Afghanistan courts get Latvian boost

Jul 18, 2008
In cooperation with the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

KABUL- On July 16 according to the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Latvia’s Special Representative in Afghanistan and political and development advisor to the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rudolfs Bremanis signed an “agreement with the Agency for Technical Co-operation and Development (ACTED) on procedures for the allocation of financing and execution of works in relation to the next Latvian assistance project in Afghanistan, in the province of Faryab, on the construction and furnishing of three court buildings, and training for judges and employees.”

The costs of the project is a total of 500,000 euro, of which 100,000 are allocated by the Latvian Government and Foreign Ministry, and EUR 400,000 are co-financed by the European Commission, which has declared strengthening the rule of law to be one of its priorities in Afghanistan.

The project provides for the construction of new court buildings,  specific training course for judges, so as to broaden understanding and knowledge about the basic principles of the rule of law and judicial procedures.

The decision to select Faryab was based on two main selection criteria set by the European Commission, namely: the court needs to own a specific plot of land on which buildings can be erected, and priority is given to the courts with the largest number of cases heard. Previous court sittings and case hearings in these and other districts of Faryab, as well as in most of the country, took place very poor and inadequate conditions in war-torn buildings.

Support for this project was also received from the leadership of Afghanistan’sHighest Courtin Kabul, and from the Governor of the province of Faryab, Abdul Haq Shafaq.

This is the second project in Afghanistan to be supported by Latvia.

The first Latvia-financed development project on water supply was implemented and successfully completed on 29 May in the Almar district of the province.


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