VZCZCXRO7641
OO RUEHBC RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHDIR RUEHIK RUEHKUK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBUL #0125/01 0130931
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 130931Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5427
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE
RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUMICEA/JICCENT MACDILL AFB FL
RHMFIUU/COMSOCCENT MACDILL AFB FL
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC 0279
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 3514
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 3403
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 6670
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 2012

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 KABUL 000125 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS, SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SCA/FO (DAS GASTRIGHT), SCA/A, S/CRS, 
SCA/PB, S/CT, EUR/RPM 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/CDHA/DG 
NSC FOR AHARRIMAN 
OSD FOR KIMMETT 
CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A, CG CJTF-76, POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: KJUS PREL PGOV PTER KCRM SNAR SOCI AF
SUBJECT: DUBAI MEETING ON AFGHANISTAN JUSTICE COORDINATION 
 
REFTEL: STATE 00182847 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The December 4-6 Justice Sector 
Coordination meeting in Dubai re-invigorated justice 
reform efforts in Afghanistan. The meeting resulted in 
a new initiative to organize international efforts 
over the next few months and to develop a consolidated 
framework for justice reform at the national and 
provincial levels. In this new approach the Embassy 
Rule of Law team has begun to lead from behind, 
pushing the rest of the International Community (IC) 
to think about how their programs fit into the bigger 
picture. The meetings concluded with Italy announcing 
it would host a high-level justice conference in Rome 
this spring, the date and agenda still to be decided. 
The IC has agreed to use the interim period between 
Dubai and Rome to work out mechanisms to better 
coordinate resources and to develop an overall 
framework for justice reform in conjunction with the 
GoA. 
 
¶2. (U) The major issue, which the Dubai conference 
intended to address, is described in greater detail in 
paragraph 3. The key solutions arrived at are 
discussed in paragraphs 4-7. Additional details and 
background information are discussed in paragraphs 8- 
¶23. END SUMMARY. 
 
----------- 
The Problem 
----------- 
 
¶3. (U) The Dubai Conference was organized to address 
the lack of progress to date in justice sector reform 
and especially given the inability of the Government 
of Afghanistan (GoA) to develop its own framework for 
reform. Reform is critical to improving the security 
situation and improving rule of law, but a lack of 
strategic vision is hampering efforts. Present efforts 
for coordination have been limited to monthly meetings 
of Afghan National Development Strategy (ANDS) working 
groups and those of the recently created International 
Group Justice Coordination.  The only existing 
overarching strategy for justice reform was the 12- 
page Justice for All paper, which lacked an 
appropriate action plan to direct reform of national 
institutions or reforms at the provincial level. 
 
------------ 
The Solution 
------------ 
 
¶4. (U) The USG convened a Dubai justice coordination 
meeting to bring together major justice sector actors 
to highlight the need for a common plan and to take 
some concrete first steps towards its development. The 
meeting was moderated by the Embassy's Deputy 
Coordinator for Rule of Law with support from the 
senior Italian representative, Minister 
Plenipotentiary Anna Della Crocce, Special Envoy for 
Afghanistan. Representatives from Kabul included the 
US, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, UK, EU, EC, ISAF, 
and CFC-A as well as capital representation from the 
US, EU, EC, Germany, Canada and Italy. All sides found 
the conference to be a valuable opportunity to share 
information discuss solutions for justice sector 
development. 
 
¶5. (U) Sessions addressed existing programs then 
 
KABUL 00000125  002 OF 005 
 
 
quickly moved on to linking reforms with the Afghan 
National Development Strategy (ANDS), incorporating 
existing plans for reform, identifying gaps in present 
strategies, recognizing donor priorities and 
limitations, improving national and provincial 
coordination, and agreeing on the next steps leading 
up to the Rome Conference. 
 
¶6. (U) During the conference, the United States, 
Italy, UN, and donors discussed how to best develop an 
overall framework for justice reform, built upon 
existing GoA reform plans and expand them to create a 
comprehensive national inter-ministerial approach to 
justice sector reform. The proposed framework would 
also include a template for provincial justice sector 
reform. Existing groups, such as the ICGJR and ANDS 
working groups, will be used to approve or respond to 
proposals, such as the Supreme Court's Five-Year 
Reform Plan. 
 
