OSCE/ODIHR trains Albanian counter-terrorism police officers on protecting human rights in fight against terrorism

Enhancing the ability to respect human rights while countering terrorism was the aim of a training course organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) for 22 officers from the Albanian State Police Counter-Terrorism Directorate in Tirana on 21 and 22 November 2017.

ODIHR staff and a counter-terrorism expert from the United States facilitated the course, organized with the support of the OSCE Presence in Albania and the Albanian state authorities.

The training consisted of various interactive and practice-oriented sessions, combining individual and group exercises, as well as discussions on issues closely linked to the participants’ operative duties. Officers analyzed the risks of policing practices that fail to respect human rights and how such conduct can jeopardize the overall effectiveness of counter-terrorism policies and practices.

“Participants reflected on a broad range of human rights matters that are immediately applicable in their daily work as counter-terrorism officers, with a focus on issues such as the impact of stereotypes, the importance of community support for the work of the police and the use of interviewing techniques that create trust and respect,” said Johannes Heiler, ODIHR Adviser on Anti-Terrorism Issues. “Respecting human rights is vital to ensure the long-term effectiveness of counter-terrorism policing, and we hope initiatives such as this course help to provide tools for law enforcement in this regard.”

The course built on ODIHR’s training curriculum for law-enforcement officers on complying with human rights standards and effectively countering terrorism and was tailored to the local context and needs on the basis of a pre-training assessment. The course was a follow-up to a pilot training session on human rights in counter-terrorism investigations organized jointly by ODIHR and the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threat Department, in Tirana in October 2016.