Civilian Police and Rule of Law Programs

Afghanistan

The Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) supports maintenance and operation costs for seven INL Regional Training Centers (RTCs) in Kandahar, Konduz, Nangarhar, Paktya, Bamiyan, Herat and Balkh; a Central Training Center in Kabul for police; and a Forward Operating Base in Islam Qala. Support includes salary and all logistical support for more than 500 police training advisors and mentors deployed throughout Afghanistan and at the Ministry of Interior. The Bureau provides continued support for community policing initiatives, law enforcement, revenue-generation initiatives and the establishment of specialized police units such as the Family Response Unit and the Afghan National Civil Order Police.

Mentors are deployed to more than 24 provinces and engage with local Afghan police officials to develop skills and capacity to extend the rule of law throughout Afghanistan. Training advisors work with Afghan police instructors to provide basic, advanced and specialized training at the RTCs. The basic eight-week course addresses core skills and knowledge required for general policing functions. Advanced and specialized training courses including firearms, crowd control, literacy, computer skills, anti-corruption, and domestic violence are also implemented at the Regional Training Centers.

The Department of State, through INL, works with Afghan ministries to give a holistic reform framework. Through its police program, INL advises the Afghan Ministry of the Interior in its reform efforts, including a Pay and Rank Reform Initiative, which restructures, reorders and reforms the Ministry of Interior organizational and payroll systems. Rank reform has right-sized the Ministry by testing and vetting all senior officials; rank reform has been completed to the company level in the Afghan National Police (ANP). Pay reform has aligned salary scales with rank and responsibility, and recent developments in pay reform have provided for pay parity with the Afghan National Army at the lower ranks. To ensure that the ANP receive their salaries in full and on time, electronic funds transfers are being implemented and the ANP are being issued personal identification cards complete with biometric data, rank, and training as well as general identification details.

With the Department of State’s assistance, the Afghan Government adopted a Constitution that respects human rights, the rights of women, and adheres to due process standards, and has enacted critical judicial legislation including the Interim Criminal Procedure Code, the Court Administration Law, and the Law of Prisons and Detention Centers. Afghanistan has also made progress in drafting and approving a national development strategy for the justice sector. INL’s justice program has directly supported the Afghan Government for provincial justice assessments and conferences, conducted basic and specialized criminal justice and corrections training, provided basic equipment and supplies to justice institutions, and mentored Afghan defense counsels. The Bureau is helping to reorganize and reform the Attorney-General’s Office and identify key areas to improve police-prosecutor coordination in preparation for coordinated training and mentoring.

The Bureau’s staff provides technical and advisory support to Afghan justice personnel to improve effectiveness, operation, and coordination in the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, and the Attorney-General’s office. The staff also conducts standardized training for justice personnel (including prosecutors and defense counsel) focusing on Afghan and international law, human rights, and criminal justice procedures, as well as mentoring Afghan justice personnel to improve investigations, police-prosecutor coordination, case management, trial advocacy and adjudication of criminal cases.

INL has also established a comprehensive corrections program providing basic and in-service corrections training; capacity-building through development of standard operating procedures and policies; and equipment and infrastructure support to improve conditions, management and operation of prison and detention facilities nationwide.

In addition, INL provides advisory services and technical support to the Ministry of Justice Prison Directorate to improve the capacity of the nationwide corrections system. INL conducts standardized corrections training in Kabul and key provinces, with an emphasis on human rights and corrections management and operations. INL provides equipment and infrastructure support to justice and corrections facilities near U.S.-funded police Regional Training Centers and courts in provincial locations and in major poppy growing and drug-trafficking regions. INL supports the development of legal, professional organizations and institutions, including the bar association and licensing organizations, as well as legal training and aid centers. INL supports specialized training and mentoring for judges, prosecutors, and investigators on issues such as counternarcotics, trafficking, corruption and prosecutorial investigations, as well as supporting a specialized, secure facility to contain offices and secure courtrooms for counternarcotics prosecutors and investigators, and Counternarcotics Tribunal judges. This facility will also contain a secure detention center for narcotics defendants.

