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.
