Original Query: Margie Cook, UNDP Tanzania
Posted 20 October 2004
Dear Colleagues,
Re: Request for information-sharing on experiences in the field of election-related training for police and security agents on their roles as well as the rights and responsibilities of other stakeholders such as political parties, observers and electoral management authorities, and the relationships between all major players when it comes to security issues.
If you have experiences in this area that you can share with us, materials that have been produced that we could review, or even consultant organisations that have been especially good implementers of training for instance that you could recommend, we'd be grateful to hear from you.
Many thanks in anticipation,
Margie Cook
Tanzania Elections 2005
Original Query: Margie Cook, UNDP Tanzania
- Linda Maguire, BDP/DGG, NY
- Lenni Montiel, UNDP Viet Nam
- Francis J. James, BCPR NY
- Innocent Chukwuma, Founding Director, Center for Law Enforcement Education, Nigeria
- Nadeje Bauzil, UNDP Haiti
The following contributions received in response to a query from Sri Lanka, handled offline, on elections in rebel-controlled areas, may also be of interest in relation to the present query:
- Marco Carmignani, UN Electoral Assistance Division
- Haley Horan, BDP/DGG, NY
Summary of Responses:
- UNDP has been engaged in the past with a number of countries on broad-based training for police and security agents [e.g., in Cambodia, Haiti (Nadeje Bauzil kindly shared the project documents), El Salvador and Palestine]. However a review of such programmes undertaken in the late 1990s found that police training programmes are rarely effective in isolation; they require the presence of a well-developed institutional infrastructure for success. It was cautioned that in the absence of a conducive legislative framework and functional and efficient courts, a well-trained police force is doomed to ineffectiveness.
- Additional potential external partners recommended included the Bridge Project which offers a five day course including a module on "preparing for the electoral event" that would include security, and OSCE Mission's Police Development Unit which also conducts training courses on election security.
Related Resources:
External Resources:
- "Voting Operations - Security Force Training." ACE Project. 06 Dec. 2001:
http://www.aceproject.org/main/english/po/poe05f.htm - The Bridge project - Building Resources in Democracy, Governance & Elections. 01. Nov. 2004. The aim of the BRIDGE Project is to provide a forum and resources for developing expertise in electoral administration and to enhance the sustainability of electoral processes by developing the capacity of a trained corps of professionals.
http://www.bridge-project.org
UNDP/UN Resources:
From the Network Archives:
Resources in Full:
Linda Maguire, BDP/DGG, NY
UNDP has been engaged in the past with a number of countries on broad-based training for police and security agents (e.g., in Cambodia, Haiti, El Salvador and Palestine). One thing that was found from a review of such programmes in the late 1990s was that police training programmes are rarely effective in isolation; they require the presence of a well-developed institutional infrastructure for success. In the absence of a conducive legislative framework and functional and efficient courts, a well-trained police force is doomed to ineffectiveness. The same would hold true for police or security force training in the specific area of elections.
Lenni Montiel, UNDP Viet Nam
UNDP has been engaged in the past with a number of countries on broad-based training for police and security agents (e.g., in Cambodia, Haiti, El Salvador and Palestine). One thing that was found from a review of such programmes in the late 1990s was that police training programmes are rarely effective in isolation; they require the presence of a well-developed institutional infrastructure for success.
Francis J. James, BCPR NY
UNDP has been engaged in the past with a number of countries on broad-based training for police and security agents (e.g., in Cambodia, Haiti, El Salvador and Palestine). One thing that was found from a review of such programmes in the late 1990s was that police training programmes are rarely effective in isolation; they require the presence of a well-developed institutional infrastructure for success. In the absence of a conducive legislative framework and functional and efficient courts, a well-trained police force is doomed to ineffectiveness. The same would hold true for police or security force training in the specific area of elections.
Thanks to all who contributed!
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