Priority 1. Enable the Afghan National Security Forces in Kandahar to sustain a more secure environment and promote law and order.

The ANSF are composed of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police (ANP). Canada’s priority here is to help—with ISAF and other partners—to build the ANSF into forces able to provide enough security for governance and development to proceed. The Canadian Forces have primary responsibility for training and mentoring the ANA in Kandahar. Canadian civilians and U.S. partners lead capacity building in the ANP, supported by the Canadian Forces.

Canadian Objective for 2011 (ANA): By 2011, we expect that the ANA in Kandahar will demonstrate an increased capacity to conduct operations and sustain a more secure environment in key districts of Kandahar, with support from ISAF allies.

Organized as the 1st Brigade of the 205th ANA Corps, ANA units under Canadian Forces mentorship are acknowledged to be among the most professional in the country and achieved new progress during the quarter. The Brigade Headquarters and one of the battalions (called kandaks in Afghanistan) maintained performance at the highest capability milestone—fully capable of near-autonomous operations. Four other battalions have reached the second highest capability milestone.

ANA units mentored by Canadians displayed increasing capacity to plan and conduct independent operations, although they usually partner with Canadian or other international forces. Specialized battalions began to field artillery, logistics and engineering capabilities for the first time, and Brigade commanders grew in capacity to lead operations.

Canadian Objective for 2011 (ANP): By 2011, we expect that the ANP will demonstrate an increased capacity to promote law and order in key districts of Kandahar, supported by justice-sector and corrections capabilities.

A reliable, responsive rule-of-law system places demands on all three of its dimensions—police, courts and corrections. It is not enough to train and mentor police to investigate crimes and make arrests according to law and with a respect for legal rights. The rule of law also demands fair trials with competent judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers. And while we help to improve policing and courts, we are also helping Afghans to raise standards in prison administration and infrastructure in Kandahar. Each dimension of the rule of law must reinforce the others.

In Kabul, for instance, the Canadian Governance Support Office assigned a police advisor to the Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for the ANP. The advisor is working to help improve rule-of-law and anti-corruption capacity within the Ministry.

In Kandahar, more than 230 ANP members completed training in the U.S.-led Focused District Development program, and are now being mentored by a growing contingent of Canadian police with Canadian military support. (There were 25 civilian Canadian police officers in Kandahar at the end of the quarter.) This mentoring was complemented by construction of four new ANP facilities and upgrades to 10 ANP facilities in the province, including substations, checkpoints and headquarters.

A pilot literacy program for the ANP, launched in January with Canadian funding, achieved quick success and the project is to be replicated in other key districts. By the end of the project, 250 ANP officers in Kandahar are expected to be trained to basic reading levels. And in Kabul, Canada became a full member of the International Police Coordination Board—which is strengthening international cooperation, in partnership with Afghan authorities, for training, equipping and otherwise improving ANP performance.

At Kandahar City’s Sarpoza prison, trainer-mentors from Correctional Service Canada were developing a program for mid-level managers in administrative and resource management. Among other things, this will help ensure that infrastructure and operational improvements at the prison, already supported by Canada, are maintained for the long term by Afghans themselves. These and other Canadian activities in the correctional sector help bring prisons and detention facilities in Kandahar closer to international standards, to help ensure that detainees—including those transferred to Afghan authorities by the Canadian Forces—are treated properly.

In a facility where many of the staff can scarcely read or write, literacy training is proving crucial. As one guard put it, “By attending the literacy classes I have improved my ability to read and can now read the prison operations manual, which allows me to do my job better.”

In Kandahar—where ANP and corrections officers have been poorly paid, vulnerable to corruption and often targeted for attack by insurgents—improving policing and prisons is a pressing necessity. But strengthening the rule of law calls for more comprehensive measures to support those reforms.

For example, there have been only eight judges presiding over the province’s courts, serving a population of about one million. Judicial salaries have been grossly inadequate, one reason Kandahar has not attracted enough judges. The shortage of judges leads to long delays in cases, while insurgent violence discourages judges from travelling to outlying districts. Prosecutors are similarly ill-paid and threatened by the insurgency. Many are also untrained; of 22 prosecutors in Kandahar, few have law degrees.

With capacity so weak throughout Afghanistan, justice is too often delayed and denied. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reports that Afghanistan continues to suffer from a pervasive culture of impunity, in which corruption or abuses go unpunished. It reports continuing illegal and arbitrary detention; confessions forced through ill-treatment and torture; and frequent accounts of arbitrary denial of justice in disputes over housing, land and property rights. The OHCHR says women especially lack access to redress mechanisms when their rights are violated.

Afghan authorities, in Kandahar particularly, have taken steps to correct these deficiencies, and Canada has been assisting in these urgent reforms. Prison conditions in Kandahar, for example, are rated among the best in Afghanistan.

During the quarter, Canada announced a contribution of more than $21 million to strengthen Afghan rule of law. Of that, $20 million will be provided to the United Nations Development Programme’s Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, the main instrument for paying ANP and corrections salaries. (Some $19 million of the $20 million will be directed to police salaries—enough to pay 3,000 salaries for two years; the remaining $1 million will support salaries for corrections officers.) Another $1.3 million from the contribution will go to the Human Rights Support Unit of the Ministry of Justice. A further $350,000 will go toward reconstruction following the February 11 insurgent attacks against the Ministry of Justice and Central Prison Department in Kabul.

In support of justice infrastructure in Kandahar, Canada initiated projects to provide equipment and improvements to the Attorney General’s Office and the ANP Prosecutor’s Office, and delivered equipment to the Land Registry Office. As well, 67 justice officials in Kandahar completed a 21-day criminal law workshop arranged by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Training focused on roles and responsibilities of prosecutors, judges, lawyers, police and corrections officials, with the aim of enhancing respect for due process. A second course prepared 21 of these officials to become trainers themselves.