¶7. (U) The long-term goal is to create a collaborative 
and holistic approach to justice reform efforts, 
addressing inclusively training coordination, salary 
reform mechanisms, administrative reforms, 
infrastructure development, and better coordination of 
provincial programs. 
 
----------------- 
Existing Programs 
----------------- 
 
¶8. (U) Italy and the US were identified to have the 
most widespread efforts, although many of the 
countries present were paying into the UN Justice for 
All project. Germany's programs are currently focused 
through the Max Plank Institute and are aimed at 
improving legal textbooks and improving the curricula 
for judicial training. The Netherlands, Canada, and UK 
have smaller programs in the provinces where they have 
PRTs and suggested that they were restricted to these 
areas and to limited national programs. The British 
were particularly focused on the Attorney General's 
office, narcotics related programs, and Helmand 
Province. They informed the Dubai group that they have 
several justice advisors assigned to the Lashkar Gah 
PRT. The Canadians are supporting a Train-the-Trainer 
program for Afghan instructors of the judicial stage 
and focusing their provincial assistance in Kandahar. 
They are also considering providing legislative 
drafting assistance to the MOJ. The EC relayed that 
while their existing programs are only done through 
the UN Justice for All project, they are hoping to 
expand efforts in the near future. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Italian and US programs are both spread 
across the provinces, but differ in their duration. 
Most Italian programs involved concentrated bursts of 
training, in contrast to the US training model of long 
term instruction and mentoring, such as developing 
curricula for Kabul University Law School and the 
scholarships for law professors to receive a U.S. 
Master of Laws (LLM). The US and Italy also discovered 
that we were both planning masters programs for 
justice professionals and agreed to meet to discuss 
best practices offline. 
 
----------------------------- 
National Program Coordination 
----------------------------- 
 
KABUL 00000125  003 OF 005 
 
 
 
¶10. (U) In an effort to bring about better national 
level cooperation and coordination, the US delegation 
proposed a series of agreements to lead the way 
forward. A brief list of the conclusions follows: 
 
¶11. (U) Donors will provide a consolidated response to 
the Supreme Court Five-Year plan that will include 
areas that need additional focus, areas covered by 
existing programs, and preliminary commitments for 
funding pending a revised plan. The group agreed that 
the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General's office 
would also be encouraged to complete their plans and 
that the same process would be used to respond to 
their plans. Donors also agreed to prioritize 
assistance to the different institutions, with the 
help of the Afghans, to help identify immediate, 
medium, and long term needs. 
 
¶12. Other ways the IC agreed to coordinate reform 
efforts were: donor embedded advisors will coordinate 
amongst themselves, including dividing 
responsibilities within ministries; completion of an 
inventory of donor assistance; donors will work 
through and support the ANDS process, donors will 
coordinate all curricula among the IC in order to 
standardize training. 
 
¶13. (U) Donors generally agreed on the need to create 
a Justice Sector Trust Fund, including salary 
supplement packages across the three justice 
institutions (Supreme Court, Attorney General's 
Office, and Ministry of Justice),  coupled with 
administrative and pay and grade reform. The EC 
Expressed the greatest interest in this project and 
has already begun planning with the first personnel 
expected to arrive in February. Some of the other 
donors, including the Italians, also expressed 
interest in funding a salary trust fund. There was 
some debate over whether trust funds should support 
all institutions or just the Supreme Court, as it is 
not covered by the Pay and Rank Reform process. The 
Italians, in particular, wanted to focus only on 
Supreme Court salaries. After returning to Kabul, the 
EC met with USAID and the Embassy Rule of Law Office 
to discuss the best way to work together. 
 
¶14. (U) Specific to the Supreme Court, the Italians 
asked participants for support on blocking a separate 
Supreme Court training center, arguing that this role 
was already being filled by the National Legal 
Training Center (NLTC), which the US, Italy and Afghan 
institutions signed onto in 2004. Although many agreed 
that more information was needed, the group settled on 
trying to stall the Supreme Court's decision until 
Italy was able to conduct a survey of the NLTC to 
assess the number of classes and students the center 
is able to support. The US delegation felt that it was 
likely more space will be needed but this survey will 
be an important precursor to any discussions on a 
separate Supreme Court training center. 
 
