Eritrea: Law workshop for police

The ICRC delegation in Asmara has completed a " train the trainers " workshop in international humanitarian law and human rights law with instructors and other senior officials from the Eritrean Police Force. During the six-day workshop, the theoretical and the practical were routinely combined so that day-to-day issues of policing were presented in the light of the law's provisions, with particular focus on techniques for teaching and implementing them. Altogether 12 police officers took part, many of them full-time training professionals at the Eritrean Police Training Centre in Asmara.

Apart from the central subject of humanitarian law, the workshop also dealt with law enforcement, ethical and legal police conduct, prevention and detection of crime, maintaining public order, and vulnerable groups in society, with particular emphasis on women and juveniles.

The workshop is the second example of such training cooperation between the Eritrean police and the ICRC, and represents the continued commitment of the Eritrean police to promoting humanitarian law. It was organized by a Danish ICRC specialist who is himself a former policemen.

Eritrea announced its accession to the Geneva Conventions in August 2000. As the promoter and guardian of international humanitarian law, the ICRC has a mandate to encourage respect for it and to support the States which, by becoming party to the Geneva Conventions, undertake to spread knowledge of its provisions.