Civilian Oversight

En el mundo anglosajón, una reacción ante la aparente incapacidad de los mecanismos internos de la policía para hacerse cargo de denuncias de abuso policial ha consistido en crear instancias de supervisión civil independiente. Este tipo de mecanismos de control ha sido parte de la mayoría de los paquetes de reforma que han sucedido a escándalos de violencia y/o corrupción policial. En esta columna, el autor examina la experiencia norteamericana de supervisión civil de la policía, identificando distintos modelos y reflexionando sobre posibles lecciones para el contexto chileno.

Random selection for political office-or "sortition"-is increasingly seen as a promising tool for democratic renewal. Critics worry, however, that replacing elected and appointed officials with randomly selected citizens would only exacerbate elite manipulation of political processes. This article argues that sortition can contribute to democratic renewal, but that its genuine promise is obscured by the excessive ambition and misplaced focus of prevailing models. Casting random selection as a route to accurate representation of the popular will, most contemporary proposals require randomly selected citizens to perform legislative tasks, whose open-endedness grants substantial discretion to elite agenda-setters and facilitators. The real democratic promise of sortition-based reforms, I argue, lies in obstructing elite capture at critical junctures: a narrower task that creates fewer opportunities for elite manipulation. In such contexts, the benefits of empowering ordinary people-resulting from their immunity to certain distorting influences on career officials-plausibly outweigh the risks.

Bu Kitap, “İç Güvenlik Sektörünün Sivil Gözetiminin Geliştirilmesi” Projesi (İGSSGG) gerekliliklerinin yerine getirilmesi amacıyla hazırlanmıştır.
UNDP tarafindan yurutulen Projenin genel amacı, demokratik hakların vatandaşlar ve sivil toplum kuruluşları tarafından
daha yaygın şekilde kullanımını ve kurumsallaşmasının sağlanmasıdır.

This study is carried out in fulfillment of the requirements of the “Improvement of Civilian
Oversight of Internal Security Sector” (ICOISS) Project.
The Project aims at the expanded enjoyment and institutionalization of democratic rights by
citizens and civil society organizations (general objective).

This guidance note on Integrating Gender into Oversight of the Security Sector by Ombuds Institutions & National Human Rights Institutions, developed by DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR and the OSCE Gender Section,  is a practical resource for ombuds institutions and NHRIs, and those who support them. It can help an ombuds institution or NHRI engage more effectively with police, militaries and other security sector institutions to monitor and reinforce how the human rights of men and women working there are upheld.  It can strengthen oversight of how well police and others meet the needs of communities

Türkiye’nin güvenliği açısından stratejik öneme sahip savunma harcamalarının optimum seviyede gerçekleştirilmesi, daha kaliteli ve şeffaf yönetilmesi için etkin bir Sayıştay denetimine ihtiyaç vardır. Bu amaçla MSB harcamalarının Sayıştay denetimi konusunda; uluslararası denetim standartları, uluslararası-ulusal uygulamalar ve mevzuat kapsamlı bir şekilde incelenmiştir. MSB harcamalarının tamamı Sayıştay tarafından denetlenmesine rağmen hâlihazırdaki Sayıştay denetiminde var olan eksiklikler dikkate alınarak çözüm önerileri sunulmuştur.
Çalışmada ilk olarak savunma harcamalarının tanımı verilmiş ve harcama düzeyleri ve etkileyen faktörler sıralanmıştır. Dünya, NATO ülkeleri, komşularımız ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti savunma harcamaları karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmiştir. Savunma harcamalarında Sayıştay denetiminin gerekliliği belirtilmiştir. Sonrasında, analitik bütçe sınıflandırması kullanılarak MSB harcamaları analiz edilmiştir.
İkinci bölümde, T.C. Sayıştay Başkanlığı başta olmak üzere Amerika, Fransa ve Almanya Sayıştaylarının tarihsel gelişim süreçleri, mevzuatları, örgüt ve personel yapıları savunma denetimi ekseninde irdelenmiştir. Bu ülkelerde uygulamadaki denetim süreçleri, türleri ve denetimlerin kapsamı incelenmiştir.
Üçüncü bölümde, INTOSAI uluslararası denetim standartlarına yer verilmiştir. Sonrasında bu standartlar da dikkate alınarak ülke Sayıştayları karşılıklı analize tabi tutulmuştur. Sonuç bölümünde ise uluslararası denetim standartları ve uygulama örnekleri paralelinde, MSB’nin denetiminde T.C. Sayıştay Başkanlığı’nın denetimlerini daha verimli ve etkin kılması yönünde önerilerde bulunulmuştur.
There is a need for efficient Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) audits on defence expenditures having strategic significance regarding Turkey’s national security in order to manage them more transparent and qualified manner and to realize them at optimum level. By this target on the issue of Turkish Court of Accounts (TCA) audits on Turkish Ministry of Defence’s expenditures international auditing standards, international-national practices and regulations have been extensively investigated. Although all expenditures of Ministry of Defence have been audited by TCA, some recommendations have been produced concerning existing shortcomings on TCA audits.
In this paper, fist of all, the definition of defence expenditure has been made and levels of defence expenditures and factors affecting these levels have been issued. World, NATO members, neighbouring countries and our defence expenditures have been comparatively explored. Then, the necessity of SAI audits on defence expenditures has been made clear. After that, expenditures of Turkish Ministry of Defence have been analyzed by using analytical budget classification.
In the second part, within the defence audit context historical developments, laws, organizational and personal structures of primarily TCA, Government Accountability Office, Cour des Comptes and Bundesrechnungshof have been examined. Audit procedures, types and the scope of audits in practice have been investigated in these countries.
In the third part, INTOSAI auditing standards have been included. Later, by taking these standards into consideration SAIs of countries have been subjected to comparative analysis. And in the conclusion part, parallel to the international auditing standards and practices some recommendations have been offered to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of TCA’s audits on Ministry of Defence.

