CENTRAL ASIA 4.10 The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat Background The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat assists the Host country in promoting OSCE principles and commitments and encourages the Host country's co-operation with the OSCE. In 2012, two international and three national staff members implemented police and law enforcement related programmatic activities. Criminal Justice Development In 2012, the Centre presented an article-by-article commentary on the Criminal Procedure Code to government authorities and prepared an article-by-article commentary to the Criminal Code. In November and December, the Centre organized two 5-day courses on international protection of human rights and on comparative criminal law for 103 students of high-level educational institutions in Ashgabat. In September and November, the Centre organized two events on international and legal standards for the treatment of prisoners for 54 officials of the Ministry of Interior and General Prosecutor’s Office and teachers of the Institute of the Ministry of Interior of Turkmenistan in Ashgabat. Trafficking in Human Beings In December, the Centre, in co-operation with ODIHR, organized a training course on human trafficking for 28 criminal justice officials in Ashgabat and started drafting training materials on the topic. Drug Trafficking In 2012, the Centre promoted interagency co-operation between police and drug enforcement agencies in combating illicit drug trafficking. It organized two events to support the country’s efforts to improve illicit drug trafficking prevention and apprehension mechanisms and enhance national interagency co-operation capacities. More than 40 participants from Turkmenistan’s State Service to Protect the Security of a Healthy Society, the Ministry of Interior, the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor’s Office as well as international experts from the Ministry of Interior and Federal Service for Drug Control of the Russian Federation, the United States Department of Justice, CARICC, UNODC, and the OSCE Secretariat attended both events. In addition, a study visit to the United States and the US-Mexican border allowed two senior police and two drug enforcement officials from Turkmenistan to observe counter-narcotics and border protection operations at several US-Mexican border crossing points. The Centre also facilitated and supported the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of National Security of Turkmenistan and the State Service to protect the 124