Responsibilities
Katarina works primarily on Ukraine programmes within the fields of human rights, criminal justice reform, and investigative interviewing. Her work focuses on strengthening human rights-based and evidence-based approaches within law enforcement, prosecution services, and legal education.
Katarina serves as Project Coordinator for the Norad-funded initiative "Investigative Interviewing in Ukraine: Upholding Human Rights in Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Governance", implemented under the Nansen Support Programme for Ukraine.
Through this project, NCHR supports Ukrainian investigators, prosecutors, and justice sector institutions in improving the quality of investigative interviews and criminal investigations, including in the context of war crimes investigations. The project promotes evidence-based interviewing methods that improve the quality of evidence, reduce the risk of wrongful convictions, abuse of power, and torture, and strengthen compliance with international human rights standards.
Katarina also serves as project coordinator for "Building Capacity for Human Rights-Based Criminal Justice Education in Ukraine", project funded through Nansen EDU, coordinated by HK-dir. The project is implemented through a collaboration between the NCHR, the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, King Danylo University, and JustGroup.
The project aims to strengthen criminal justice education in Ukraine by integrating human rights-based and evidence-based approaches into legal education. Through curriculum development, capacity-building for university staff, applied research, and cooperation between academia and practitioners, the project supports the education of a new legal professionals capable of conducting fair, non-coercive, and evidence-based investigations in line with international standards.
Background
Katarina has a professional background in the Norwegian Correctional Service, where she worked for six years in high-security prisons. She later completed a bachelor's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies and a master's degree in Human Rights at the NCHR, University of Oslo. Here master thesis looked into how Norwegian correctional services’ have practically implemented recommendations on reducing the use of solitary confinement through increasing meaningful social contact in high-security prisons.
Education
- Correctional Officer Education, Correctional Service College and Education Center (KRUS)
- Bachelor in Peace and Conflict Studies, Oslo New University College
- Master in "The Theory and Practice of Human Rights", University of Oslo
- Russian 2, University of Tromsø