Call For Nominations for the Fourth JRR Certification Workshop, September 2011

The purpose of this call is to invite you to nominate experts for the next Justice Rapid Response (JRR) Certification Workshop. JRR is an intergovernmental entity created to provide a stand-by facility of a wide range of rapidly deployable criminal justice experts to assist the international community in situations where possible human rights and international criminal justice violations need timely investigation. For more information on JRR please see also the attached fact-sheet and FAQ document. The workshop will be conducted by the Institute for International Criminal Investigations (IICI). 

At the kind invitation of the International Association of Forensic Sciences (IAFS), the Certification Workshop will be held from 11-14 September in Madeira, Portugal as the 19th International Association of Forensic Sciences (IAFS) Triennial Meeting. As the workshop will be for forensic professionals attending the conference, this invitation is for those of you who are sending experts to the 19th Triennial IAFS.

The purpose of the workshop is to help prepare qualified, expert forensic professionals to be an important part of multi-disciplinary, diverse investigative teams that could be deployed rapidly. The focus of the exercise therefore, would be on the international criminal law application of forensic expertise, as well as the security, logistical and interoperability aspects of international deployment, including in less than optimal environments. The areas of forensic sciences that are particularly needed for the JRR roster are: clinical forensic medicine; forensic pathology; ballistics/explosives; video/image, including aerial image analysis; cyber investigations; document examination; and financial forensics. In addition forensic experts with experience with sexual violence and conflict situations are particularly needed.

While this workshop is modelled primarily for forensic specialists, details of previous JRR Certification Workshops, on which the present is based, may be seen on: http://www.justicerapidresponse.org/. There are 20 positions available in the workshop. Participants will again be chosen from among nominees by JRR’s Coordinating Group on the basis of the expertise identified for this course and the qualifications and experience of the nominees. The need to have a roster reflecting as broad a geographic representation as possible and gender balance will also be taken into consideration.

States sending forensic experts to the 19th Triennial IAFS conference and wishing to make nominations are requested to complete an application package. This consists of a Personal History Form (PHF) to be completed by the expert, which includes a statement of the candidate’s willingness to be deployed; as well as a Nomination Form (NF) to be completed by his/her employer or sending entity which includes an indication of the employer’s willingness to consider the release of the expert for short term deployments. Personal History Form (PHF) and Nomination Form (NF) are attached. The forms should be returned to the JRR Secretariat – JRR.Secretariat@gmail.com – by Friday, 24 June.

As the cost of the workshop will be covered by the organizers and the training is for forensics experts scheduled to be at the conference, those nominating experts for the course are only asked to cover the extra accommodation and meal expenses of their candidates. Those with the ability to do so are encouraged to consider providing assistance for experts from participants that may require financial assistance. If this may be a possibility for you, please kindly advise the JRR Secretariat as soon as possible at jrr.secretariat@gmail.com.

 

The deadline for nominations is 24 June 2011.

Nominations can be sent by email to jrr.secretariat@gmail.com

 

For any additional information please contact the JRR Secretariat Manager, Ms. Katrin Weilhammer, at jrr.secretariat@gmail.com (Phone: +41 31 322 87 27).

 Details on previous JRR Certification Workshops, on which this course is being modelled, are available from:
http://www.justicerapidresponse.org/

 

The full application package consists of:

Call for nominations

Nomination Form, to be filled in by the nominating entity

Personal History Form, to be filled in by the nominated expert