¶15. (U) The EU representatives stressed the need for a 
baseline assessment of formal and informal justice 
systems. Some information exists, but there is no 
comprehensive survey that covers both systems from the 
government perspective as well as the people's 
perspective. This project was not funded. CFC-A, in 
conjunction with ISAF, are now trying to complete the 
 
KABUL 00000125  004 OF 005 
 
 
survey on their own but may need additional help in 
identifying what information needs to be collected. 
 
¶16. (U) On legal aid, participants agreed that the MOJ 
needed to be encouraged to include the program in its 
strategy plans. While it is mentioned in the draft MOJ 
plan, it lacks any definition. 
 
------------------------------- 
Provincial Program Coordination 
------------------------------- 
 
¶17. (U) There was a long discussion regarding 
provincial coordination with the US participants 
pushing for focused and comprehensive efforts in a few 
provinces, contrasted with the EU and UNAMA who were 
pushing for identification of provincial needs to be 
met on an ad hoc basis. They feared that identifying 
priority provinces would unevenly distribute aid, 
create resentment, and leave critical needs unmet. 
They also noted that countries like Canada and the UK 
would be unable to participate in supporting priority 
provinces unless they overlapped with their PRTs. No 
consensus was reached in Dubai, and the group agreed 
to work out a better plan in Kabul. 
 
¶18. (U) EMBASSY COMMENT: A possible compromise is to 
develop a hybrid of the two ideas taking into account 
the US, Italy, and any other donors with flexible 
funding and those who are less flexible. Those with 
more flexibility could focus their efforts in 
provinces with existing programs such as Herat, Balkh, 
and Nangarhar, while in other provinces the IC could 
work with the GoA to develop lists of critical 
projects that could build a foundation for more 
comprehensive programs later on. The use of the term 
"priority province" and "adopt a province" would also 
be avoided due to negative connotations from previous 
donor programs. END COMMENT. 
 
¶19. (U) The US offered to start improving provincial 
coordination through sharing the curriculum for its 
upcoming Justice Sector Support Program Police- 
Prosecutor training.  The US also invited participants 
to attend a training session. 
 
¶20. (U) One point of agreement was the need for a 
centralized and standardized model for provincial 
reform. ISAF in particular highlighted the need to 
have a plan that countries could turn to if they 
wanted to begin efforts on their own. Along with this 
model, the group also talked about the need for better 
communication mechanisms between the provinces and the 
central government. It was proposed that we embed Rule 
of Law advisors in each target province and link them 
through advisors in the central institutions. This 
would supplement communication through Afghan channels 
and eventually be made obsolete by functioning Afghan 
systems.  It was also proposed that an office be 
established in Kabul to ensure unity of approach and 
standardization of provincial justice assistance. It 
would also serve as a liaison between the provincial 
teams, central institutions, IC, and ANDS structure. 
The office would also serve as a resource for 
provincial teams by providing curricula and other 
information, as well as updates to the ANDS on 
provincial progress.  Currently, there is no body in 
Kabul that coordinates provincial justice, and a 
coordination mechanism will be needed as donors expand 
 
KABUL 00000125  005 OF 005 
 
 
to the provinces. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
The Way Forward - A Rome Justice Conference 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶21. (U) Participants agreed to work through the 
International Justice Coordination Group in Kabul to 
do the majority of the follow-up from this meeting. 
The group was asked to keep the discussions moving 
forward in anticipation of a Rome Justice Conference. 
 
¶22. (U) The Italian delegation closed the Dubai 
conference with an announcement that Rome will host a 
justice conference in early 2007, which was approved 
by the delegates. Italy will officially inform the GoA 
on its plans for the conference in the near future. 
 
------------------ 
Post-Dubai Efforts 
------------------ 
 
¶23. (U) Post is now working to create a plan of action 
for the critical period between the Dubai conference 
and a date-to-be-determined Rome conference. Post has 
also begun to meet with individual players back in 
Kabul and continues to share information on its 
programs. Post believes that, after the success of the 
Dubai Conference, there is a new and valuable 
opportunity for a coordinated approach to the 
development of Rule of Law in Afghanistan. 
 
NEWELL