OSCE Centre promotes training for prison staff in Turkmenistan
Twenty-five officials participated in an OSCE-organized seminar on institutionalised pre-service and in-service training for prison staff that was held on 15 November 2011 in Ashgabat.
Organized by the OSCE Centre in co-operation with the Interior Ministry and the S.A. Niyazov Institute under the Ministry, the seminar brought together prison officials from throughout Turkmenistan, academics, representatives of the Parliament and key institutions functioning under the President of Turkmenistan - the Institute for State and Law, the National Institute for Democracy and Human Rights and the Academy of State Service.
International experts from Lithuania, Poland, the UK and Kyrgyzstan discussed with other participants the importance of highly qualified prison staff and briefed them about the mandate and work of prison staff training centres in their countries, the development of curriculum and co-operation with other training centres.
“Prison officials must be at the forefront of protecting human rights of individuals who are deprived of their liberty,” said Begoña Piñeiro Costas, the OSCE Centre’s Human Dimension Officer. ‘Pre-service and regular in-service training offered by prison staff training centres provides much needed guidance to officials working in penitentiary institutions and helps them advance their knowledge and professional skills, thus enabling them to better fulfil their important public duties.”