BAMYAN: Community-based court monitors trained on fair trial rights

4 Feb 2013

BAMYAN: Community-based court monitors trained on fair trial rights

BAMYAN - The UNAMA trained community-based court monitors in Yakawlang district of Afghanistan’s Bamyan province on basic procedural rules and fair trial rights last week.

The 28-29 January training, conducted by the UNAMA’s Rule of Law unit in cooperation with an Afghan civil society organization, Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA), covered the issues such as “principal rules of criminal procedure and the concept of fair trial rights”, according to UNAMA’s Michael Lackner, who led the training.

Alternating with presentations were role plays and exercises to make it more understandable to the trainees. “The training was well received by the IWA trainees and leadership, with the concept of simplifying the presentations for non-lawyers and combining them with role-play scenarios and exercises functioning well to deliver basic understanding,” added Mr. Lackner.

Yakawlang District Chief Judge Mohebi and Yakawlang District Judge Qararudin Haqjo also attended the training held at the Yakawlang District Court.

“We learned a lot at the training for our monitoring work. We wish we received such training at the beginning of our monitoring work months ago,” said one IWA monitor after completing the training.

UNAMA had organized the first of such training for court monitors in the Bamyan centre in September last year. Similar trainings are planned to be held in Bamyan’s provincial districts of Panjab and Waras at springtime this year.

By UNAMA Bamyan