Police Reform

The MIA has conducted a Republican Scientific-Practical Conference supported by the OSCE

As it was announced earlier in our website, there was a Republican Scientific-Practical Conference: “State protection of criminal proceedings participants as one of the important aspects of respect for human rights” on 14 March 2014, in the premises of the National Library. It was organized by the initiative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Tajikistan and supported by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan (OiT) and the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Tajikistan.

The Lieutenant-General Rahimzoda Ramazon Hamro, Minister of Internal Affairs in his opening speech has mentioned that “the MIA has drafted and prepared a special order for organization and tactics of operational and investigation activity’s implementation, where protection issues of persons assisting in crime identification and reveal, are aligned.” Moreover, the MIA Tajikistan has drafted Guide “On the order of cooperation between the executive local and state authority with other structures to implement security measures towards protected persons.” The Draft Guide was sent to the relevant state agencies for review. Currently, the MIA has received several feedbacks, which will be considered while finalizing this document.

Further the welcome speech was given to the following persons: Nazira Gaforova – Deputy Chairperson of the Lower Chamber of the Parliament (Majlisi Namoyandagon of Majlisi Oli) of Tajikistan, Bakhtiyor Khudoyorzoda – the Head of the Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Sherkhon Salimzoda – General Prosecutor of the Republic of Tajikistan, Ambassador Markus Mueller – Head of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan (OiT), Lieutenant-General Saimumin Yatimov – the Chairperson of the State Committee on National Security of Tajikistan, Lieutenant-General Abdufattohi Goib – Director of the Agency for State Financial Control and Fight against Corruption of Tajikistan and Zarif Alizoda – Ombudsman in Tajikistan.

Ambassador Markus Mueller in his welcome speech stressed the importance of this event as one of the steps forward in respect for human rights.

“Taking special measures for protecting the security of witnesses and victims of crimes is developed in other countries due to necessity for effective fight against organized crime – phenomena, which poses a serious threat to so many countries around the world today,” has started his speech Mr. Mueller. “These measures are not rigid and they continue to evolve – and this evolution is driven, among other factors, by the need to balance, first of all, the requirements of law enforcement with fundamental guarantees of the right to a fair trial,” said Mr. Mueller.

During his speech, the Head of the OSCE OiT focused on the effective implementation of measures to protect participants of the criminal proceedings. In particular, he stated that it requires an experienced and specifically trained staff in relevant working with vulnerable witnesses and victims of crime. He added that certain measures to protect participants in criminal proceedings, such as change of personal identity and permanent relocation procedures are known to be expensive. Thus, there is a need to address this problem in a different way that will not create unsustainable financial burdens on the state budget.

At the end of his speech, Mr. Markus Mueller said that the rights of witnesses, victims, as well as defendants in criminal proceedings can be adequately protected only through the culture of the rule of law, integrity and professionalism of law enforcement staff. "I hope that further efforts to uphold these values will be undertaken by all governmental agencies represented at this conference, and in my turn, I assure you that the OSCE will continue to support these efforts."

During the conference, there was a discussion session and the OSCE expert from Belarus, Vasil Vashchanka, made a presentation on "Protection of persons in the context of criminal proceedings: application of international experience in Tajikistan." He noted that a study of international experience is an efficient measure of state protection of criminal proceedings’ participants." First to take into consideration while studying the experience of any other country in this area – it’s the features of legal system and, in particular, models of criminal proceedings of that country.

As it is known, the USA was a pioneer and a model for many countries in this area. There in the 60’s witness protection at organized crime cases began to be applied in practice, and in 1970 it was included into the legislation. While studying the USA experience, it is necessary to remember that the criminal process in this country is characterized by a high degree of competition, which is based on direct examination of the evidence in court and, accordingly, assigns great importance to oral testimony," shared Mr. Vashchanka.

Further the OSCE expert noted that the development of measures for the protection of witnesses, victims and other persons, who are in need of state protection while implementing the justice on criminal cases, should be based on a thorough analysis of existing needs and threats that are aimed to address these issues. It is necessary, including, also to determine what measures should be developed as a priority. Such an analysis should include the following:

- the degree and categories of crime where special protection measures should be undertaken;
- the frequency of violence against participants of the criminal proceedings;
- availability of practice to investigate and bringing to trial powerful criminals and organized criminal groups;
- available material and human resources for the implementation of protective measures.

During the conference, Mr. Vashchanka cited several procedural measures to protect witnesses and victims:

1)       Measures aimed at avoiding a personal meeting with an accused (such as use of the witness’s evidence record in the court, removal of the defendant during the testimony, interviewing through videoconference). These measures are intended primarily to reduce the risk of psychological pressure or intimidation of the person giving testimony;

2)       measures aimed at identity concealment of the witness (e.g., testimony of witness from behind a screen, using a voice distortion devices; keeping confidential the personal data of the witness). Such measures are most efficient if the defendant is not familiar with the person testifying, and is unable to determine his identity from the content of the testimony;

3)       measures aimed at limiting of publicity and psychological stress (holding closed meetings, testifying in the presence of persons, who provide a support). These measures are designed to avoid the psychological trauma as a result of testimony and are often used towards to the vulnerable persons.

At the end of his speech, Mr. Vashchanka noted that " international experience in this field indicates the need to build a comprehensive and integrated system of measures of state protection of persons in connection with administration of criminal justice," and that "the priorities while creating and development of protective measures should be determined taking into account the real needs of the criminal justice system based on the practice analysis of the cases’ investigation involving organized criminal groups, existing threats to witnesses and victims, as well as the available financial and human resources."