Parliamentary Accountability for the Security Sector of Ukraine (PASS II)

With the support of the Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOPs) of the Department of Global Affairs Canada, the Parliamentary Centre (Canada) in partnership with the Agency for Legislative Initiatives (Ukraine), is implementing a second phase of the Parliamentary Accountability for the Security Sector Project (PASS II) – this new phase of PASS runs from April 2023 until March 2025. PASS II continues to support the Ukrainian Parliament’s role in providing improved democratic oversight, focusing on Ukrainian resilience and non-military resistance in relation to Russian aggression. In its first phase, the project placed an emphasis on the differential impacts on women and girls, as well as men and boys.

PASS II has three components:

  • To support the Verkhovna Rada and its relevant committees to initiate, debate and pass legislation focused on the defence effort, non-military resistance, accountability for human rights violations and other impacts of war.

  • To strengthen the efficiency of the Rada to operate under the conditions of war and reconstruction, with a particular focus on the business continuity of the parliament.

  • To strengthen the efficiency of the Rada and civil society actors to support the rebuilding of regional and local democratic institutions and processes of governance in newly liberated regions, regions along the front lines, and other territories affected by the war.

Since the start of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, the PASS Ukraine project team, Ottawa and Kyiv based, continues to provide practical and significant support to the Parliament in order for it to play its crucial role in supporting Ukraine’s defence and resistance while keeping democracy alive and functioning.

Project Highlights:

  • With PASS guidance and support, the staff of the Rada Committee on Law Enforcement and the Committee on European Integration have conducted legislative impact assessments of more than 15 draft laws since the start of the war. This includes bills focused on facilitating the process of war crimes investigation, the functioning of the National Guard, regulating civilian gun ownership, countering human trafficking, as well as measures to help Ukraine’s economy survive under war conditions.
  • In addition to this, the PASS Ukraine team has contributed to the Rada’s work on defining priorities for parliamentary reform in the post-invasion and reconstruction periods; prepared a Handbook on Legislative Impact Assessments (LIA) in the Ukrainian context, including gender analysis; law drafters from the Ministry of Defence were introduced to the nature and value of legislative impact assessments, which would help them bring their draft laws in accordance to NATO standards; and 27 briefing notes on the work of Ukraine’s wartime parliament reached 15 institutions and at least 100 individuals.
  • More recently, PASS II Ukraine completed a very successful visit by the Law Enforcement Committee of the Ukraine Parliament to Ottawa to study the Canadian military justice experience. The delegation, composed of 4 MPs, 3 from the leading party and 1 from the opposition, had presentations by various offices on the system of Canadian military justice, learned about the practical application of military justice in the field unit through a visit to the Petawawa military base, and on the political level met with various parliamentary committees and groups. Two months after the visit, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the draft law on military police, which defines the legal framework for organising the Military Police’s activities, general structure, tasks, and powers. The members of the Law Enforcement Committee were sincerely grateful to the PASS Ukraine team for arranging the visit to Canada and providing Canadian expertise that helped in preparing the just-adapted draft law on military justice.
  • PASS also supported the visit of the Regional Committee members to Lithuania to study Lithuania’s experience in international cooperation and to improve the legislation on cross-border collaboration that the Committee is currently working on.
  • PASS conducted a workshop on the principles and practices of legislative impact assessment (LIA) with the Committee on National Security, Defence, and Intelligence, Main Legal and Scientific Departments of the Ukrainian Parliament and the Ministry of Defence. LIA is an essential tool for improving the quality of draft laws and for decreasing the legislative spam in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Therefore, we actively work with the Verkhovna Rada Committees and assist them in implementing them.

Ongoing/Upcoming Activities:

  • Preparing the visit for the Defence Committee members to Canada to study the practicalities of parliamentary oversight over the security sector and dealing with classified information
  • The project team provides ongoing support to the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in developing a business continuity strategy for Ukraine’s parliament under martial law. 
  • The project team is conducting a study on parliament-CSO interaction under wartime conditions. The study will help inform us on how to improve the legislative and oversight process, including public consultations.
  • Provide ongoing support to the law enforcement and regional committees in preparing and reviewing the legislative impact assessments on the pieces of draft legislation. 
  • The project team is working on the study “The peculiarities of work of women parliamentarians during martial law in Ukraine”. The study will help the project better understand and address the evolving needs of women legislators working on defence and security issues.

Every step of the way, PASS Ukraine integrates the needs of citizens, especially women and marginalized groups. The project helps fill the existing gap between efforts to expand parliament’s capacity to govern effectively and efforts to ensure the needs of both men and women are being addressed.

To learn more about PASS II Ukraine’s work, explore our briefing notes about the project’s progress!

The briefing notes provide the latest information about the legislative activities and work of the Parliament of Ukraine. Ukraine’s democratically elected officials continue to perform their duties while enduring Russia’s unprovoked and horrific invasion.

Ukraine Briefings Notes 2023

Ukraine Briefings Notes 2024


Project Duration: 2023-2025
Focus: Security Sector Reform, Gender, Parliament of Ukraine
Funder: Peace and Stabilization Operations Program of the Global Affairs Canada
For more information about PASS II Ukraine, please contact us at europeandasia@parlcent.org