Cover letter to a prospective doner - Essay Example

In the recent years, influential details of social life are neglected on the global stage when a conflict appears. However, the resolution of it leaves a lot of issues unresolved or even more complicated. In this context, Syria as a post-conflict country is a bright example of such a need to provide long-term changes in social institutions in order to prevent the inevitable suffering of ordinary people when the war is over. And so, the necessity of penal reform in Syria in general and training of prison staff in particular is discribed in this cover letter.

To start with, the penal reform as a part of security sector reform (SRR) is a multiply directed way to transform not only prisons but also an opportunity to introduce community service instead of custody and provide alternative institutions and sanctions system in the country (Bastrick, 2010). Therefore, such a reformation is not just a slight fixation of the current style of penalty but a comprehensive way to bring up the new value system in this sphere. Moreover, the social perception of prison administration turns such a profession into “an especially difficult and thankless [one]” (ICRC, 2005, p. 10). And so, the penal reform is aimed at its core to change the very background of the penalty system in post-conflict countries not only at the reconstruction of prisons themselves.

Furthermore, the preoccupation with the penal reform is corresponding with international standards of human rights protection. In this context, the conditions of imprisonment in post-conflict countries rises issues of overcrowding, poor health services, children which are dealt with as adults and gender (UNODC, 2012). In particular, the very principles of penal system in these countries is constructed in such a way that only the systematic changes in its design can really solve the plenty of injustice that happens in these prisons.

Finally, the need to educate the prison staff in terms of social responsibility and human rights is the easiest and the most effective method to change the system at the grassroots level. In this context, the cruelest actions that troubled UN and NGOs a lot took place in prisons during the conflicts. For instance, the tremendous number of tortures in Syrian prisons (Human Rights Watch, 2011) shows the urgency of systematic transformation inside the prisons. And so, the special courses for prisoners that will be held in terms of individual value and careful attitude towards already blamed by the society people is really important for the renewal in post-conflict countries.

In order to sum up, the number of changes guaranteed under the umbrella of penal reform in the context of security sector reform makes this change worth implementing. Moreover, the number of unresolved problems in prisons drives the international community to react rapidly and constructively. In this context, the project aimed on appropriate education for prison staff is a really helpful measure in order to prevent cases of deep concern in post-conflict countries (such as Syria).References:Bastrick, M., 2010. The Role of Penal Reform in Security Sector Reform.

Occasional Paper 18. Geneva: DCAF. Available at: [Accessed 8 September 2014].Human Rights Watch, 2011. Syria: Rampant Torture of Protesters. New York: Human Rights Watch. Available at: [Accessed 8 September 2014].ICRC, 2005. Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Habitat in Prisons [pdf]. Geneva: ICRC. Available at: [Accessed 8 September 2014].UNODC, 2012. Criminal Justice Reform [online]. UNODC. Available at: [Accessed 8 September 2014].