Organisers: The Charity and Health Fund Charity Organisation’ and the Legal Space Information Resource Centre

Since the police reform started in Ukraine, the number of district police officers in villages and towns has fallen significantly. One district police officer serves 5-15 villages. District officers are often torn between different calls and unable to respond on time. As a result, the crime situation in the villages is growing worse.

In 2018, two NGOs started the Sheriffs for New Communities project. For a year, the project team in cooperation with experts has discovered seven successful models for organising safe environments in the Kherson, Poltava and Kharkiv regions. At the roundtable, the project’s authors will speak about the successful experience of these communities. They will also present an exhibit entitled Successful Security Practices: The Ukrainian Scale, in which each model’s description will be accompanied with sample documents and expert comments about the sheriffs’ powers and responsibilities. The project’s authors will also present the Sheriffs for New Communities Information Platform, which has been created to improve and implement the institution of sheriffs in Ukraine.

Speakers:

Natalia Bimbiraite, head of the Sheriffs for New Communities project, NGO IRC Legal Space;

Ilona Korotitsyna, coordinator of the Sheriffs for New Communities project, Vgoru Online Newspaper;

Olena Stariuk, lawyer at the Sheriffs for New Communities project, CO Charity and Health Fund;

Alla Tiutiunnyk, human rights expert, head of the Human Rights Department at the International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA, expert at the Sheriffs for New Communities project.