A/HRC/45/24
E.
Law enforcement officials
34.
Human rights training for law enforcement officials, including the integration of
human rights into the curricula of related pre-service and in-service training, is widely
reported. Costa Rica, Greece and Qatar reported that their police academies had integrated
human rights into the curricula. In Georgia, the curricula at the Academy of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs include at least 32 human rights teaching hours. In El Salvador, the
National Civil Police adopted an institutional human rights policy focused, among other
things, on human rights training, curriculum revision and improvements in staff selection
for the National Academy of Public Security. The Human Rights Unit of the National Civil
Police also regularly organizes human rights training sessions. In Cyprus, the Ministry of
Justice and Public Order undertook measures to ensure in-service human rights training for
all law enforcement officials, including police officers, judges, prosecutors, prison staff,
social service staff and officers reviewing the eligibility of asylum applications. New
modules on human rights have been incorporated into training for police recruits at the
police academy following the signing of a training cooperation agreement between the
Cyprus Police and the University of Cyprus. In Spain, modules on human rights topics are
integrated into courses for national police personnel, which are a requirement for promotion
to higher ranks. In September 2019, the national police established its national human rights
office, whose functions include promoting and coordinating human rights training
programmes for police personnel.
35.
Some responding States highlighted training efforts on specific human rights issues.
The Niger reported that human rights training of law enforcement officials encourages them
to respect, protect and defend human rights without distinction as to race, skin colour or
ethnicity. Sweden reported training activities related to combating racism and hate crimes.
Since 2015, the Living History Forum has been carrying out a major education initiative for
public officials, including the Swedish Police Authority, on racism, through both face-toface and online training. Training on combating hate crimes is also a compulsory element in
the basic training for new police officers. The Swedish Police Authority has also
commissioned a training course from Uppsala University that provides in-depth knowledge
of the underlying causes of racism, hate crimes and crimes that threaten freedom of opinion.
In 2019, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia signed a memorandum of
understanding with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to
establish a training course on combating hate crimes for law enforcement, a training of
trainers programme developed with the involvement of members of the Office of the
Prosecutor and the Office of the Public Defender and representatives of non-governmental
organizations. In Italy, the Central Directorate for Police Training under the Department of
Public Security has focused on training in human rights protection and the prevention and
combating of discriminatory acts. Efforts are currently under way to revise the training
curricula to incorporate more modules on human rights, which are to be made available for
personnel of the national police and the Carabinieri through an interforces e-learning
platform. Some modules focused on human rights in general are developed in partnership
with Amnesty International Italy and those focused on topics pertaining to lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender and intersex persons are developed in partnership with the Lenford
Network.
36.
Some States have reported human rights training initiatives for prison officials. In
2015, the Niger organized several such training courses, including for prison medical staff,
in the cities of Kollo, Tahoua and Zinder, in order to enhance the promotion and protection
of human rights in prisons. In Italy, the penitentiary administration provides in-service
training to staff of every rank on, among other things, the protection of the rights of persons
deprived of their liberty. In Spain, the General Secretariat for Penitentiary Institutions has
been carrying out human rights training annually for the personnel of penitentiary
institutions, using the methodology developed by OHCHR. In Costa Rica, the Ministry of
Justice and Peace held human rights training courses at the prison training school, with
particular emphasis placed on populations in heightened situations of vulnerability in the
prison, such as people of African descent, indigenous people, people with disabilities and
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people; during the period 2018–2019, 3,769
prison officials participated in those courses. In 2018, the Ministry of Law and Human
Rights of Indonesia developed a human rights handbook for correctional officers and
immigration detention officers. Qatar has also published various human rights training
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