“Good governance and transparency means something to our citizens. Enabling complaints from citizens promotes accountability. Therefore, complaints are an effective mechanism to recognize weaknesses in public administration and in the behaviour of government officials.”
These were the words of the Director General of the Palestinian General Directorate of Complaints, Kamil Rimawi, when he yesterday opened the full day workshop “Sharing best practices in complaints handling from around the world”.
The workshop presented and discussed complaint models implemented in Canada, Palestine, Slovenia and Sweden, and was organised by EUPOL COPPS in cooperation with the Complaints General Administration of the Council of Ministers. It was attended by over 100 participants from complaints units of the Palestinian Ministries, Governates, Security Forces and other governmental institutions as well as from the Independent Commission for Human Rights, the United States Security Coordinator and other international actors.
During the opening of the workshop, Head of the Mission’s Police Advisory Section, Pekka Kokkonen, stressed the value of addressing complaints handling through a best practice workshop: “We strongly believe that everyone can learn from each other. We hope that by sharing experiences from several countries and indeed different institutions, all participants can take something home. Regardless of where we come from or what we do, when we are civil servants, and it is essential that the public has trust in our work.”
The Mission employs two Accountability Advisers, both having years of expert experience in complaints handling processes and accountability in their home counties. They primarily support the accountability units within the Palestinian Civil Police.
Top photo: The Director General of the Palestinian General Directorate of Complaints, Kamil Rimawi (right) greets the Head of the Mission’s Police Advisory Section, Pekka Kokkonen on successful completion of the workshop.
Photo 2: Experts in complaints handling at the workshop (from left): Senior Police Adviser Accountability, Michael Ogren; Police Adviser Accountability, Bostjan Velicki; Head of the Mission’s Police Advisory Section, Pekka Kokkonen; Director General of the Palestinian General Directorate of Complaints, Kamil Rimawi; Director of the Follow-up Unit, Maher Abu Hejleh; Director of the Development Unit, Rami Abu Alsebà; Director of Coordination, Ayman Fawàdleh.
Photo 3: The workshop attracted broad participation from many Palestinian Authority institutions as well as the international community.
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