Swedish National Police Join INPROL as a Facilitating Organization

On February 27, 2009, at a ceremony attended by Swedish Ambassador Jonas Hafstrom, the Swedish National Police signed a Memorandum of Understanding with INPROL to provide facilitation and prepare responses to member queries for the Police Commanders Forum. They join the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in facilitating this Forum. This is a historic partnership for INPROL, and we are eager to work together to meet the requirements of our members.

INPROL Co-Director Visits Afghanistan

INPROL co-director Scott Carlson traveled to Afghanistan at the end of February and met with senior rule of law and police professionals to promote INPROL usage.  He also gathered input on making INPROL more effective in the Afghanistan context.

USIP Launches ConstitutionMaking.org

The U.S. Institute of Peace and the Comparative Constitutions Project (CCP) are pleased to announce the launch of constitutionmaking.org, a site intended to provide people engaged in constitutional drafting access to essential materials, insights, and expertise.

New INPROL Program Specialist

Zach McKinney recently joined the INPROL Management Team as the new Program Specialist. He previously attended the University of Cambridge, the University of Grenoble and Arizona State University. Welcome, Zach!

INPROL will be holding its annual meeting in July at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. The focus of the event will likely be a discussion of Rule of Law lessons learned from the UN Mission in Kosovo. Please watch for more information in the very near future!

John Nikita

John Nikita graduated from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada in 1973. The following year he graduated from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy and became a member of Canada's national police service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

As a member of Canada's national police service, Mr. Nikita served in a variety of duties including municipal, provincial and federal law enforcement. In 1994, he formed the RCMP's United Nations Civilian Police (UNCIVPOL) Administration and Logistics Unit. After establishing Canada's national police peacekeeping operations program, he later went on to serve in three United Nations peacekeeping operations. In 1997 he served as the Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Operations for the UN mission in Haiti. In 2000/2001 he served as the Chief of Operations of the UNMIK Border Police followed by a period as the Chief of Human Resources of the Kosovo Police Service within UNMIK in Kosovo. In 2005/2006 Mr. Nikita served as the Senior Police Advisor to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). He retired as Director of the RCMP International Peace Operations Branch in Ottawa, Canada at the rank of Superintendent after more than 33 years in the service of Canada.

Mr. Nikita has contributed to more than a dozen queries, including Consolidated Responses on "Promoting Gender Mainstreaming and Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Host Nation Police Forces" and "Educating Communities About How to Be Policed in a Democracy," and an upcoming Consolidated Response, "Introduction to Civil Law Legal Systems."

The INPROL team would like to thank the following members for their contributions received since January:

• Sermid D. Al-Sarraf
• Bart A. Barnack
• Claudia Baroni
• Yolande Bouka
• Gary Cordner (2)
• Guy Van Craen
• Arthur Crosby
• Tim DelVecchio (2)
• Penny Harrington
• Gary Hill (2)
• Vic Josey
• Richard Monk
• John Nikita (5)
• Ngozi C. Nwosu
• Marie-Dominique Parent
• William Potter
• Bill O'Neill (2)
• Salvador Rodriguez
• Philipp Rotmann
• Larry Sage
• William Sells
• Hermanprit Singh (2)
• Andrew Solomon
• Markus Zimmer

Event Listings

Below are a couple of the upcoming events currently featured.

• Tuesday, June 9, 2009 International Police Executives Symposium, Ohrid, Macedonia

• Friday, June 26, 2009 Measuring Justice: Justice Sector Evaluation & Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland

INPROL has established an Events bulletin board as a service to our members and Cooperating Organizations so that they may share information about upcoming events. If you wish to inform other INPROL members about a forthcoming event, you may do so here or contact Teuta Gashi for assistance.

Two new Consolidated Responses have been posted since our last newsletter.

1) Forced Displacement and Housing, Land, and Property Ownership Challenges in Post-Conflict and Reconstruction

2) Promoting Gender Mainstreaming and Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Host Nation Police Forces

There are three INPROL discussion forums: our General Rule of Law Forum, the Police Commanders Forum and a Forum for Stability Police topics. Please feel free to visit and participate!

We are currently drafting a Consolidated Response on Introduction to Civil Law Legal Systems. To contribute to the discussion, click on the link above.

Below are a few of the most recent ongoing discussions on INPROL.

Legal Aid Models in African Civil Law Countries

Hi, I'm looking for information about legal aid systems in African civil law countries. I've found a lot of information on the common law context (especially on South Africa!) but I'm having a hard time with civil. Any resouces/links would be appreciated! Please feel free to provide sources in English or French.

Received from: Salman Haq, Legal Counsel Office of the Legal Advisor, United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire

To respond to this query click here.

Lessons Learned in Capacity Building of the Justice Systems in the former Yugoslavia

INPROL Member Vic Ullom, recently submitted the following query to the INPROL membership:

Query: The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) is conducting a research study of Best Practices and Lessons Learned in capacity building of the justice systems in the former Yugoslavia. The focus is war crimes adjudication and covers 8 topics:

1. Applying of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in domestic jurisdictions
2. Investigations
3. Prosecution
4. Defense
5. Judging/chambers
6. Outreach
7. Witness/victim support and protection
8. Inter-institutional cooperation.

To respond to this query click here.

Best Practices Regarding Police Women and Children's Units

Ralph Mamiya, UN Legal Adviser at UNMIS, submitted the following query:

The Southern Sudan Police Service, with the support of UNPOL and partners, is in the process of establishing special units to address the needs of women and children (both as survivors/victims and offenders). I understand that other missions have established similar units in Liberia and East Timor, among other locations, and I am hoping to draw best practices from these previous efforts. Specifically, I am looking for:

• Evaluation tools (checklists, questionaires or other tools to assess the effectiveness of the units, particularly in an enviroment where record keeping is poor and crime statistics are nearly impossible to compile);
• Training materials, particularly on investigating SGBV in a resource-limited setting and the clinical management of SGBV;
• Any helpful observations or lessons learned on:
  • Media/awareness campaigns;
  • Work with traditional authorities;
  • Work with other justice sector actors, including social and health workers;
  • Challenges due to police officers' or community attitudes towards such a program.

To respond to this query click here.