From 8-9 July, the Centre facilitated the participation of three Turkmen law enforcement officials from the Ministry of Interior, State Customs Service and State Service for Combating Drugs at the conference on “Combating the Threat of Illicit Drugs and Strengthening Control of Precursor Chemicals” in Vienna, organized by the SPMU (see also Chapter 2). ****** 4.12 The OSCE Centre in Astana Background The Centre in Astana was established as the Centre in Almaty in 1998 before it was renamed in 2007. It promotes the implementation of OSCE principles and commitments; facilitates contacts and exchanges of information, and provides assistance to the Government of Kazakhstan. In 2010, the Centre continued its multifaceted police-related cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, the SPMU and other partners. Police Training In 2010, the Centre, in partnership with the MoI and the NGO Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, launched a project to integrate a 16-hour human rights course into the police training institutions’ curricula. The project began with a three-day course for teacher trainers in Astana that introduced the instructors to a 75-page human rights course manual, which was developed specifically for the project. 16 train-the-trainer courses reaching more than 100 police instructors were subsequently held throughout Kazakhstan as a step toward the ultimate goal of incorporating the course into police school curricula nationwide. The courses were held in both the Russian and Kazakh languages. It was expected that beginning 2011 the course manual would be widely used at police training institutions throughout the country. The Centre also facilitated the participation of Kazakhstan’s Police Officers in a “preparatory training in Bishkek for the Regional Online Forum on Basic Police Training”. The SPMU, in co-operation with the OSCE Centre in Bishkek had prepared the training, which was held at the Police School in Bishkek (see also 2.). Terrorism On 16-17 June, the Centre, in co-ordination with the OSCE’s ATU, facilitated the participation of a Kazakhstani Interior Ministry official (Deputy Head of Directorate on fighting extremism) in the Fifth Operational Working Group Meeting of Project KALKAN (see also 3.1). On 14-15 October, the Centre provided organizational support for and participated in the Chairmanship’s two-day expert conference in Astana on successful strategies, effective policies and best practices to prevent terrorism. The event gathered approximately 200 senior experts from OSCE participating States, Partners for Co-operation, international and regional organizations, as well as academia working in the field of combating terrorism. Conference discussions were expected to contribute to the subsequent OSCE review conference in Vienna and the OSCE Summit. 85