The 12th Regional workshop for judges, prosecutors, and police in South Asia on effectively countering terrorism took place in Colombo from 5 to 7 June 2017. Over the past eight years, these regional workshops have involved over 300 senior judges, prosecutors, and police officials representing all eight member States of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Organized by the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), in cooperation with the Government of Sri Lanka and the Global Center on Cooperative Security, the workshop allows participants to identify a number of counter-terrorism-related gaps and potential solutions.
CTED and its partners continue to take their findings into account in facilitating the delivery of technical assistance aimed at strengthening Member States＊ capacities in these areas.
Some of the participants in the workshop.
Representatives of numerous regional and international organizations have been engaged in the project, which provides law enforcement officials from across the region the opportunity to interact and share experiences with their counterparts on sensitive counter-terrorism-related issues.
The project has also fostered the creation of a regional online network of expert practitioners who are able to share information and good practices in a number of sensitive areas, including domestic and international cooperation in criminal matters, interview and interrogation, use of sensitive evidence, advanced investigative techniques, and gender.
Project donors include Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Sweden, and the United States of America.