INL has awarded a grant for a U.S./Afghan LLM and Certificate Program for Afghan law professors to help improve the education of legal professionals. The grant offers Afghan legal educators the opportunity to participate in an intensive, year-long LLM program, which provides them with exposure to western law-school teaching techniques, modern university life, emerging legal trends and doctrine, the U.S. judicial system and basic governing structures.

[See photos of programs in Afghanistan.]

Haiti

INL funds the fifty U.S. police officers and three U.S. corrections officers who serve in the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, screening, training and advising the Haitian National Police (HNP), as well as training and assisting correctional officers. INL also provides infrastructure funding for HNP stations, prison and detention facilities, duty gear for new police recruits and in-service graduates, vehicles, motorcycles and communications equipment. In addition, INL helps support training, equipment and infrastructure development for the Haitian Stabilization Initiative (HSI), a U.S. government program that integrates security and development in Cite Soleil, one of the country’s most volatile urban areas.

Iraq

INL assists the Government of Iraq and U.S. Central Command’s Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT) in professionalizing civil law enforcement institutions and the Iraqi Police Service to the point they can effectively maintain order in a manner that is consistent with international policing and human rights standards. To this end, we provide International Police Advisors and experts in civilian law enforcement to help advise, train, and mentor the Iraqi Police Service, Ministry of Interior, and Department of Border Enforcement. INL supports the Major Crimes Task Force, a U.S. government interagency task force that advises specially vetted Iraqi police on the investigation of high-profile crimes.

INL’s Rule of Law Programs help the Government of Iraq establish a criminal justice system that is sufficiently effective and fair that Iraqi citizens will turn to it, rather than violent militias and other “alternative” forms of justice, to resolve disputes and seek justice. These programs include training of judges, judicial investigators and other court staff; the creation of a Judicial Protective Service modeled on the U.S. Marshals Service; the development of policies, procedures, and technology for tracking defendants through the criminal justice system; and legislative drafting assistance for laws pertaining to the judiciary and the criminal codes. In addition, INL and our interagency partners provide legal and rule of law advisors to Provincial Reconstruction Teams who help design and manage INL projects and who advise and mentor Iraqi justice officials.

INL’s corrections development assistance helps the Iraqi Corrections Service (ICS) with developing its capacities to operate a rapidly expanding prison system in a safe, secure, and humane manner that conforms to internationally accepted standards for the treatment of prisoners. To accomplish this goal INL, in coordination with interagency partners, provides corrections advisors and trainers who deliver training and mentoring to the newly established Iraqi Corrections Service under the Ministry of Justice. We are also constructing/expanding prisons in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help house the growing number of prisoners being processed into the system.

INL also works to combat corruption in Iraq by providing advisors who train and mentor investigators of Iraq’s Commission on Public Integrity, with efforts focusing on improving the investigators’ skills in forensics and crime scene investigations. INL has also funded efforts to improve the Government of Iraq’s auditing capabilities, and to automate government payroll systems to improve accountability and limit corruption.

Kosovo

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 authorized UNMIK (United Nations Mission In Kosovo) in June 1999 at the end of the NATO bombing campaign. The mission includes an armed international police force, with nearly 2,000 officers from 49 countries, including more than 200 Americans. UNMIK police officers perform the full range of law enforcement functions in Kosovo, while simultaneously helping to develop and train the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) from the ground up. This support includes training and mentoring of specialized law enforcement techniques for special units of the KPS, as well as training in leadership and management for KPS officials.

UNMIK has been working towards eventually turning over full policing responsibilities to the KPS, which numbers approximately 7,300 trained officers from all ethnic groups in Kosovo. The EU is currently planning a follow-on EU Rule of Law Mission to commence in 2008. It will comprise 1,800 police officers, judges, and prosecutors, will continue this work, with the US planning to contribute 80-100 officers and 4-6 prosecutors and judges. In addition to the over 200 civilian police officers, the U.S. also currently provides approximately four police trainers to the Center for Public Safety Education and Development, which supports the Kosovo Police Academy. The KPS academy is an Executive Agency under the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

INL supports the Department of Justice Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance and Training Program (OPDAT). OPDAT is engaged in a number of initiatives to assist the development of Kosovo’s Public Prosecutors Office, the Kosovo Judicial Council, the Ministry of Justice, and the Law Faculty at the University of Pristina to strengthen and maintain the rule of law. INL also supports the Department of Justice International Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance Program (ICITAP), which provides a wide spectrum of support to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kosovo Police Service and other law enforcement institutions. This broad array of activity ensures the proper development of the criminal justice sector through mentoring, training and other technical assistance designed to promote effective investigation and prosecution of criminal activity.

