TREC/007/10/2013 – Policing and Human Rights
We, the participants of the NGO Forum preceding the 54th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the 28th African Human Rights Book Fair held from 18th – 20th October, 2013 in Banjul, The Gambia,
Commend the Commission for its increasingly active role in promoting the issue of police and human rights in Africa;
Appreciate that the Commisison during its promotion mission to Uganda in August 2013 discussed policing and human rights issues affecting the Ugandan police;
Encouraged by the Commission’s efforts to promote the police and human rights issue through its 3rdnewsletter on Police and Human Rights in Africa on the integration of police and human rights in its promotion and protection mandate, noting that several Commissioners have contributed to all the three newsletters that it has issued to this date;
Remain concerned about the ongoing human rights violations by police across the continent including reports of extra judicial killings in Kenya and Nigeria, infringement on the right to assemble in South Africa, Uganda, Angola, Swaziland and other countries;
Remain further concerned about policing practices that either discriminate against, or fail to protect, certain minority communities, and the failure by police organisations and the state to combat impunity for these, and other, human rights abuses;
Recognise the need for the Commission to continue the prioritization of police and human rights in Africa in order to promote a human rights culture within the police resulting in a professional and human rights compliant police;
Recognise that key areas in order to promote a human rights culture among the police are: recruitment procedures, human rights training, codes of conducts, internal and external accountability mechanisms for human rights violations, permanent dialogue with civil society as well as police reform more generally;
Therefore call on the African Commission to continue and deepen its role and actively explore the establishment of a special mechanism on police and human rights that can support the issues just mentioned.
Done in Banjul, The Gambia on 20th October, 2013
