This report provides information about police-related activities of the SPMU, as well as other cross-dimensional police-related activities of other thematic units in the Secretariat and OSCE Institutions. It also gives an overview of the capacity and institution building activities undertaken by the OSCE field operations in support of their respective host-State governments.
In 2010, the SPMU continued providing police-related support to the OSCE Secretary General and the OSCE Chairman-in-Office. The unit also responded to participating States’ requests for assistance in police reforms; and supported the OSCE field operations in the implementation of their mandates. Support of the field operations included, inter alia, assistance in screening and selecting new personnel, along with the provision of advice on the formulation and implementation of new projects. Particular efforts were devoted in this regard to the deployment of an OSCE police monitoring and advisory component to Kyrgyzstan in response to a violent inter-ethnic crisis in the southern region of Kyrgyzstan in June 2010.
In response to Permanent Council Decision 914 of 6 December 2009, the SPMU prepared a Report by the OSCE Secretary General on Police-Related Activities of the OSCE Executive Structures up to the End of 2009. The report analyzed and assessed OSCE police-related activities of the previous ten years and provided forward looking perspectives and strategic recommendations for OSCE policing. The findings of the report were further discussed at the Annual Police Experts Meeting (APEM) in May 2010 as well as at the 2010 Annual Security Review Conference. Based on these findings, the SPMU, by the end of 2010, prepared a “food for thought paper” on The Role of the SPMU and OSCE Police-Related Activities, which served as a basis for the OSCE Strategic Framework for Police-Related Activities, which the participating States envisaged to adopt in 2011.
The SPMU’s efforts in developing baseline police capacities of participating States and its support to policy development was underpinned by the publication of an English and Russian version of a manual on Police and Roma and Sinti: Good Practices in Building Trust and Understanding, a project that was undertaken in close co-operation with the ODIHR Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues. The Unit also embarked on developing a manual on identifying victims of trafficking in human beings in the context of community policing. Principles of democratic policing were also promoted through the continuing distribution of SPMU’s key publications to the OSCE field operations, and through holding a regional workshop on Democratic Policing in Sarajevo.
SPMU training projects focused on facilitating and providing training in investigating Trafficking in Human Beings and in combating illicit drugs and precursors, the latter including training courses for Afghan law enforcement officers which were organised in close co-operation with participating States, Afghan authorities, other OSCE executive structures and the international community.
The SPMU was also very active in dealing with organised crime issues, organising and participating in a number of high-level meetings and workshops that focused on promoting regional co-operation in fighting transnational crime, including cyber crime.
Utilizing and further enhancing its Policing Online Information System, the SPMU also continued serving as a main collection point and central repository for OSCE police-related institutional knowledge, providing the platform for sharing information resulting from OSCE activities, from local initiatives and from development work of other international organisations and agencies