Training on Community Policing for Newly Liberated Areas of Iraq

Community policing is an important aspect for creating an assuring environment for the displaced to return in safety and security to their homes in the newly liberated areas.

The “Training Workshop on Improving the Impact and Effectiveness of Community Police in the Newly Liberated Areas in Iraq” was delivered by the Human Rights Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) in cooperation with UNOPS and the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. Funding was provided by the Government of Japan.

The training programme included two intensive training courses from 11-20 December for 60 staff of community police (men and women) from liberated areas in Ninewa, Diyala, Salah al Din, and Kirkuk. The courses focused on basic concepts of human rights and gender-based policing, the United Nations human rights system, and standards of conduct for community police to protect women, children and vulnerable groups.

For participant Hatham Adnan Hassan, from the Diyala police force, the course exposed him to ways to apply international human rights standards to police work.

“I hope that we can apply what we learned in this training about Conventions and Codes of Conduct in practice in our society. I also hope that the United Nations will continue such training, because many police members have heard about the United Nations but don’t know about the relationship between international human rights standards and police work.”

Trainer Shahla Saeed, a Human Rights Officer from UNAMI, said “the participants made great progress in understanding community privacy and international standards of human rights. They increased their support for human rights concepts and their understanding of gender and child rights. The participants showed their happiness to learn how respect for human rights can improve relations with the communities they serve.”

The UNAMI Human Rights Office plans to follow up on this programme with a “training of trainers” in January 2018. The training of trainers will prepare 12 participants to conduct effective training courses with community police officers to support their role, reinforced by the values, principles and standards of human rights.