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Tunisia EUPOL COPPS deputy Head of Justice Unit Maria Ek Odsjo on contribution to advancing Rule of Law in Palestine
July 24, 2025
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EUPOL COPPS’s deputy Head of Justice Unit, Maria Ek Odsjo is a senior judge. In Sweden, where she comes from, she has for the last years extensively been working on asylum and security related cases, including dealing with individuals arriving from then ISIS ruled Syria and Iraq. The cases she was presented with, reached Maria through the criminal-justice chain, having been dealt with by the Swedish police before arriving on her desk.
Her latest role in the Swedish justice system was to lead and manage the work of around 45 legal professionals. Each of them had cases to solve. Maria had the overall oversight and also, depending on the situation, the responsibility to approve asylum. This has exposed Maria with a wide range of people coming from parts of the world she had never travelled to. In other words, she had the opportunity to get to know different cultures through human and professional interaction doing her job in Stockholm.
The choice to join EUPOL COPPS and come to Palestine is partly linked to her experience in dealing with many cases involving people from the Middle East. “I wanted to experience the culture firsthand, meet the people, to see for myself what it looks like, to experience what it means to walk through Damascus Gate in the day light and at night. Now that I can do it, I know what an amazing feeling it is to pass by this special place. This means something special to me and has taught me something essential about different life conditions.
When Maria first joined the Mission, she was a Senior Justice Advisor advising her Palestinian colleagues on court proceeding related matters. She had the possibility to learn from her Palestinian colleagues and share her own experiences from her own professional career.
“In my current role, I strive to support my colleagues in solving challenges and problems, when these occur. With the counterparts I now see my role as a way of giving my contribution to advancing Rule of Law in Palestine”. says Maria.
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