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Bangladesh police undergo human rights training

25 February 2008

Commonwealth workshop aimed at promoting best practices in human rights practices

Bangladesh’s Inspector-General of the Police, Nur Mohammad, said the human rights training workshop recently conducted by the Commonwealth Secretariat in the capital, Dhaka, would help police officers to safeguard human rights while undertaking law enforcement and crime prevention.

Mr Mohammad said this on 18 February 2008 at the opening of a five-day workshop for the police supported by the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation.

“For lack of knowledge about human rights, policemen in many countries violate human rights through illegal arrest and detention, arbitary or unlawful killing, torture, arbitrary interference in people’s private life and infringement of the freedom of the press,” said Mr Mohammad.

The workshop, which was on from 19 to 23 February, was targeted at equipping national police trainers with human rights principles and practices to strengthen the daily tasks of the police. About 30 police officers, as well as those from the Rapid Action Battalion, took part in the workshop.

Police trainers Pieter Cronje and Cliff Walsh, ex-officers of the South African Police Force, drew on their experience on the arrest, detention, use of force and firearms of suspects while ensuring that their human rights were also respected.

Topics included ethics, powers and practices of arrest; search and seizure tactics; community policing; dealing with vulnerable groups; addressing victims of crime; and balancing the freedom of assembly with the maintenance of public order.

The programme, which has been run by the Commonwealth Secretariat's Human Rights Unit (HRU) since 2005, has benefited police trainers in more than 25 Commonwealth countries.

"This workshop promotes good policing within the Bangladesh police force. It is hoped that the participants will not only benefit from the useful skills that they have learned, but that they will share their knowledge of international human rights standards in police work with their colleagues," said Dr Purna Sen, Head of the HRU.