Official inauguration of police network in West Africa
The West African Platform on Human Rights and Policing (POLI.DH) has been officially inaugurated.
The directors of the police academies of the three founding members of the platform, Mamy Sylla, Mali, Mahamane Laouali Madougou, Niger, and Théophane Segueda, Burkina Faso, have signed the official documents.
The proper formal establishment as evidenced by the signing of the official documents of POLI.DH will have a big effect on the future work of the network. Several national police services in the region have requested to become members of POLI.DH, but that was difficult before the formal establishment of the network. Therefore, having a proper legal existence has the potential to make POLI.DH stronger and more sustainable.
The POLI.DH, encompassing the three police services of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, started out in 2014 with the support of the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). Its secretariat is located at the National Police School in Niamey, Niger. DIHR continues to support POLI.DH’s efforts, both technically and financially, to provide its members with human rights expertise and knowledge, and actively participate in the development of strategies, policies and guidelines on human rights and policing at a regional and international level.
"This police network is an achievement for the region, and shows how long the police services of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have come in terms of cooperation and dialogue. The police services are learning from each other through exchange of experience. This is a big step forward for the protection and respect of human rights in the three countries. Now that the network is formalised, more police services will become members. Consequently, the focus must be on how to expand the protection of human rights in all of West Africa", says Monique Alexis, a former adviser at DIHR who has been based in Mali for the last 5 years and who has spent the last 16 years working in all three West African countries.
The platform ensures that the human rights dimension of the police work is well covered in the topics chosen by new police commissioners for their master thesis. The platform also encourages participation in regional and international meetings to influence strategies and decisions concerning police activities. POLI.DH members have for example participated in the last four ordinary sessions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to influence policies regarding human rights and policing, such as the implementation of the Guidelines for Conditions of Arrest, Police Custody and Pre-trial Detention in Africa. They have written articles in the African Commission’s publication “Policing and Human rights in Africa”. POLI.DH participates in consultations and workshops on the development of new pan-African human rights guidelines, e.g. on policing of assemblies and on decriminalisation of petty crimes. To summarize; the voice of the police has a place in the African human rights discourse.