Police taught about human rights

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – A new human rights training programme for police in Papua New Guinea is to emphasise the ethical responsibilities of police officers during this year’s general election.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights contributed to the programme which was launched last week at the police training college in Vanimo.

The UN’s Human Rights Adviser in PNG, Kedar Poudyal, said the training programme also focused on reducing police brutality.

“This training module consists of basically six core areas. The first one is about understanding human rights generally.

“It also involves ethics of police officers when it comes to their operation. It also covers the use of force and use of firearms. Also human rights during arrest and detention.

“When we talk about use of force, one of the areas covered was human rights during the election time.

“For example, all kinds of political rights like assembly, freedom of speech and the right to vote. These are some of the political rights police should be aware of and police have a responsibility to promote those rights. Similarly, handling assemblies and if there are any rallies during the election time.

“The elections are coming closer and it will not be possible to conduct it in all provinces. But the training college has plans to reach out as much as possible, at least to maybe five or six provinces. Even more than that probably, because the election period starts in April according to the plan.

“I hope that it will help to change the culture within the police force, but changing culture takes time. I’m hopeful that it will help to change the culture,” Poudyal said.

- RNZI