Jerusalem/Ramallah/Jericho, 13/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Union's goal is to help Palestine build democratic institutions that are controlled under the governance of the Palestinian Authority and in line with international standards.
The EU therefore set up the EU Coordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support (EUPOL COPPS mission) in 2006. This Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) mission helps the Palestinian Authority build the institutions of the future State of Palestine in the areas of police and justice, helping them develop and reform. “EUPOL COPPS has played an important role in capacity-building in the Palestinian police. It also has a valuable role in the security and justice reforms”, a high level European official based in Jerusalem told a few journalists, including from EUROPE.
Since the last extension of its mandate, in June 2015, the mission has become more strategic and more structural. It is based in Ramallah and has 64 international officials and 45 premises. It focuses more on the reforms in the Palestinian institutions and less on individual formations, according the deputy head of mission, Lena Larsson. The goal is “to ensure that the institutions we support are strengthened, that the rules and responsibilities are clear” - for example on who does what, Larsson stated. She added that the EU wanted to see more legislation and division of responsibility between the institutions. The mission nevertheless acts on a technical level and not on a political one, she underlined.
The general objective of the mission is to strengthen the ministry of the interior and the Palestinian civil police, along with the Palestinian criminal justice system. The improvement of cooperation between the police and the prosecutor, and real coordination and cooperation at the Palestinian level, with the EU and with the other partners, are other objectives of EUPOL COPPS's work. The mission has three work sections: one section on advising the police, another on the rule of law (which proposes technical, legal and judicial advice to the different Palestinian judicial institutions), and another section on evaluation and planning.
In more concrete terms, EUPOL COPPS has enabled many achievements on the ground. For example, the EU financed a police school and the mission contributes to the training or re-qualification of Palestinian police officers. Every year, between 2,000 and 3,000 police officers benefit from initial training, upgrade training or special courses. The objective of EUPOL COPPS is to train those who will then train their compatriots in order to focus on more specific training, such as the fight against cybercrime. The mission also supported the creation of the unit to protect the families of police in 2008. Amongst other issues this unit deals with domestic violence, which is one of the main offences in the country. Over 6,000 cases were handled by this unit in 2015. The unit also helps the section of the automatic digital fingerprinting identification system of the Palestinian police, which enables the police to take digital fingerprints on the scene of crimes and offences, so that they no longer have to be based only on the confession of the guilty party.
Palestinians face obstacles that are not always surmountable. Although Palestine is making progress and Europeans judge the Palestinians as being professional, difficulties persist.
Without any meetings of the Palestinian Legislative Council (the Palestinian parliament has not sat since 2007) it is up to the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to create laws by decree, which sometimes takes time and does not help public debate. For example, although the law on the Constitutional Court was created in 2006, the jurisdiction was only officially created by the president and started operating in early April 2016. Other laws, such as the family protection code, are still waiting on the president's office. Furthermore, the Palestinian law is a patchwork of different legal systems, with legislation dating from the Ottoman era, from British colonisation, or picking up elements of Jordanian legislation and laws passed by the Palestinian Authority, which does not help work either.
The Palestinians also have to face difficulties caused by the division of their territory. All efforts are only focused on the West Bank because Gaza is currently under the control of Hamas. While the Palestinian Authority has the control on Area A, Israel has the control on Area C, which is 66% of the West Bank territory. For Area B, the Palestinians have the civil responsibility and the Israelis handle security issues. “It is difficult to communicate between the areas”, said Palestinian minister Abou Diak, adding that it was very difficult to have a judicial decision applied in areas not managed by the Palestinian Authority. Similarly, Palestinian police officers have difficulty in obtaining the equipment they need because it is all under Israeli authorisation. This is not to mention that operational cooperation between the Palestinians and Israelis is very weak, if not non-existent. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)