OSCE Office in Yerevan trains law enforcement personnel on democratic management

TSAKHKADZOR, Armenia, 30 June, 2007- Democratic governance of the security sector is the focus of an OSCE-supported training course for representatives of the police, the Ministry of Justice, the National Assembly, non-governmental organizations and journalists.

The course, which finishes today, is one of a series organized by the Dutch NGONGO
non-governmental organization, Centre for European Security Studies, and the Armenian NGO, International Centre for Human Development, with the support from the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

In the training course, experts from the Netherlands, Germany and Poland share knowledge of legal standards and best practices of democratic oversight with their Armenian colleagues. Special attention is paid to police, state and community co-operation and integrated border management issues. The training course also includes a role play exercise.

Sami Faltas, Executive Director of the Centre for European Security Studies (CESS) from the Netherlands, underlined the importance of introducing new norms and values into the work of the police and establishing an attitude of service towards citizens and the community. These are the basic principles of democratic policing and which will make the police accountable.

"Comparative analysis of lessons learned will serve as an effective tool for pursuing the democratic reforms that are underway in the Armenian law enforcement sector," he added.

The training course aims to raise awareness of both legislative and executive aspects among law enforcement personnel and increase their capacity to promote reforms and democratic governance of the security sector.

"Democratic management of law enforcement is a topical issue in nowadays Armenia. Therefore, this training is very useful and hopefully will also take place in the future," said Shushan Khaltamajyan from the Institute for Civil Society and Regional Development NGO, a participant to the training.

Similar training on democratic control of the armed forces was organized earlier this year for defence sector representatives.