UN, international policing experts gather in Australia for global police meeting

Top United Nations and international police officers, along with law enforcement and human rights experts will gather in the Australian capital Canberra on 30 August for two days of closed-door meetings to discuss ways of improving international policing through strengthening cooperation between the world body and Member States.

“This gathering comes at a critical time as we are seeing unprecedented global demand for UN peacekeepers in general and police in particular. Closer cooperation between Member States and the UN is crucial to getting the right quantity and quality of officers,” Acting Police Adviser Walter Wolf told the UN News Service.

The Canberra meeting will be the third of the International Policing Advisory Council (IPAC), which is an ad hoc group of policing and law enforcement experts brought together by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations’ (DPKO) Police Division to help improve global policing.

The meeting is being run in co-operation with the Australian Federal Police and will be co-chaired by the recently-appointed UN Police Adviser Andrew Hughes and his predecessor Mark Kroeker. Key IPAC participants will also include high-level academics and police chiefs from Australia, El Salvador, Indonesia, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Interpol.

“We welcome this third IPAC meeting coming here to Canberra at a time when increased cooperation and partnerships are ever more important to face the challenges of international policing in the 21st century,” said Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty.