Representatives of IOM, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC),
the European Commission (EC) and the Government of Lithuania
yesterday gathered in Cheghcharan, provincial capital of Ghor, with
the officials from the Ministry of Justice and Office of the
Attorney General, to lay the foundation stone of a new provincial
Attorney General's HQ.

The project will be funded by the European Union's (EU) Support
to Provincial Governance (SPG) programme in Afghanistan, which has
provided UNODC with EUR 500,000 to strengthen the capacity of the
justice sector in Ghor.

The one-year initiative is co-funded by the Lithuanian
government and will also construct a new Prosecutor General's
Office and refurbish the existing Appeal Court, in coordination
with the Lithuanian Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) by May
2009.

The initiative will also train some 60 judicial staff, including
judges, prosecutors, police officers, prison officers and
administrative staff at the provincial Attorney General's Office in
areas including the Penal Code, the Interim and 1974 Criminal
Procedure Codes, the Constitution of Afghanistan and the
Penitentiary and Juvenile Laws.

The EU SPG programme aims to help the Government of Afghanistan
strengthen the capacity of provincial governance institutions,
provincial councils and rule of law institutions such as the police
and judiciary bodies.

The programme, implemented through the PRTs and their
implementing partners and managed by IOM, is designed to provide
support to the civilian activities of PRTs led or supported by EU
Member States.

IOM administers the SPG programme by facilitating project
implementation cycles. This includes information sharing, needs
assessment, applications review, contracting, funds disbursement
and monitoring. All approved projects are implemented in support of
the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS).

For further information, please contact:

Enira Krdzalic

IOM Kabul

Tel + 93 (0) 700 275 910

E-mail: "mailto:ekrdzalic@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">ekrdzalic@iom.int

or

Katsui Kaya

Tel +93 (0) 700 185 961

E-mail: "mailto:kkaya@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">kkaya@iom.int