Supporting the Rule of Law

By Guest Author: Judge Mark Atkinson, Chief Executive Officer, Texas Center for the Judiciary

This past December, I traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan on a fifteen-day trip. I had been invited to assist with an international rule of law development project. Specifically, I was to prepare a strategic training plan for that nation’s court system personnel, to be presented to the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. I arranged to use vacation days in order to make the journey and was sent many documents to review in advance of traveling, including Afghan, US, and other international reports.

I completed the required travel documents, obtained my Afghanistan visa, and arranged my travel itinerary. My flights took me to Dubai, where I transferred to a regional airline. The flight to Kabul traversed up the border of Iraq and Iran, before traveling east across Iran and the mountains of western Afghanistan, then descending into Kabul. Kabul is situated in a mountain valley, 5,800 feet above sea level, and the mountains surrounding the valley were covered in snow.

Having arrived in Kabul and exiting the terminal, I proceeded to a waiting vehicle, which was heavily armored. On the floor was body armor – that was to be quickly donned if the need arose enroute to our destination. A British security officer briefed me on how to respond if certain events transpired along the way. An Afghan soldier in full gear and armed with an AK-47, got into the car, and we departed.

Into Kabul

The drive from the airport to our destination in mid-Kabul was something I could not have foreseen. Along the way, I saw endless entrances into businesses and offices fortified with concrete, barbed wire, and sandbags, guarded by Afghan troops at the ready. Military trucks carried armed soldiers, either in the back with handheld weapons, or atop them with mounted guns, mixed with the civilian traffic. The closer we got to central Kabul, the more the roadside featured taller and taller concrete “t-walls,” so named because they are shaped like upside-down “t”s, designed to withstand bomb blasts. The streets in the area that included government ministries, foreign embassies, and the offices of non-governmental organizations, were lined with eight meter (24-foot) tall t-walls.

My living compound was heavily fortified with multiple eight-ton steel sliding doors operating in series like locks, with armed and alert soldiers standing guard as the vehicle entered. A mirror on a rod, searching for magnetic bombs, examined the underside of the vehicle. Once inside the gates and walls, I was able to exit the vehicle. Body armor and helmet came with my room, there to remain, on the floor by the door for the duration of my trip.

Creating a Plan

Every day that I was there, a team and I composed of Afghans and other internationals worked together to determine what would be helpful in creating a strategic plan for training court system personnel. We traveled to the Supreme Court twice — which was no easy trip, due to traffic and security precautions — to discuss and ascertain wants and needs. My time was spent meeting with local professionals, reading and re-reading documents, developing ideas in my mind, and attempting to compose a report that would contain a strategic training plan.

The needs of, and capacity to accomplish, such training, varied based upon geography, population size, access to technology, etc. The several major urban areas have resources unavailable to many rural areas. In addition, while urban areas use a system of law that is a combination of Islamic, Common, and Civil Law, most rural justice needs are handled by tribal elders. It was said that the rural legal action was often more swift and effective in resolving disputes than that relied upon in the cities. My goal was to develop an overall long-term strategy, with detail to be developed by a British educated Indian lawyer with whom I was paired. Once he and I had returned to our homes, we communicated regarding our project by email and Face Time.

In addition to referring to the reports I had received while writing my plan, I also incorporated many of the practices we use training judges and court personnel in Texas. While admitting that most of this would be considered aspirational, I felt that it could provide a potential vision for the long term. Resources I used and gave attribution to, included those of the Texas Center for the Judiciary, the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center, the Justice Training Institute, and the Texas Association of Counties. Other text and resources, provided upon my request, came from the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M, which had worked with National Guard soldiers prior to deployment to Afghanistan, and Ben Giannantonio, Applied Technology Specialist for the Harris County Courts at Law.

The Rule of Law – Everywhere

I completed and submitted my work, which totaled about 80 pages of text and attachments, and it was well received. Hopefully, I have helped in some fashion. I thank the board and our members for allowing me to take the time away from my CEO duties to do this work. I believe I learned even more about our own operations and why we do the things the way we do in the process.

This was an experience I will never forget, including the city of 4,000,000 just trying to get to work and back, daily, hoping their families remain safe. The photos I’ve included were selected because they tell stories, especially the murals painted on the t-walls. The irony of painting messages of peace and heroism on walls erected to protect the people from death or injury by truck bombs struck me. It was quite an unusual journey, full of the unexpected. As we drove away, snow began to fall. We took streets I had not seen, many in bad repair, some not paved, as we weaved our way toward the airport. I walked the last several hundred yards, proceeding through security point after security point, frisked each time. The snow turned to a blizzard causing my flight to be delayed into the night. When the snowfall subsided, the plane was de-iced and allowed to take off, heading out over the mountains of western Afghanistan. I don’t know if my suggestions will end up being of help to the courts of that developing nation in the long run, but I feel very lucky to have been allowed to participate in this rule of law project.

This article first appeared in the Spring, 2018 issue of the Texas Center for the Judiciary’s periodical, “In Chambers.” Reprinted with permission.