UN scheme to teach gender awareness to judicial officers in Afghanistan

5 February 2004 – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will start work in April on a scheme across Afghanistan to refurbish judicial facilities and train judicial officers on gender awareness, prosecutions and case handling.

The €6 million (euro) project, paid for by the European Commission, is designed to improve access to justice for women, children, returning refugees and other vulnerable groups.

A spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told reporters in Kabul that a public awareness campaign about the rights of vulnerable groups would be included in the scheme.

Initially, the judicial reform project will take place in the provinces of Herat, Balkh, Bamiyan and Nangarhar, but it is likely to be expanded across the whole country.

Already courts in Kabul, Kandahar, Balkh and Gardez have been renovated or reconstructed and the badly damaged Ministry of Justice building in Kabul is being repaired.