On her first day of the Justice Rapid Response (JRR) course, RCMP Cpl. Bailey Gilarowski felt a little bit intimidated as the participants went around the table introducing themselves.
"It was really humbling sitting there and listening to all of the incredible work being done by individuals to advance international human rights within different parts of the world," said Gilarowoski. "When they got to me, I was like, 'I'm just a cop in Canada.' "
But as the hours and days passed, and she learned more and more about JRR, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), international law and human rights, Gilarowski grew more confident about why she was in that room.
"I really started to see why our skills as investigators are in such high demand, in particular, our interviewing and interrogation experience," says Gilarowski. "In Canada, we work in a multicultural environment on a daily basis. All of these are skills that are needed for JRR, but they aren't skills that every police force in the world actually has exposure to."
The best of the best
In partnership with the Institute for International Criminal Investigations, the JRR courses are offered to groups of 25 specialists from around the globe, including criminal and human rights investigators, prosecutors, forensic specialists, sexual and gender-based violence experts, children's rights experts and witness protection specialists.
Countries in which mass genocide, war crimes and atrocities occur often are the least equipped to bring those responsible to justice. Recognizing this, JRR recruits and rapidly deploys experts to the international community, including institutions like the United Nations, to investigate, fact-find or carry out inquiries wherever mass atrocities have occurred.
"The training for us is one of the tools by which we create the capacity for the international community to have high-quality experts with lots of experience and specific training working under international circumstances, rapidly available," says Andras Vamos-Goldman, executive director of JRR.
JRR uses the course as a recruitment tool, so that the experts it trains can be selected for its roster. Through a competitive selection process, JRR recruits individuals with specific skillsets and profiles based on the current needs of international criminal investigations and human rights inquiries.
Since it began operations in 2009, JRR has delivered 34 courses. Today it has more than 600 rapidly deployable experts.
Gilarowski was selected after being nominated by the RCMP and vetted by JRR. After she successfully completed the course, she was added to the JRR expert roster.
Preparing to deploy
The course focuses on the conduct of investigations under international law in complex, high-stress conflict and post-conflict situations.
Experts were brought in to speak about how to conduct interviews with victims of SGBV to get the information that's needed while at the same time bringing cultural sensitivity and prioritizing the safety and well-being of the survivor. "It can be heavy stuff," says Gilarowski.
JRR also maintains a multidisciplinary and multicultural group of experts in each course to ensure the experts are trained under circumstances similar to the ones they'll be facing when deployed on a JRR mission.
"It's cool that they do that because it's very much geared towards what the reality will be," says Gilarowksi.
And when Canadian police officers are selected through the roster to go on a mission, like Gilarowski, who was deployed to Cambodia to work for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, they receive pre-deployment training (PDT) by the RCMP.
Each PDT is designed specifically for the region in which police officers will be deployed and it covers everything from collecting personal information, like DNA and fingerprints, to situational and cultural awareness workshops.
"The ultimate goal is to provide seamless entry so that we get the most out of our people once they are there," says Sgt. Darren Kowalchuk from the RCMP's International Deployment Readiness Unit.
The RCMP provides this special training whether it's for two people or 100.
"It's part of our global responsibility as Canadians to send our police on these missions," says Kowalchuk. "It's an advantage that we have police officers who have the skillset and desire to go out in the world and spread goodwill."
And the impact that trained police officers can have on these investigations makes them highly desirable.
"They improve the quality of the investigation," says Vamos-Goldman. "An investigation that's done by professionals, is an investigation that a population can believe in."