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Developing a national joint training for counter-terrorism investigators and prosecutors in Uganda

The European Union (EU) ¨C United Nations (UN) Global Terrorism Threats Facility concluded, on 4 October 2024, a first one-week training-of-trainer course on Counter-Terrorism Investigations and Prosecutions for practitioners from the Uganda Police Force¡¯s (UPF) and Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). The course was organized by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and funded by the EU.

The main goal of this course was to build the capacity of the participants to become trainers using different learning facilitation techniques adapted to different audiences while developing 28 modules of a national Advanced Joint Counter-Terrorism Training Course for investigators and prosecutors in Uganda. 

The topics of these modules included inter-agency cooperation, confidential informants, transforming intelligence into evidence, open-source intelligence, joint investigation teams, counter-terrorism and human trafficking, human rights-based approach and respecting the rule of law, case file management, investigative interviews, terrorism and witness protection and forensic evidence management.

Closing the training course, Assistant Inspector-General of Police David Wasswa Ssengendo and Director of Counter-Terrorism, congratulated the 14 UPF and ODPP new trainers. ¡°We are very proud, and we are going to make sure that the capability we are getting contributes to the delivery of justice globally, ¡± he stressed.

The EU-Ãå±±½ûµØGlobal Terrorism Threats Facility, in coordination with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has been supporting Uganda since July 2023 through advice, mentoring, and training on strengthening national coordination and capacities to investigate and prosecute terrorism-related cases within a rule of law and human rights framework.

Reflecting on the capacities that he acquired thanks to the course, a counter-terrorism investigator said: ¡°I will be able to apply these skills in future: how to run a role play, get feedback and design a training module. It's a pride to be a trainer in our special units.¡±
¡°I had the opportunity to learn more  that I usually do as a recipient of trainings. Now I can mentor others to be effective in prosecuting counter-terrorism cases, ¡±  a prosecutor who benefited from the training stated.