranks," it says in the document.

The council proposes that "an independent body for dealing solely with complaints about the police be set up and financed from the federal budget".

In addition, the council proposes that a unit be set up in the Investigations Committee to investigate crime in the police.

However, Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin saw no point in creating these new monitoring structures.

"I'm very sceptical about this instinctive and a very Russian reaction - to counter any problem by creating yet another agency, another organization," Lukin told Interfax between the meetings of the presidential council on human rights.

"I am in favour of existing agencies working more effectively, honestly and impartially. Then the situation will improve. To create an office or directorate for each emerging problem is to destroy everything under the Egyptian pyramids of bureaucracy," Lukin said.

Keywords: Russia, Law, Corruption, Police, Crime - Russian News - Russia

 

The Council for Promoting the Development of the Institutions of a Civil Society and Human Rights under the Russian president held a special meeting on the police reform in Moscow on 10 April, Russian Interfax news agency reported on the same day. The meeting was attended by high-ranking officials from the Interior Ministry and other law-enforcement agencies. The meeting was chaired by the council's head Mikhail Fedotov.

Mikhail Fedotov File Photo
file photo
After the re-evaluation and reform at the Russian Interior Ministry the number of crimes committed by police has declined, head of the Interior Ministry's internal security directorate Lt-Gen Yuriy Draguntsov said at the meeting of the presidential council on human rights

"Last year, policemen committed 5,021 crimes, including 3,002 corruption-related crimes, which is 9 per cent less than in 2010," he said.

He said that of the over 5,000 crimes committed by policemen last year, 687 concerned bribes, 368 - abuse of office, 935 - exceeding authority and 825 - forgery.

The presidential council for human rights should also discuss violations of the rights of policemen, head of the personnel directorate of the Interior Minister Vladimir Kubyshko said at the meeting.

"Maybe the council should also deal with investigating the problem of the rights of policemen, as individuals and citizens," Kubyshko said at the presidential council's meeting.

According to him, 64,800 policemen were subjected to unlawful actions in 2011, and in the first quarter of 2012 the duty office of the Ministry of Interior received 140 special reports about injuries and deaths of the employees.

To evaluate its effectiveness, the Interior Ministry will analyse blogs on the internet.

"We need to establish an effective system of communication with the public on how to receive objective information about possible violations by police officers," Deputy Interior Minister Sergey Bulavin said at the meeting.

"We need not only to look into reports and respond to them promptly, but also independently study and analyse the media's informational programmes and the blogosphere," Bulavin said.

However, the presidential council on human rights believes there has been no proper reform in the Interior Ministry. The council proposes that an independent body be set up to deal with complaints about police.

"The reform in the Ministry of Interior was primarily an in-house affair, and civilian control was largely perfunctory," it says in a draft of the council's recommendations on police reform.

"The largely perfunctory character of citizens' participation in this process did not help to increase public confidence in the police. The lack of clarity with the criteria of the re-evaluation allowed people with pathological and criminal tendencies to penetrate into the police ranks," it says in the document.

The council proposes that "an independent body for dealing solely with complaints about the police be set up and financed from the federal budget".

In addition, the council proposes that a unit be set up in the Investigations Committee to investigate crime in the police.

However, Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin saw no point in creating these new monitoring structures.

"I'm very sceptical about this instinctive and a very Russian reaction - to counter any problem by creating yet another agency, another organization," Lukin told Interfax between the meetings of the presidential council on human rights.

"I am in favour of existing agencies working more effectively, honestly and impartially. Then the situation will improve. To create an office or directorate for each emerging problem is to destroy everything under the Egyptian pyramids of bureaucracy," Lukin said.



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