International conference on Police reforms (VIDEO and PHOTOS)
On November 26 an international two-day conference on Police reforms started in Yerevan. The event was co-organized by the OSCE office in Yerevan, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, Police of the Republic of Armenia in partnership with The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.
The conference is aimed at exchange of advanced experience and knowledge acquired in the sphere of Police reforms, as well as discussion of relevant lessons learned by various countries, including Georgia and Estonia.
Head of Police of the Republic of Armenia, Lieutenant General Vladimir Gasparyan and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of The Republic of Armenia made opening speeches and greeted the guests.
Head of OSCE office in Yerevan, Ambassador Andrey Sorokin also greeted the event participants.
The first section of the conference entitled “Police reforms in various countries” started off with a report on “The role of the OSCE in stimulating Police reforms in the participating countries” which was made by acting Director of OSCE Secretariat’s Strategic Police Matters Unit Marco Kubny.
Deputy Head of the Headquarters of Police of the Republic of Armenia, Police Colonel Andranik Ghazaryan introduced the reforms which are underway in the Armenian police system.
The process and peculiarities of reforms currently being carried out in the Georgian police structure were introduced by Head of the Reforms and Development Agency of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia Paata Toshkua, and Head of the Centre for Educational Research and Curriculum Development at University of Tartu Margus Tonisaar touched upon the reforms carried out in Estonian police.
The conference theme was summed up by Senior advisor of The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces Nevenka Tomovič who presented a report on “Democratic Police. Transition from Police force to Police service”, summarizing the talks of the first day of the international conference on Police reforms.