Lunda-Norte Empowers Police to Protect Human Rights

PRESS RELEASE

Lucapa

The third phase of training for about 350 Defence and Security staff took place in Lucapa municipality on Friday, conducted by the General Command of the Angola National Police and the UFOLO Research Centre.

The series of seminars addresses the correct and legal use of coercion (including firearms) and the protection of human rights. There were also sessions about good public service and models of police practice, as well as community policing. The last issue involves the observance of the rules and procedures during public meetings or demonstrations in the light of the Constitution and other current legislation.

The head of the National Police’s Department of Policing and Public Order, Superintendent Cláudio Tchivela, stated that “the police forces must act in a more proportionate manner, without causing damage to the population, whenever a confrontation is inevitable”.

Trainees also learned essential ideas about the best procedures to prevent or minimize outbreaks of tension with the populations, through proportionate policing alongside strict respect for human rights.

As noted by Sub-commissioner Pinduka Marques, deputy director of the Police Training School, who attended the training on behalf of the General Command of the National Police, these matters are intended to ensure “greater professionalism on the part of the police force”.

“The training aims to convey the best practices to deal with the concerns of the citizens who resort to the police services or to refer them to the competent bodies.”

Lucapa’s municipal administrator, Daniel Mutaza, pointed out that the training will contribute to better relations between the National Police and the communities so as to establish mutual trust at the local level. The training, he said, is expected to provide greater guarantees “for the protection of the right to life, the exercise of citizenship and human rights”.

The chairman of the UFOLO Centre, Rafael Marques de Morais, emphasized that the initiative establishes a platform for dialogue between civil society and the National Police, “which must be constant and ongoing”.

Beginning on 12 April, the training involved personnel from the municipalities of Cuango, Cambulo and Lucapa.

On 17 April, the Fourth Citizenship and Public Security Conference will be held in Saurimo, Lunda-Sul province, as part of this unprecedented partnership between the General Command of the National Police and UFOLO.

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