Training diplomats to increase their effectiveness in international relations and diplomacy can take many different forms. In diplomatic training programmes at the Clingendael Academy, sessions at the Institute vary from lectures, expert meetings, exercises to skills training, and within each of those sessions many different working methods are used.

Yet Clingendael’s full diplomatic training programmes hardly ever take place at our Institute alone. The participating diplomats are welcomed by a number of key institutions in international relations and diplomacy, in order to get  insights in the functioning of these organisations and how this may affect the diplomats’ future work in diplomacy.

Diplomats from Pakistan and Bangladesh

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"4973","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"360","style":"width: 300px; height: 225px; float: right;","width":"480"}}]]The first group of diplomats welcomed at the Clingendael Academy in 2015 were from Bangladesh and Pakistan. Twenty junior diplomats followed a six weeks customised training programme. Half-way through the programme, a visit to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Voorburg was scheduled.

“A manifestation of justice”

A welcome in the visitors centre, an area that was once part of the KPN parking garage, was followed by a series of three expert meetings. The visit concluded with a look inside one of the courtrooms. The information on the mandate and procedures of the ICC was new to some of the diplomats, making the visit useful, but also impressive.

“It really hit me when seeing the courtroom. A powerful man, an oppressor in his own country, has to face the ones he oppressed in this court. Here they are completely equal,” says one of the participants. “It is a manifestation of justice.”

Parties to the Rome Statute

An interesting aspect of this visit was the fact that the government of Pakistan has not ratified the Rome Statute (the treaty that forms the foundation of the ICC) while the government of Bangladesh has. Yet the visit benefited both delegations.

One of the participating diplomats from Pakistan commented: “As a diplomat it is important to know about international institutions such as the ICC. Who knows, in ten years’ time it could be the forum we need to solve the problems of that time, and then we know that we can lobby for joining it.”

Practice-oriented

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"4974","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"480","style":"width: 220px; height: 293px; margin-right: 6px; margin-left: 6px; float: left;","width":"360"}}]]Visiting the ICC turned theoretical information about international security and law into a practical experience. And apart from the added value for the diplomats’ future careers, the visit proved useful in the short term as well: “In the Clingendael Academy UN simulation debate my case revolved around the ICC, so that was an advantage for me!”.

- 23 February 2015