EUPOL CPJP Conference – Activities and achievements in the provinces

Kabul, 14 March, 2012. Lashkar Gah, Mazar-e Sharif or Meymaneh: around 90 EUPOL police officer and legal experts in the City Police and Justice Programme (CPJP) are deployed in 12 provinces throughout Afghanistan.During the bi-annual CPJP conference in Mid March organised by EUPOL Field Implementation Office (FIO), the heads and deputy heads gathered to exchange experiences and lessons learned.

The challenges differ from province to province to deliver trainings and support to the Afghan National Police and the Afghan judicial system: In the South of Afghanistan,movement restrictions due to the insecure environment remain a major issue. The major challenge for us is security in Lashkar Gah, but we still support the Afghan National Police there by delivering police and
Rule of Law trainings,” says Paul Brooker, Head of EUPOL CPJP in Helmand.

The security situation looks more positive in the North, in Mazar-e Sharif for instance. There, EUPOL experts are rolling-out of one of EUPOL flagship projects in Kabul: Police District 3, a role model for a modern Afghan civilian police. In Mazar-e Sharif City, in Police District 6, the project tarted in June 2011 and is still ongoing. “We are very lucky that the Chief of Police in Police District 6 is very interested to set up this work. It makes our job easier to implement the project successfully”, says Thomas ahmann, Deputy Head of CPJP Mazar-e Sharif.

During the three day conference, EUPOL Head of Mission, Brigadier General Jukka Savolainen, thanked the participants for their attendance and thanked them for their contribution to the mission’s achievements. He also updated them on future challenges and plans and the potential impact of the upcoming strategic review on EUPOL's presence in the field.

Yet, the main focus of the conference was to meet, to share knowledge and experience; both between the Field Offices themselves and between HQ and the Field. For Paul Vorvis, EUPOL Head of FIO, the conference was a success: “It exceeded my expectations.My special thanks goes out to
those from EUPOL HQ who could take the time to spend a couple of extra hours to get a better understanding of CPJP operations, their issues and their achievements.”