almanac on security sector oversight in the Western Balkans

Table 5: Generic grading system
1
2
3
258
Constitutional
and legal
framework
Relevant
provisions
in
Constitution
Legislation
Seriously
bad
practice
Implementation Administrative and management
capacity
Bad
practice
Decent
practice
Procedures
and
Institutions
Resources
(human,
financial,
material)
? ? ? ?
Frequent, wide-spread, severely bad practice, maybe no legislation
? ? ? ?
Organizational
culture
Values
Public
recognition
Still some bad practice, attempt to regulate relevant right for criterion resulted in adoption of some,
but not all laws for relevant filed of observation
For all fields of
observation
Laws and key institutions are in place for all fields of observation, sporadic bad practice
4 Mechanisms are fully functional (track record time of successful implementation), institutionalized
through secondary legislation, bad practice is an exception
5 Institutionalization for all indicators, prevention is the rule, there is organisational culture and acceptance
by broader society
The results of these factors are most evident at the level of implementation and a
gradual change of values. In practice this usually means that laws have been implemented
for at least 2 years. Examples of bad practice may still exist, but serious bad
practice is an exception. Sporadic bad practice may occur mostly due to lack of adequate
resources. Security institutions mostly comply with the decisions of oversight
bodies. Personal data is collected, stored and distributed in line with legislation. Information
is selectively classified as secret according to clear criteria for classification
which has been made public and can be challenged in judicial or external oversight
initiatives, in line with the relevant law on data classification. There is no resistance
to reforms, but dominant organisational cultures may not yet have internalised all
relevant democratic norms. In practice, this means that officials in security institutions
disclose relevant data not because they believe in the right of citizens to know about
public matters, but because the new legislation prescribes that they should do so. At
this level of reform, the public has started demanding services from state institutions,
although selectively, and there is still some lack of trust. The public is informed about
new rights but not educated sufficiently to routinely practice these rights.
9 . Data collection
Research teams conducted significant research on each criterion that included desk
reviews of primary and second sources, interviews, questionnaires and in some cases
focus groups with relevant state authorities. Due to the pioneering nature of this