Project Examples

Training police officers

We train police officers from across the Commonwealth to increase the awareness of and respect for human rights in policing. Police officers who graduate from our training come away with knowledge about human rights issues that are applicable to everyday policing in order to carry out their duties and responsibilities effectively. This training draws on the experience from around the Commonwealth on human rights and law enforcement, and it examines best practices that are benchmarked against international standards as outlined by UN human rights conventions.

Model curriculum

The Secretariat has written a model curriculum to increase the quality and quantity of human rights programmes, which has led to the establishment and development of certificate and orientation human rights courses with our partner institutions. At YCM Open University in Nashik, India 400 police inspectors and 60 governments officials have already completed a human rights training course as well as teachers, journalists and non-governmental organisation employees.

Establishing a level playing field

We have organised a series of seminars which help countries prepare their reports and meet international requirements for the new Universal Periodic Review. (Click here for definition) This review will - for the first time - explore the human rights situations in all United Nations member countries, regardless of size or wealth. It will allow human rights records of these countries - which includes all members of the Commonwealth - to be reviewed every four years. Our work brings together government officials and representatives from national human rights commissions and civil society. Our work seeks to raise awareness of the new reporting mechanism and to help Commonwealth states and stakeholders prepare for this important process.