During two July weeks the School of Civic Control over the activity of local authorities was conducted in Lviv. 25 representatives of civic organizations, and initiative groups from all over Ukraine, which were selected based on the competition, took part in it. Among others, Natalia Krauze, head of Kirovohrad unit “Association of assistance in population self-organization” took part in the School.
During classes, the participants got acquainted with Polish and Ukrainian experience of watch-dog organizations, developed their skills in providing for the citizens’ right to participate in local self-government; access to information; developing methodology and planning civic control campaigns; learned not to forget about the information part of monitoring campaigns and introduce changes on the results of the conducted monitoring.
Citizen Network “OPORA” (Lviv, Ukraine) and Association of Local Civil Group Leaders (Warsaw, Poland) were the organizers of the training. The training itself was conducted by a group of Ukrainian coaches, which are not only civic leaders, but also have a great practical experience of work in the third sector and in conducting monitoring and advocacy. Representative of Kirovohrad region Alla Voloshyna also was among the trainers; she presented to the participants the approach of Creative Union “TORO” towards watch-dog activity.
Even until now many people in Ukraine are not aware of the meaning of the term “watch-dog organization”. It basically means the organization, which observes functioning of public institutions and activity of public persons with the aim of providing for their transparency and reported character. The School of Civic Control was aimed at teaching the participants to effectively protect human rights through organization of the control over the activity of state organs.
The school has finished but the educational process continues. According to the methodology, worked out by the participants, representatives of civic organizations from various parts of Ukraine are soon starting to realize their own campaigns of civic control. So, only then, we shall be able to see, what the young civic controllers were able to learn at the School.
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