Zarzis, Tunisia, 18 December 2014 – Fifty officers from the Libyan Police Academy concluded training on Child Rights and Child Protection in Zarzis, Tunisia. The two rounds of training organized by UNICEF Libya country office focused on international standards and best practices in dealing with children in contact with the law.

This training builds on UNICEF Child Protection Programme to include Juvenile Justice and Child Protection in the regular Pre and In-Service education and training curriculum for the police officers in Libya.

Cooperation between UNICEF and the Libyan Police Academy started in 2013. “Our partnership with the Police Academy supports UNICEF continuous efforts to promote Child Rights in Libya,” said Ghassan Khalil, UNICEF Special Representative in Libya. “The officers’ enthusiasm during the training was quite notable, and would encourage us to further develop our partnership with the academy,” he added.

The Libyan officers training groups were led by Colonel Abdul Sallam Al Shoukry, who expressed his “thanks to UNICEF for conducting the training and uniting efforts to support child rights in Libya.”

UNICEF conducted the training with the International Bureau for Child Rights – IBCR. “The level of the participants was very high and they were very eager to share their experience on the topics discussed,” Said Zoe Dugal, IBCR Project Manager and main trainer in the two sessions.
 
UNSMIL Police Section participated in the two rounds of training and contributed to knowledge and experience sharing during the training.

The above training was preceded in November and December of 2014 by training workshops on Juvenile Justice for prosecutors, police officers working at the Police stations, judges and social workers. Development of materials for the Traffic Safety campaign preceded also the Police Academy training.

About UNICEF’s work on Child Rights in Libya

UNICEF’s technical support helped establish Higher Council for Children in Libya. The UNICEF-sponsored legal review of existing national child protection related laws and policies identified gaps and discrepancies of laws and policies compared to international norms and standards, and amendments were recommended. With UNICEF technical support, the Higher Judicial Institute led the process of drafting a child rights-based Juvenile Justice Law in addition to the development of syllabuses for five standing courses on child rights and justice for children. UNICEF supported also the development of similar syllabuses to the Police College and the Social Work School of Tripoli University, and an initial round of in-service trainings benefited over 200 judges, prosecutors, police officers and social workers.

For more information please contact:
Mostafa Omar, Communication Specialist, UNICEF Libya, +216 99 070 815
mosomar@unicef.org