Cross-Dimensional Approaches to SSG/R

The importance of supporting linkages between police and judicial reform is recognized in a number of OSCE documents. The success of police reform is highly dependent on parallel progress of the judicial system. Supporting such linkages in a comprehensive manner requires a cross-dimensional approach. For example, enhancing the capacity of the police to make arrests also requires consideration as to whether there are a sufficient number of adequately trained defence lawyers. Furthermore, to ensure effective processing of criminal cases, it is important to support co-ordination between the police and judicial actors. Failure to recognize synergies between police and judicial reform can lead to dysfunctional responses to dealing with crime, resulting in frustration among the population and a lack of trust in these institutions.

Like any other public sector, the security sector must be subject to democratic oversight. This principle is a cornerstone of effective SSG and has been affirmed by the OSCE in various documents. Democratic oversight may be carried out by parliaments, the judiciary or independent bodies, such as national human rights institutions. Effective support to oversight, as a means of contributing to good SSG, requires expertise from different dimensions. Common challenges to the OSCE’s support include perceptions that democratic oversight of the security sector is too sensitive in a given context, or a lack of clear institutional lead within the OSCE dimensions and hence a lack of adequate planning to establish the specific roles and responsibilities of OSCE actors.

Like in any other public sector, accountability, transparency and effectiveness are essential principles of good security sector governance. Therefore, SSG support also should include efforts to build integrity and counter corruption. Moreover, a number of OSCE commitments call for the effective management of public resources through strong and well-functioning institutions and recognize the role of the security sector in fighting corruption. Good security sector governance requires that national executive structures possess well established, sound and functional internal control mechanisms and management practices, including human, financial and information resource management, as well as procurement regulations. Within the OSCE, programmes in the second dimension often lead efforts to strengthen financial resource management. However, this support often focusses broadly on strengthening budgetary management, with no specific focus on the security sector. As improving internal accountability and management mechanisms is essential to increase the effectiveness of the security sector, joint and complementary contributions from OSCE Executive Structures in the different dimensions could be of benefit to this end.

Civil society can have multiple important roles in SSG/R, specifically in relation to accountability, transparency, human rights, participation, inclusivity and responsiveness, which are important to consider in all OSCE dimensions. For example, in relation to a people-centred approach to security, civil society organizations will usually possess important knowledge on the security needs of women, men, boys and girls and/or knowledge on specific local or regional issues that affect the security sector. As civil society can play an important role in communicating the security needs of the population to policymakers, they should be included in dialogue on reform priorities.

Civil society can also be a key source of information when conducting needs assessments and, thus, can contribute to OSCE programming. They should therefore be consulted in such processes. Civil society can also play an informal oversight role by holding authorities accountable for their actions through lobbying and advocacy campaigns. Academia and think tanks also have a role to play by providing research and analysis that can contribute to advocacy campaigns related to respective reform processes. The media, as a part of civil society, can ensure public access to information and provide a platform to voice concerns. Protecting media freedom is vital in democratic societies, and thus, it has become an integral part of the OSCE’s work – in particular, through the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. Without a comprehensive approach that includes civil society, it is therefore not possible to succeed in addressing essential aspects of SSG/R.

Gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment are essential elements of the OSCE’s concept of comprehensive security that are included in a number OSCE Documents. In the field of SSG/R, OSCE commitments set out the need to “create equal opportunities within the security services, including the armed forces, where relevant, to allow for balanced recruitment, retention and promotion of men and women.” The need to promote the engagement of women in judicial, prosecutorial and law enforcement institutions is also recognized, as is the need to promote women in parliamentary oversight of the security sector. The OSCE has also called for efforts to support the police in dealing with sexual and gender-based violence and recognized the important role of women in conflict prevention and peace-building.

To meet these commitments, especially a better understanding is required of gender dynamics in issues addressed by security sector institutions, such as preventing and countering terrorism, or about how exclusion of women in security sector institutions hampers their effective functioning. Integrating gender perspective in every stage of programmatic work and respective project design – including development, implementation and monitoring could help to increase the understanding of prevailing gender dynamics.

The promotion of human rights is a fundamental OSCE principle. In the context of the security sector, this principle requires both that the security sector respects, protects and fulfils human rights and that the human rights of security sector personnel are respected. Cross-dimensional approaches to SSG/R require that the promotion of respect and the protection and fulfilment of human rights be mainstreamed into OSCE activities with the security sector. Doing so may involve preventive measures, such as support on legislation, preventive visits to places of deprivation of liberty or capacity-building for security sector institutions or oversight bodies. Mainstreaming human rights may also include reactive measures, such as advocacy for the investigation of torture allegations.

Linking police and judicial reform, fostering independent oversight, strengthening integrity and anti-corruption and engaging with civil society, as well as mainstreaming and promoting gender equality and human rights, are all areas of support that, in practice, are mutually complementary and can often not be clearly delineated from each other. For example, when strengthening gender equality and accountability of the security sector, civil society can play an important role in providing external oversight. Also, the external oversight role of civil society can make an important contribution to both police and justice sector reform.