In September, the CEELI Institute worked together with a Ukrainian civil society organization (The Kyiv based Center for Civil Liberties) to train a network of Ukrainian citizens engaged in monitoring the conduct of law enforcement agencies, courts, and local government throughout the country. The project, named “OZONE” to signify its aim of promoting transparency, brought together regional leaders from across Ukraine to study best practices for projects promoting government accountability. The program focused particularly on communication strategies, including the development of useful and tangible reports as part of an accountability campaign, and effective communication of their efforts with the public and media. Participants examined other successful public monitoring campaigns, including a similar high profile court monitoring project in Georgia that has been run successfully for the past 7 years.
Our partner, the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), is itself a grass root organization which came to the forefront of Ukrainian civil society for their work during the Maidan uprisings of 2013-14. The CCL runs a number of human rights projects, including the pursuit of justice for those killed and injured in Maidan.
The OZONE network started originally as a public control tool to monitor police conduct during peaceful assemblies and to monitor court sessions related to the Maidan demonstrations; it has since expanded nationwide.
We believe that there is outstanding capacity and expertise among Ukrainian civil society, and that constructive citizen involvement is needed, especially in this phase of the difficult political and economic transition that Ukraine is undertaking.
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