EUAM Iraq facilitated from 2 to 4 May in Baghdad a 3-day workshop titled "Human Rights-based Policing" for 28 senior staff and agents from the Ministry of Interior.
The participants came from various departments of the Ministry including the Human Rights Directorate, the Family and Child Protection Directorate, the Anti-Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Directorate, the Federal Intelligence and Investigations Agency (FIIA), Baghdad Anti-Crime Directorate and Baghdad Police Command.
The 3-day workshop included various human rights-related presentations and group exercises
EUAM Iraq’s Human Rights and Gender Adviser Khalid Siddiqi, project leader for these workshops and main speaker for the presentations, declared: “In its efforts to contribute to a more effective civilian Security Sector Reform, EUAM Iraq aims to mainstream human rights within the security institutions through its advisory work. That is why we developed these workshops together with the Ministry of Interior, our main counterpart here in Iraq.”
The workshop consisted of background information on key national legislation and international standards on human rights, as well as group work on related topics.
Participants originated from different departments of the Ministry of Interior including the Human Rights Directorate and the Family and Child Protection Directorate
Family and Child Protection Directorate’s Lieutenant Colonel Batool Nasser Abdul Hassan, one of the two female participants, noted: “I liked the interactive approach of the workshop, we were submitted a case-study on child abduction, I played the role of the mother, everyone in our group was tasked with a different character, it is very constructive since each of us has a different approach depending on which police department we belong to.”
On his part, Ahmad Qassim Salman, Researcher and Investigator at the Human Rights Directorate, observed: “It was especially instructive since we gained more knowledge on international standards. My job is to do field visits to various Ministry of Interior’s detention centres, we interview detainees, we evaluate the level of human rights protection there, the workshop was indeed an added value in that respect.”
The certificates ceremony was held on the final day of the "Human Rights-based Policing" workshop
The "Human Rights-based Policing" workshop was the second of a series of nine such workshops, all intended to support the Ministry of Interior’s commitment to Iraq’s National Human Rights Strategy: six of these workshops to be held in Baghdad by July, and three in Basra starting next week, for a total of 270 expected participants.
Read more:
EUAM Iraq hosts Civil Society Platform in Baghdad: “Building Trust with Security Forces” (14/03/2023)