The state of Canada is announcing a new USD 30 million grant to help develop and sustain the struggling Afghanistan justice system. This is part of the USD 1.2 billion that Canada has pledged in support of Afghanistan between now and 2011.
The Canadian aid has been announced in conjunction with an Afghanistan rule-of-law seminar in Rome. A total of USD 360 million has been pledged to raise salaries of justice system personnel, and re-building prisons and other infrastructure. The seminar was spearheaded by Italy, who has 2,000 troops in Afghanistan.
In a previous post, I mentioned that many EU participants in ISAF are particularly concerned with rule-of-law issues in Afghanistan vis-a-vis the U.S. detainee system. The infamous Pol-e-Charki prison has been recently refurbished, but many other prisons in Afghanistan are in far worse condition than Pol-e Charki had been. Having rule-of-law in Afghanistan is essential to the state, but this effort may well bind together many of the ISAF participants as well. That would also be a desirable development.
Photo: US Army Corps of Engineers
