Kabul, 13 June 2005: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will hold a workshop, at the Intercontinental Hotel, from 14 to 15 June 2005, on the new law of prisons and detention centres. The workshop will be chaired by Mr. Giuseppe di Gennaro, a renowned international legal expert.
The meeting will be attended by high-level Afghan authorities, including Mr. Sarwar Danish, Minister of Justice (MOJ), and Mr. Daquiq, Head of Attorney Generals Office, United Nations staff, including Ms. Doris Buddenberg, UNODC Representative, diplomatic representatives of many concerned countries and by a number of Afghan experts and operators in the penitentiary field.
Mr. di Gennaro served, from 1982 to 1991, as Excutive Director of the United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control, the predecessor organization of UNODC. His wide-ranging experience as legal advisor includes consultancies with the Council of Europe, where he was providing technical assistance on legal reform in Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia. From March 2003 to Septemeber 2004, he has been Special Coordinator for Italy's Justice Lead in Afghanistan.
During the workshop Mr. Gordon Holloway, UNAMA correction advisor, Mr. Sayed Yousuf Halim, Head of Legislative Department of MOJ, Gen Abdul Salam Bakhshi, Head of Central Prison Department, Mr. Waziri, Head of Law Enforcement Department, Attorney General Office, Mr. Muzafarudin Tajali, Head of Secretariat of Supreme Court, Mr. Ahmad Shah Mirdad, Head of Monitoring Section and Evaluation of Human Rights violations - AIHRC, will make presentations related to their specific competencies in this field.
The workshop will focus on ways and tools for putting the law into action and on methods for monitoring prison institutions. Human rights issues in relation with the new law will be particularly considered. The initiative has been taken by UNODC in the context of the prison system reform project responsible for providing assistance for the drafting of the law and its proper implementation.