ISS Workshop, BY INVITATION ONLY: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Regional Counter-terrorism and International Crime Training Workshop

Date: 2010-08-31 to 2010-09-02

Venue: Golden Tulip Hotel, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

East Africa has been adversely impacted by broad range of core international and transnational crimes, including, war crimes, crimes against humanity, terrorism, money laundering and more recently, piracy off its coasts. Moreover, Rwanda has been the subject of an international ad hoc tribunal; Kenya and Uganda are situation countries before the International Criminal Court (ICC), and Burundi is in the process of consolidating peace after many years of conflict.

The establishment of the ICC in 2002, the steady development of the international legal regime against terrorism, made up of sixteen universal counter-terrorism instruments, and the expanded international treaty framework for dealing with transnational organised crime and money laundering, has broadened the scope for responding to core international and transnational crimes at the national level. However, this core international and transnational crime regime is built on the premise that the burden for rendering justice to perpetrators of these serious crimes rests mostly on national jurisdictions. This means that domestic criminal justice systems need appropriate laws, policies and capacity to comply with this obligation.

Despite notable progress made by several countries in east Africa, the reality is that many states lack the required laws and specialised capacity to deal efficiently and effectively with these complex crimes within their domestic criminal justice systems. In an effort to support regional capacity building efforts and the sharing of good practices, the Judiciary of Tanzania in collaboration with the International Crime in Africa Programme (ICAP) at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) with the involvement of regional experts will host a regional training workshop for senior law enforcement, criminal justice and judicial officials on counter-terrorism and international crimes. In addition to Tanzania, the following countries from the region will be invited: Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Seychelles and Rwanda.

The three-day training workshop will cover a broad range of issues relating to the investigation, prosecution and adjudication of core international and transnational crimes, including terrorism, money laundering and piracy. The workshop is designed to be immersive and practical, aimed at enhancing the specialised knowledge and capacity of participants, and the sharing of good practice between officials from the respective countries. This event is part of a series of workshops conducted annually by ICAP.