INL also supports the Department of Justice International Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance Program (ICITAP), which provides a wide range of support to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MOIA), Kosovo Police Service (KPS) and criminal justice system. This broad range of support assists in the development of all law enforcement institutions, to include the MOIA, Border and Immigration, and designing a Rule of Law Information Technology system which conforms to international norms and practices. A part of INL’s support ensures that all criminal justice sector agencies receive not only adequate training and equipment to enable investigation, but professional mentoring to bring about appropriate resolution of criminal activity.

Lebanon

INL manages a police reform program in Lebanon that aims to enhance the capabilities of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) to enforce the rule of law in Lebanon, cement sovereign Lebanese government control over its territory and protect the Lebanese people. To help develop the ISF into a modern police force that operates in a democratic society, makes its own decisions and sets its own priorities, this program will provide ISF with essential law enforcement training, non-lethal equipment, installation of a communications network and refurbishment of academy and command and control facilities.

The training included in this program will consist of two elements – Basic Cadet and Basic Instructor courses. Basic Cadet training will teach policing principles and concepts, including democratic policing, patrolling, and anti-terrorism. The goal of basic training will be to familiarize new cadets with the roles they will play in a larger police force. The Instructor program will be designed to teach Lebanese police advisers how to develop their own curricula and programs to train police recruits. The program will put in place a mechanism to ensure Lebanese trainers are able to sustain the responsibility for training new ISF cadets in the future so that ISF training will not always require international assistance.

Liberia

INL funds ten officers serving under the United Nations Mission to Liberia (UNMIL); these officers help vet and train members of the Liberian National Police Force (LNP) as well as police cadets, the Special Security Service and the Seaport Police. INL has donated communications and transportation equipment as well as uniforms to the LNP. Four of the contingent’s senior advisory team (SAT) have been assigned as high level advisors to LNP Headquarters to assist with operations and administration.

INL provided four U.S. Law Enforcement Trainers in December 2007 to train up to 500 LNP officers and establish the new LNP Emergency Response Unit (ERU). This program will provide training, equipment, communications and the construction of ERU facilities in close coordination with the UNMIL/UNPOL senior advisors. This program includes the development of standard operating procedures and policies, as well as providing management and leadership mentoring to ERU supervisors in the precepts of internationally recognized use of force, human rights and internal oversight.

INL provides robust support to Liberia’s justice sector through its Justice Sector Support for Liberia (JSSL) Team, which arrived in Monrovia in January 2006. As of December 2007, the team consisted of seven prosecutors, one public defender, one criminal investigations advisor, one administrative advisor, and one civil engineer. The team provides one-on-one technical assistance to their Liberian counterparts and assesses equipment and infrastructure needs.

INL Ministry of Justice (MOJ) Logistics support is being provided to improve the overall functioning and effectiveness of MOJ Departments in need of office furniture and administrative equipment. The MOJ departments benefiting from this support include personnel, procurement, comptroller, legal counsel, public relations, internal auditing, and several county attorneys’ offices. In addition, extensive renovations and repairs to courtrooms within the Temple of Justice (TOJ) are currently underway.

Palestinian Authority

INL is working with the U.S. Security Coordinator in Jerusalem to enhance the capabilities of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces in the West Bank. Our assistance is focused on providing basic, leadership, and refresher training for the National Security Forces and the Presidential Guard. We are also upgrading their training facilities and providing non-lethal equipment to support their operations. Another INL project involves working with the Palestinian Authority to develop a Strategic Planning Directorate in the Ministry of Interior to enhance the Ministry’s long-term capacity for planning, oversight, and reform.

Sudan

INL provides assistance in Sudan to develop a secure and stable environment for the upcoming elections and referendum. INL assistance in Sudan provides a contingent of 15 police, judicial and corrections officers within the UN Mission in Sudan in order to facilitate comprehensive criminal justice sector development activities to the benefit of Southern Sudan and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

[See photos of programs in Sudan.]