48  : :  CONTACT POINT FOR ROMA AND SINTI ISSUES Košice, Slovakia, 27 November 2018. Teaching staff of Slovak police training institutions participate in a group exercise during the course. (OSCE/Idaver Memedov)  “ This training equips participants with knowledge and skills that can be used to enhance their antidiscriminatory competences. Educating future trainers who can transfer this knowledge and these skills to police at the local level is of critical significance for building trust between the police and minorities, such as Roma.” Marta Krasuska, Chief Specialist in Human Rights, Equal Treatment and Ethics at Poland’s National Police Headquarters Building trust between police and Roma and Sinti ODIHR continued working on building trust and understanding between the police and Roma and Sinti, particularly through the implementation of its training programme, Effective and Human Rights-Compliant Policing in Roma and Sinti Communities. The programme aims at strengthening the capacity of police officers to work in Roma and Sinti communities, as well as mixed communities in line with human rights standards, and to ensure the safety and security of Roma and Sinti people. ODIHR developed a train-the-trainer programme aimed at building the capacity of national police institutions to independently provide training on effective and human rights-compliant policing in Roma and Sinti communities. Prior to training trainers, ODIHR conducted training needs assessments in Poland and Slovakia in order to adapt the curriculum to the national context and fine-tune it to the existing challenges affecting relations between police and Roma and Sinti communities. Twentyeight police trainers (15 men, 13 women) from Poland and Slovakia were the first to benefit from the train-the-trainer courses, organized in July in Zakopane and in November in Košice. In addition, ODIHR provided a training course for 19 police officers (7 women, 12 men) aimed at strengthening the capacity of law enforcement personnel working with Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities to ensure the protection and promotion of human rights in police work, in April in Prishtinë/Priština. Evaluation demonstrated that the participants in these courses enhanced their understanding of the importance of building trust between police and Roma and Sinti communities and overcoming existing stereotypes against these communities, as well as the benefits of human rights-compliant policing.