Police Masterclass 2017
Whilst many countries have designed and delivered specific training programs to prepare police officers for participation in peacekeeping missions, there are far fewer opportunities to prepare police experts to act as advisors and mentors to reform initiatives in post-conflict and transitional, organisational development contexts. A good advisor/expert requires a different set of skills, attitude and level of knowledge from those needed for traditional and narrowly defined peacekeeping deployments.
The National Police of the Netherlands, together with DCAF/ISSAT took the initiative to further explore this need in 2011 via their partnership with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office and College of Policing and the Norwegian Police University College.
To date 84 delegates from 9 different countries have participated in a Masterclass. Evaluation showed them to have been very successful and alumni of this pilot programme have already made important career moves following the Masterclass.
There is significant ownership by the five policing organisations, who have taken over the roll-out of the course for the long-term. The modules developed will also assist ISSAT in the inclusion of more police reform modules/examples into its Level 2 Advanced SSR training course.
ISSAT support to Development of a NORLAM Transition Strategy
In 2007, the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security established the Norwegian Mission of Rule of Law Advisers to Moldova (NORLAM). The programme, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has deployed active justice practitioners from Norway to provide advisory support to Moldova in various aspects of criminal justice system reform. The NORLAM team composition has usually included judges, prosecutors, probation officers, defence lawyers and corrections officers supported by Moldovan legal advisors. While the programme components have changed over time, notable focal areas of work have included commentary of draft laws, supporting development of a juvenile prison (Goian), pre-trial detention, and various aspects of juvenile justice reform. The programme with its holistic approach to the criminal justice chain remains a unique example in global justice and security sector reform practice.
A decision has been taken to close down all programme components and activities of NORLAM by 30.06.2017. Norwegian experts (2) and local staff will be present on the ground until end of June. Given the important role of NORLAM in supporting justice sector reform in Moldova for a decade, the Norway is seeking to develop a structured transition strategy that will promote sustainability of NORLAM reform efforts, ensure continuity of work, and reduce the potential risks associated with the eventual closure of the programme.
Police Master Class 2016
Support to “Senior Strategic Advisors Master Class on Police Reform in an International and SSR Context”.
In 2010, at the request of the Netherlands, ISSAT was asked to support a group of four police academies to develop a two week training course, targeting mainly (senior) law enforcement officials. The aim of the course is to train these officers on the issues around police reform within an SSR and post-conflict context, and to prepare them to act as police reform advisors within multilateral mission or bilateral support programmes.
The programme is a joint endeavour chaired by the Netherlands in conjunction with Norway, Canada the UK, and Australia - as of 2014. ISSAT will provide advisory support, supply its current SSR training materials and present a module on looking at police reform through an SSR lens. The first course was piloted in September 2011, and a second course took place in 2012, both at Bramshill in the UK. Subsequent courses have been hosted by the Swiss, the Norwegians and the Netherlands. This year’s Masterclass will be hosted by the UK in Scotland.
The course aims to prepare law enforcement officials from donor countries to serve in missions abroad as police reform/SSR advisors. The course responds to a need that has been identified by each of the partners, to have police officers with a solid background in SSR issues and working in post-conflict contexts.
There is significant ownership by the four policing organisations, which have taken over the roll-out of the course for the long-term. The modules developed will also assist ISSAT in the inclusion of more police reform modules/examples into its Level 2 Advanced SSR training course.
Strategic support to the teams of Rule of Law Advisers to Moldova and Ukraine.
The Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MoJ) decided to develop a 3-year overall strategy and planning cycle to support the Rule of Law (RoL) in Moldova and Ukraine. As a starting point for discussions, the following outline was designed:
- Overall priorities Rule of Law
- Reform agenda Ukraine/Moldova – Including political commitment and context
- The Norwegian Rule of Law response pool:
- Working concept/approach: Full Justice Chain – holistic, flexible and responsive approach to support justice reform
- Process for identification of projects and priority areas of engagement
- The essential policies and procedures required for effective implementation and accountability
- Recruitment of experts
- Training
- Theory of change: Ukraine/Moldova
- Resultsframework and reporting chain: Ukraine/Moldova
- Local ownership and sustainability
- Risk
- Gender
- Anti-corruption
- Donor-co-ordination Ukraine/Moldova
- Exit Strategy