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CHAILLOT PAPER / PAPER CHAILLOT 160 RELATIONSHIP THERAPY RELATIONSHIP THERAPY RELATIONSHIP Making Arab police reform work | MAKING ARAB POLICE REFORM WORK REFORM POLICE ARAB MAKING By Florence Gaub and Alex Walsh CHAILLOT PAPER / 160 November 2020 RELATIONSHIP THERAPY Making Arab police reform work By Florence Gaub and Alex Walsh CHAILLOT PAPER / 160 November 2020 European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) 100, avenue de Suffren 75015 Paris http://www.iss.europa.eu Director: Gustav Lindstrom © EU Institute for Security Studies, 2020. Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged, save where otherwise stated. The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. print ISBN 978-92-9198-970-6 online ISBN 978-92-9198-969-0 CATALOGUE NUMBER QN-AA-20-004-EN-C CATALOGUE NUMBER QN-AA-20-004-EN-N ISSN 1017-7566 ISSN 1683-4917 DOI 10.2815/645771 DOI 10.2815/791794 Published by the EU Institute for Security Studies and printed in Belgium by Bietlot. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2020. Cover image credit: Hussein Malla/AP/SIPA The authors Florence Gaub is the Deputy Director of the EUISS. She specialises in strategic foresight, as well as security and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa. Alex Walsh has worked on police reform and stabilisation programming in Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Syria. He currently works with the International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAF) in Geneva. Acknowledgements This publication was informed by two events co-organised with the Konrad-Adenauer- Stiftung, the first in Tunis in December 2018, and the second in Amman in March 2019 The EUISS Chaillot Paper series The Chaillot Paper series, launched in 1991, takes its name from the Chaillot hill in the Trocadéro area of Paris, where the Institute’s first premises were located in the building oc- cupied by the Western European Union (WEU). The hill is particularly known for the Palais de Chaillot which was the site of the signing of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and housed NATO’s provisional head- quarters from 1952 until 1959. 1 CONTENTS Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 Methodology 5 CHAPTER 1 The public are the police: on the role of citizens in policing 7 The conceptual origins of policing 7 Community policing: a ‘new’ idea 9 Concepts of community in Arab policing 11 Citizens in European reform programmes 13 CHAPTER 2 Measuring the relationship between people and police 17 Measuring police effectiveness: of data and surveys 18 Trust: a foundation to build on? 21 An abusive relationship? The many faces of violence 24 Police for sale? The extent of corruption 28 CHAPTER 3 Case by case: four types of relationships between people and police 35 Estranged Partners: Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen 37 The Abusive marriage: Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia 41 Renewal of Vows: Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia and the UAE 45 In Counselling: Algeria and Sudan 50 Conclusion: Policy considerations 53 For all the countries in question 53 For the four categories of countries 54 Abbreviations 57 2 Relationship Therapy | Making Arab police reform work EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In its ideal form, the police force or service is to citizens on the one hand and account for both a state institution and a part of the com- a disproportionate number of casualties in in- munity. It serves to regulate daily life and en- surgencies on the other. It is also part of wider force the rule of law in an active partnership patterns of violence, in a region where eight in with citizens. And, even while policing ap- ten women experience domestic violence, and proaches and models vary as much as the con- the same proportion of children experience texts in which they operate, police forces still violence at school. Conflicts have exacerbat- fulfil their essential role as long as they protect ed this trend and make police institutions less citizens’ rights, life and property while taking inclined to reform, and the public less able or into consideration the community’s needs. disposed to engage in dialogue. In much of the Arab world, the police have be- Corruption is the other major issue that weighs come detached from the community they are on the relationship between the police and the supposed to serve. The partnership between people, even if the police are usually not the police and people has become dysfunction- worst culprits in this regard. Finally, the deep al and mutually mistrustful; rights and needs involvement of the police in politics is a fac- are ignored, while the police often serve other tor which puts the relationship under addi- masters than the citizen and the law. This rup- tional strain. ture brings conflict, violence and insecurity into the heart of the community and the state. So much can be said about trends that are com- mon to policing in many parts of the Arab world. This much is apparent at a surface level, but However, the region’s great diversity is a chal- when it comes to examining the complex un- lenge to a single overarching diagnosis of all the derpinnings of the relationship between police police-community relationships therein, albeit and citizens, there is surprisingly little region- one that can be partially addressed by catego- al coverage. This Chaillot Paper seeks to fill this rising states according to the extent to which gap and asks some salient questions. What has citizen input into policing occurs or is allowed. become of the relationship between the people and police forces across the Arab world? What Recognising the role of the relationship between are the sources of its troubles, and can this re- the people and the police for reform, four broad lationship undergo some constructive therapy? types of relationship emerge from this catego- And how might the EU support this therapeu- risation, each with a set of general considera- tic process? tions for EU and member state policymaking. In the Estranged Partners group, comprising Iraq, Colonial history is an important dimension: co- Libya, Syria and Yemen, the police have become lonial policing biased police in the Arab world fragmented, hyper-politicised and sometimes towards protecting elites from the people and marginalised. However, even within these in- rendered police forces militaristic and distant secure contexts, citizens continue to strive to from populations. But many post-colonial ad- make their voices heard and want the police ministrations cultivated and added to these to build a more constructive relationship with characteristics. the community. Localised work with citizens and police may yield many benefits including Police violence is another very common trend. It increased security, not least to lay the ground- has become part of a counter-productive cycle, work for an eventual future peace process. where the police adopt a militarised approach Executive Summary 3 In the Abusive Marriage group, comprising Bah- transition, comes a necessity for a transforma- rain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the security of tion in the police-people relationship so that the ruling administrations has been the driving old orders of political control cannot remerge. principle in policing, while space for citizen in- Opening the public conversation up on policing put into policing is very constrained and takes is an important step towards making police re- largely antagonistic forms, such as protest or form a fundamental pillar of the transition. violence. The power to change lies largely for the time being with the state authorities, and In all of these groups, the development of the international engagement with them could be partnership between the people and the po- better targeted in terms of appropriate mes- lice is key to just peace, stability and security, saging that resonates with them. while the distinctive character of each of those partnerships varies according to the circum- In the Renewal of Vows group, comprising Jor- stances prevailing in each country. To date, the dan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, and EU has recognised half of this important truth the United Arab Emirates (UAE), there has been – investing heavily in police reform in the Arab a reappraisal of colonial and independence-era world but overlooking the need to place the policing. Certain functional mechanisms exist partnership between the police and the com- for citizen input into policing policies and prac- munity at the heart of the process. tices, albeit at different intensities and levels of formality. Among other avenues, it is important This Chaillot Paper draws attention to an insti- to ensure that citizen forums are rendered more tution that, in terms of its importance for the durable and institutionalised. security and stability of the Arab world and its neighbours, is under-researched – a fact that Algeria and Sudan are placed in the In Counsel- has made this study all the more challenging. ling group. Citizen input into policing in these Above all, it seeks to engender a response in countries for the time being remains limit- terms of programming and research – whether ed, while many past abuses are unaddressed. this means that this paper’s diagnoses are cor- However, with the potential for wider political roborated, refuted or built upon. 4 Relationship Therapy | Making Arab police reform work INTRODUCTION In The Nile Hilton Incident, a thriller set in Cairo Almost ten years have passed since then, and just before the Arab Spring,1 the audience gets little seems to have changed when it comes to a rare glimpse into an institution normally well Arab police affairs. The year 2019 in particular shielded from the public eye: the Egyptian po- was yet another when tensions between cit- lice.
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