PART ONE METHODOLOGY 1. Effective approaches to human rights training for police especially appropriate and effective in human rights training for adults: working groups, lecture-discussions, case studies, panel discussions, round-table discussions, brainstorming, simulation and role-playing, field trips, practica (including the drafting of course curricula, standing orders, codes of conduct, reports, etc.) and visual aids. Pointers on the use of such techniques are provided below. A. Collegial presentations For the selection of resource persons, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights advises drawing from a list of experts that is practical in orientation. Rather than assembling panels composed entirely of professors and theorists, it is best to opt for practitioners in the relevant field. In the experience of the Office, much more can be accomplished through the collegial approach of police discussing with police than can be achieved by a professor-student model of training. This approach allows the trainer to access the distinctive professional culture that surrounds law enforcement personnel. At the same time, few police officers are also experts in human rights. Practitioners/trainers should therefore be accompanied and directed by experts in human rights to ensure that the substance of international standards is fully and consistently reflected in the course content. Such experts can be drawn from relevant intergovernmental organizations, such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or from non-governmental human rights organizations. D. Audience specificity The Office has learned that the mere recitation of vague principles of general applicability offers little hope of affecting the actual behaviour of a given audience. To be effective, indeed at all worthwhile, training and education efforts must be directly targeted at, and appropriately addressed to, a particular audience such as the police. Accordingly, the content of these teaching materials focuses more on standards directly relevant to the daily work of the police and less on the history or structure of United Nations machinery. E. Practical approach According to the report of a recent parliamentary commission investigating violations at a country’s police stations, the police said, when confronted with evidence of abuse: B. Training the trainers “that they lacked understanding about interrogation methods and techniques, that they carried out interrogations by outdated methods, and that they did not know how interrogations were carried out in democratic and developed countries. In order to compare their methods and improve them, they wanted to have the chance to do research and make observations on interrogation methods in democratic countries”. National participants in these courses should be selected on the understanding that their responsibilities will continue after completion of the training exercise. Each should be charged with conducting his/her own training or dissemination efforts after returning to the normal duty station. In this way, the impact of such courses is multiplied several-fold, as the information imparted is disseminated throughout the institutions concerned. Accordingly, the courses include capacitybuilding components, such as lessons and materials designed to impart training skills to participants, in addition to the substantive content of the courses. For maximum effect, course organizers should aim for the same capacity-building approach. Such quotations reveal two important areas of focus for police audiences. First, offering justifications of any kind for serious violations such as torture demonstrates a lack of familiarity with the most fundamental human rights standards in the administration of justice. There are no justifications for such activities. Second, the police, and other professional groups in the real world, want to know not just what the rules are but also how to do their job effectively within the confines of those rules. Training efforts that ignore either of these areas are likely to be neither credible nor effective. Accordingly, trainers and course designers must include practical information on proven techniques for the performance of the target audience’s duties derived from the recommendations of experts and literature on the current best practice for the profession in question. [Note: While practical recommendations are a key C. Interactive techniques The courses developed by the Office and described in these materials include a section designed to introduce a variety of effective techniques for the training of adult audiences. In particular, suggestions are made for the use of creative, interactive teaching methods, which offer the best hope of securing the active and committed involvement of programme participants. The Office has identified the following techniques as 3