Review

In Ukraine, where the establishment of a democratic state governed by the rule of law is ongoing, the issue of public control over the activities of law enforcement agencies is becoming increasingly important. The Constitution enshrines the right of citizens to participate in the management of public affairs, which implies the need to involve them in mechanisms for supervising law enforcement agen-cies. Public organizations, as a structured form of civil society, play a key role in ensuring transparency, legality, and respect for human rights in the activities of the police, the prosecutor’s office, and other law enforcement agencies. The purpose of this article is to comprehensively examine the role of public organizations in mechanisms for supervising law enforcement agencies, analyze current Ukrainian legislation and international experience, and identify legal and practical problems in imple-menting the principles of openness and accountability. The authors consider forms of public participa-tion in monitoring the actions of the police and pre-trial investigation bodies, including the submission of appeals, participation in disciplinary commissions, the work of public councils, monitoring of human rights compliance, and access to public information. It is shown that current legislation grants pub-lic organizations significant powers, but their implementation often faces formalism and procedural restrictions. Particular attention is paid to judicial practice, where the participation of NGOs in the protection of public interests is limited by the requirements of justification of powers and compliance with statutory tasks. The objective side of the problem lies in the need to strike a balance between the independence of law enforcement agencies and effective public control. Subjectively, civil society representatives seek to ensure legality and the protection of human rights, without having sufficient legal mechanisms of influence. A comparison with international practice (e. g., in the United King-dom, the United States, Canada, and Germany) demonstrates the importance of institutionalizing civil oversight and creating independent structures for reviewing complaints against the police. The authors conclude that improving the national model of public oversight should include expanding the procedural rights of civil society organizations, strengthening their role in lawmaking, and develop-ing additional forms of participation in overseeing the activities of law enforcement agencies. Public oversight should not be decorative, but a real instrument of influence that contributes to strengthening trust in the law enforcement system and adherence to the principle of the rule of law.