In the context of the mandate given to the Technical Committees and in the absence of local experience about federal policing, the Technical Committee on Crime and Criminal Matters organized on the 17th of February at its Joint Contact Room in the buffer zone for its members a seminar on “Policing a federal country: challenges and benefits” with the support of the United Nations. 

The seminar was opened by Ms. Lisa Buttenheim (SRSG,    UNFICYP) and was chaired by Mr. Andrii Sachavo (Senior Police Adviser, UNFICYP).   Expert speakers from the United States’ FBI and State Department, Australia (ex-Federal Police senior officer) and the United Kingdom (Professor of Derby University) shared their knowledge with the members of the Committee and answered questions. Professor Andreas Kapardis and Mr. Hakki Onen, the two Team Leaders of the bi-communal Technical Committee on Crime and Criminal matters also gave a joint presentation on the topic of “Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots and policing opportunities in Cyprus: 1878, 1960 and today”.

The seminar was organized by the Technical Committee on Crime and Criminal Matters in the context of its trust-building function, acknowledging the need to acquire specialist knowledge about different models of and the experience of different countries with federal policing that would be useful in a future settlement of the Cyprus problem. All speakers emphasized the importance of adapting federal policing models to the anticipated needs of a future united Cyprus.