At the end of May our director Jane Townsley was back in Kosovo to deliver training to police investigators on ‘Effective Responses to Violence Against Women’. Force International were in Kosovo on behalf of UNWomen as part of their on-going support for the capacity building of the Justice sector to deal effectively with VAW crimes. The training was designed to meet the specific needs of Kosovo Police based on the cultural context in which they provide policing services to local communities. This course built on previous training we delivered in 2016 which, at that time, focused on domestic violence. In line with the Istanbul Convention, this latest training was broadened to include additional crimes of violence against women.

 

We returned to Kosovo in June to deliver a ‘Training of Trainers’ course. Both investigators and police academy trainers participated, therefore further training can be delivered. Importantly, this ensures the training is sustainable using existing Kosovo Police resources.

 

Improving the delivery of policing services to victims of VAW crimes is key to building trust and confidence in communities.  Officers will be better able to understand the complexity of the issues to enable them to tackle these crimes pro-actively.

We know from research that female victims of violence are more likely to report their crimes when they believe the police will take their complaints seriously. When they know they will receive a professional service and be treated with respect and dignity. Force International are proud to have played our part in building the capacity of Kosovo Police to deal with crimes of VAW.  By doing so we have also played our part in building the trust and confidence of local communities in the Kosovo Police.