Police officers undergo human rights training

Thirty police trainers drawn from all twenty-two provinces completed a week-long human rights training held in Port Moresby from 9 to 13 December 2019.

The training was facilitated by the Bomana Police Training College, with technical support from the UN Human Rights Office.

With over one hundred and twenty years of policing experience amongst them, three regional training officers, Chief Inspector Paul Bai, Senior Inspector Temi Josaiah and Senior Inspector Ed Ona Mesa, all raised that human rights is a great concern for the RPNGC and for the public that they serve.

“This problem of abuse of human rights is a big concern in the provinces and…we need a lot of training on this,” said Senior Inspector Mesa, the most senior Police trainer in the Highlands Region.

On the last day of the training, Chief Inspector Bai, the Regional Training Officer for Momase Region, commented that: “This training gives us an insight… [and by] going in depth in delivering information on what we’ve gone through, should have some impact.”

Senior Inspector Josaiah, Regional Training Officer for the New Guinea Islands, said some positive impacts of human rights training can be seen, but stressed the need to include all members of the police force, especially new recruits.

Following the training of trainers, the human rights modules for the RPNGC will be finalised as a module for in-service officers, and will also be integrated into the regular recruits’ curriculum at Bomana Police Training College.

Stressing the role of each and every member of the RPNGC to contribute to change, the training of trainers was opened and closed by NCD Metropolitan Superintendent, Perou N’Dranou, who challenged the trainers to “be agents of change”.

UN Human Rights Adviser, Kedar Poudyal, underscored that as frontline state agents, police can play a crucial role in upholding respect for human rights.

With funding from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the UN Human Rights office and Bomana Police Training College have developed a human rights training package for the RPNGC. Over three hundred police officers from 2017 to 2018 have been trained on human rights in East and West Sepik, East New Britain, Eastern Highlands, Western Province, Manus, Milne Bay and Gulf.

The training of trainers aims to support the training to be rolled out across the country to increase understanding and respect for human rights by the RPNGC.

Author: 
Press release