Exploring Human Rights in the Police Education An Icelandic Case Study Anne-Marie Tremblay-Quenneville Thesis for a BA degree Faculty of Education and Diversity Exploring Human Rights in the Police Education An Icelandic Case Study Anne-Marie Tremblay-Quenneville Thesis for BA degree in International Studies in Education Supervisor: Susan Elizabeth Gollifer Faculty of Education and Diversity University of Iceland School of Education June 2019 Exploring Human Rights in the Police Education: An Icelandic Case Study This thesis satisfies 10 credits towards a BA in International Studies in Education in the Faculty of Education and Diversity, University of Iceland School of Education © Anne-Marie Tremblay-Quenneville, 2019 This thesis may not be copied in any form without author permission. Abstract Changing demographics combined with the globalization brought new challenges to the Icelandic society. For instance, the new ethnic diversity in the population provoked tensions between police officers and marginalized groups. Almost at the same period, in 2016, the police education moved from the police academy to a university degree, in a program where human rights are a key concept to better the practices. My research questions are how human rights are addressed in the Icelandic police education and how they inform their professional development? The focus was put on examining two courses of the program and Tibbitts Accountability/Professional Development human rights education model. I conclude that the courses include the main features of the model, by amongst other using efficient teaching and learning strategies to help the police officers to protect and reduce human rights violation, but that they would likely gain to include a better critical reflective component. Further research is needed to determine how the new education will influence the professional development of police officers. Key terms: human rights, police education, accountability, professional development 3 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 3 Table of Tables .................................................................................................................. 5 Preface ............................................................................................................................. 6 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 7 2 The Country Context and the New Icelandic Police Education Curriculum .................. 10 2.1 The Icelandic Population and Society ........................................................................... 10 2.2 The Police Function in Iceland and the Police Act ........................................................ 11 2.3 The Police Education in Iceland .................................................................................... 12 2.3.1 Diversity, Social Issues and Policing....................................................................... 14 2.3.2 Human Rights Law ................................................................................................. 15 3 The history and a literature review of Human Rights and Human Rights Education for law enforcement ...................................................................................................... 17 3.1 The Emergence of the Modern Human Rights Project and the Birth of Human Rights Laws .............................................................................................................................. 17 3.2 Human Rights Education............................................................................................... 18 3.2.1 What is in Human Rights Education? .................................................................... 19 3.2.2 The Development of the Human Rights Education for Law Enforcement ............ 20 3.2.3 The Second Phase of the UN World Programme for Human Rights Education .... 21 4 Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................. 23 4.1 The Accountability/ Professional Development Model ............................................... 23 5 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 27 5.1 The Key Content and the Treatment of Human Rights Norms and Standards ............ 27 5.2 The Teaching and Learning Strategies .......................................................................... 28 5.3 The Incorporation of a Critical Stance .......................................................................... 29 5.4 Strategy for Reducing Human Rights Violations ........................................................... 29 5.5 The Sponsors, the Educational Sector, the Audience and the Kind of Learner Participation .................................................................................................................. 29 6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 31 References ...................................................................................................................... 34 Appendix A: Diversity, Social Issues and Policing .............................................................. 40 Appendix B: Human Rights Law ....................................................................................... 50 4 Table of Tables Table 1. The key features of the Accountability/Professional Development Model ............... 24 5 Preface Almost four year ago, I acquiesced to move to Iceland to reunite with my Icelandic partner, whom is a police officer, like I was for 14 years. I was ready for a change, in every aspect of my life. When I started the International Studies in Education, I discover a whole new way to put into perspective my previous professional experiences. Simultaneously, I learned a lot about the political, cultural and social context of my new country as all of these factors are influencing the education system. Researching the topic of my thesis surprisingly added a new way for me to express why I choose Iceland: I can compare the ways human rights are respected and understood. I would like to thank Susan Gollifer to ignite my interest in human rights education and the human rights research field and most of all through and for human rights. This thesis was written solely by me, the undersigned. I have read and understand the University of Iceland Code of Ethics and have followed them to the best of my knowledge. I have correctly cited to all other works or previous work of my own, including, but not limited to, written works, figures, data or tables. I thank all who have worked with me and take full responsibility for any mistakes contained in this work. Signed: Reykjavík, ____09__May________________ 2019__ Anne-Marie Tremblay-Quenneville 6 1 Introduction Human rights are essential to sustain harmonious relations and cohesion in our society (Starkey, 2012). Yet, since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] in 1948 the full respect of those rights by all nations has not yet been realized. Although not legally binding, the UDHR forms the moral base of international human rights and is legally defined by two binding covenants, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (UN, 2019b). These were formally approved by the United Nations [UN] member states in 1966 and they form what it is known as the International Bill of Human Rights (UN, 2019b). Thus, signatories’ states are the duty-bearers in that they have the responsibility to guarantee the human rights of all members of society. In our societies, the state has a role to prevent violence and to achieve peace (Bittner, 1970; Kaufman, 1997). To fulfil that role, the government representatives hold the authority or power to restrict the human rights of some individuals to protect the rights of the collective. In fact, the processes of law based on human rights implies that a person’s rights can be denied if they violate the rights of others, for example, the freedom of expression is not absolute (UN, 1948). Government representatives and law enforcement agents, such as judges, army members and police officers, are the executors of that power (DuBois, 1997). Thus, the states must ensure that their representatives are adequately trained to prevent human rights violations and to minimize the impact on people’s human rights when they need to use coercive means. One of the most effective ways to ensure that law enforcement agents are respectful of human rights in the execution of their role is through an effective human rights education [HRE] approach incorporated into their professional development (Kaufman, 1997). In a democratic society governed by the rule of law, the role of the police can be described according to their function or defined by the ways in which they accomplish their tasks (Bittner, 1970; Karp & Stenmark, 2011). Murdoch and Roche (2013) define the purpose of the police in a democracy governed by the rule of law as follows: —To maintain public tranquillity and law and order in society; —To protect and respect the individual’s fundamental rights and freedoms as enshrined, in particular, in the European Convention on Human Rights; —To prevent and combat crime;