Police Reform

Regular meeting of the Police Reform Steering Group of Tajikistan

The regular Police Reform Steering Groups was held today in the MIA premises. The meeting involved the participation of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan, Mr. Ramazon Rakhimov,

the First Deputy Minister, at the same time he is a Chairperson of the Regular Working Group on Police Reform, Mr. Nurillo Oripov, the National Police Reform Coordinator, Ms. Zumrad Solieva, as well as heads of MIA directorates.

The Head of OSCE Office inTajikistan, Mr. Ivar Vikki, the Deputy Head of OSCE Office inTajikistan, Mr. Hans-Peter Larsen, Counter Terrorism and Police Advisor Mr. Ulf Billving, as well as the members of OSCE National Police Reform Team participated in the meeting on behalf of OSCE. The Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union toTajikistan, Mr. Eduard Auer, the Ambassador of France in Tajikistan Didier LeRoy, as well as the representatives of INL US Embassy in Tajikistan and the Federal Criminal Police Office in Germany, and others also took participation in the meeting.

The meeting covered discussion of internal procedures on the Draft of the Police Reform Strategy in Tajikistan until 2020, and establishing a working group on gender-sensitive issues. Presentations of the OSCE project on Community Policing during the Public Assemblies, and on the new Police Reform website in Tajikistan (www.police-reform.tj) were made.

At the opening speech, the Minister of Internal Affairs Mr. Ramazon Rakhimov has noted that “police reform is a very tedious process, and a variety of issues and problems are to be solved in parallel.” “But we hope that both police staff and society will come purposefully to the notion of changes’ necessity, and police reform will bring positive results,” said the head of MIA.

According to the Minister, one of the main police reform objectives is an establishment of a solid mutual connection between police and community. “The main police characteristic while serving community is an engagement of the community to identify crime-related problems and breach of peace, as well as their solution, which proceeds from the concept that police is not able to do so on its own”, stated Mr. Rakhimov.

In return, Ambassador Ivar Vikki, as a co-chairperson, mentioned in his speech that “he is impressed” by the attitude of the management of Tajikistan towards to implementation of the Police Reform. “In his speech dedicated to the Police Day the President of Tajikistan said that “a driving force of Police Reform should be Community Policing” and today, in our meeting we will approve provision of the Working group on gender sensitive issues. It will be already the second group, consisting from the civil society, local and international experts’ representatives. I hope that their contribution to the Police Reform will be significant,” mentioned OSCE Ambassador. 

According to him, we can already raise an issue of establishing a Public Council on Police Reform. “I think that the Public Council will contribute into the started by the Minister of Internal Affairs’ campaign of torture elimination and the use of disproportional physical force by police staff while preventing an offense or at detention of citizens, while police staff consider the use of tortures as a serious violation of human rights, which cannot be justified by any circumstances,” considers Mr. Ivar Vikki.

Speaking about the draft Strategy, the Head of OSCE Office has emphasized, that the OSCE is looking forward for “the Strategy, which should serve as our “road-map” in the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding, signed between the OSCE and the Government of Tajikistan. Without this crucial and fundamental document, it is impossible to launch a donor mechanism for the projects implementation, which will be within the Police Reform Program.”

The Police Reform Steering Group has made unanimous decision on the approval of provision of the working sub-group on gender-sensitive issues, and on the list of sub-group members. The working sub-group included such well-known gender policy experts, as Munira Inoyatova, Guljahon Babasadykova, Zaitoona Naimova and others.

Introducing the police reform website, the website designer Umed Egamberdiev has noted, that “the website currently is operating in a limited mode only in Russian. It is planned, that it will be functioning in three languages – in Russian, Tajik, and English. The important information and materials, related to police reform progress in the country will be published on this internet webpage,” mean while stressing, that the official presentation of the police reform website will be held later.”