En Estados Unidos, la supervisión ciudadana se ha convertido en una manera legítima de hacer que las policías rindan cuenta de sus actos. Así, cada vez que los depar- tamentos de policía han enfrentado una crisis de legitimidad y pérdida de confianza por parte de la ciudadanía a partir de escándalos de mala conducta policial, las autoridades han tomado medidas tendientes a mejorar los mecanismos de responsabilización. Entre las posibles soluciones, la creación de organismos de control ciudadano se ha vuelto la más usual. El objetivo de este artículo es entregar información y reflexiones que ayuden a alimentar el debate en torno a la reforma policial en Chile. Para esto, el documento conceptualiza la supervisión ciudadana y presenta los escenarios que usualmente han de- rivado en la implementación de estos mecanismos en Estados Unidos. Además, en este trabajo se presentan y describen algunos modelos de supervisión disponibles en el sistema estadounidense.

Article from The Crime Report discussing the April 22nd, 2016 NACOLE/John Jay College Academic Symposium "Building Public Trust: Generating Evidence to Enhance Police Accountability and Legitimacy". Links below are to resources related to the event.

This Policy Brief explains how applying the principles of good security sector governance and engaging with security sector reform (SSR) can help to achieve the goals of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. Over the last decade the UN system and many states and international actors have recognized that SSR should be gender responsive, identifying and addressing the different security and justice needs of women and men, girls and boys, across different parts of the community. In some SSR programmes, priorities have been set to promote the participation of women in the security sector. At the same time there is a need to step up the engagement of the WPS community with issues of security sector governance. This Policy Brief argues that applying a security sector governance lens to WPS helps to reveal the key barriers to and drivers of change. This Policy Brief: Ê explains the principles of good security sector governance Ê examines how security sector governance and SSR are addressed in the WPS Agenda Ê outlines how a security sector governance approach can catalyse the transformative and sustained change needed to realize the WPS Agenda. What is good security sector governance? The term "security sector governance" describes the formal and informal influences of all the structures, institutions and actors involved in provision, management and oversight of security and justice, at both national and local levels. Governance may be good or bad in quality. Good security sector governance is attained when the following principles of good governance apply to a state's security and justice sector. 1 Ê Accountability: There are clear expectations for provision of security. Independent authorities oversee whether these expectations are met, and impose sanctions if they are not. The security and justice sector is held accountable for meeting the diverse needs of all parts of the population. Ê Transparency: Information is freely available and accessible to those who will be affected by decisions and their implementation. Ê Rule of law: All persons and institutions, including the state, are subject to laws that are known publicly, enforced impartially and consistent with international and national human rights norms and standards. Rule of law requires equality in access to justice for all: women, men, boys, girls and people of different gender identities.

The principle that armed forces and security services should be subordinate and accountable to democratically elected political leadership has long been seen as a basic condition for the effective functioning and well-being of Western societies. Yet for many years in NATO member countries the principle was taken for granted; assumed but largely unspoken and seldom explored. NATO enlargement changed this situation. One of the conditions aspirants were asked to meet was to ensure that their armed forces and defence establishments conformed to the standards prevailing in alliance countries.
However, having set the condition NATO members then had to
reach agreement on what these standards were and what reforms would
be needed to reach them. In the flurry of activity that followed officials and academics hastened to define the basic parameters of acceptable civil-military relations against which the aspirants could be assessed. Three basic problems inherited from the former regimes stood out: the dominant, privileged and insular position of the military, the lack of civilian defence expertise and the absence of the habit and the mechanisms for democratic accountability. The need to address these problems saw the emergence of two initiatives relevant to this volume. The weakness of parliamentary institutions and expertise and the consequent democratic deficit provided the impetus for an initiative by the NATO PA designed to assist the new parliaments in developing the structures, processes and expertise needed for parliamentarians to play an effective role in the development and implementation of security policy.
The Editors would  like to thank respondents from national parliaments
who responded to requests for information about the ‘Powers, Procedures and practices of Parliamentary Oversight of Defence in NATO Member States’ tabulated in Annex 1.

See also Azeri, English and Ukrainian versions

This article gives an overview of how civilian control of the military in Slovenia is implemented in practice. It utilizes the perspective of the controlled entity itself, that is, the Slovenian Armed Forces. The findings show the type and characteristics of civilian control in Slovenia and how they hinder military effectiveness. As one of the European transition countries to have concluded the democratization of its civil–military relations, civilian control over Slovenia’s Armed Forces is now in place; however, the control mechanisms have had several debilitating effects on the country’s armed forces—the democratization of civil–military relations has been achieved at the partial expense of military effectiveness. Because of this experience, the Slovenian case could serve as an example of how successful democratization of civil–military relations can sometimes produce negative outcomes, or collateral damage, for the military, especially when the employers of the control mechanisms are not aware of the effects that the exercise of their control might have on the military’s ability to execute core missions. Methodologically, this article brings an approach for analyzing interrelations between civilian control and military effectiveness.