Vol. 77, No. 1Cover stories

In mission, continuity is key

Specialized teams provide consistent approach to development

Specialized teams, like the Management Advisory Team, work with the Haitian National Police to address gaps in development. Credit: Sûreté du Québec

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When Canada deploys police officers to the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), they become United Nations police officers (UNPOLs). As such, the UN decides how best to use these resources.

This is the way the mission has operated since it began in 2004. But after the earthquake in 2010, a new approach emerged.

The sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against women and children in the tent cities — where close to a million people were living post-earthquake — caught the world's attention and needed addressing.

"There was a problem with the fact that rape or any sexual crimes are treated as a minor offence, tiff or assault," says former MINUSTAH Police Commissioner Marc Tardiff. "We needed to change that mindset."

A new concept emerges

SGBV became a major focus of the mission. When Norway approached the UN in 2010 about developing a specialized team to focus on the issue of SGBV, Tardiff had his doubts.

It came down to being able to use the resources where he thought they were needed. Norway, who committed to funding the team, wanted to keep the unit together and have control over the project.

"But after having gone through six months, nine months of the special project, what I found was this was the best approach," says Tardiff.

In phase one, the SGBV specialized team trained about 1,000 Haitian National Police (HNP) officers from all regions of Haiti on how to handle domestic violence and sexual assault cases. This included training the trainer so the HNP can take ownership of the project when they're ready.

They've also provided logistical support for building proper facilities within police stations where victims of SGBV can feel comfortable reporting the crime.

Since the beginning, two Canadian UNPOLs have been a part of the team. And as part of negotiations for phase two, which has begun, the Norwegians added a special clause to ensure that Canadians will remain part of the team.

The team is now working on several activities including a new concept where the HNP set up a two-week clinic at a hospital in the region of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti.

"A lot of the time, victims go see their doctor and then they don't have the transportation or communication to call the police," says RCMP Sgt. Alain Tremblay, a member of the SGBV team. "With this concept, it's like a one-stop shop. This allowed the victim to talk to the police at the same time."

A Canadian perspective

When it came time for the RCMP to report what Canada did the previous year of the mission, they noticed the SGBV team made substantial progress and was able to articulate the results they achieved in building HNP capacity, says Sgt. Pierre Rivet, a project officer with the RCMP International Policing Development.

It's because over a period of time there was continuity in the approach since the project was run by the Norwegians and Canadians, which typically doesn't happen.

"We realized that specialized teams were the way to go," says Rivet.

Now, in addition to being involved in the SGBV specialized team, Canada is working with the UN to develop three new projects on serious and organized crime, community policing and a management advisory team (MAT).

"We're there to work side-by side with them as coaches," says RCMP Sgt. Stéphane Bérubé of the MAT. "We're trying to get them to think strategically, not just in the short term, but for the long term."

The MAT project supports middle managers in training so they can implement what they learn in the field. Although still in its infancy, Bérubé says it's running smoothly.

"We're improving all the time," he says. "And we get new police officers who arrive to the mission from Canada and they have new ideas, but in a year from now, we'll still have the same objective, which is to make the HNP better by having a stronger management team."

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