HUMAN RIGHTS TRAINING FOR PNTL

Dili – The Provedoria for Human Rights and Justice (PDHJ), as an Independent National Institution established by the Constitution of RDTL article 27 and by its own Statute (Law No. 7/2004), has an important role to promote and protect human rights as well as to promote good-governance. Therefore, on 2 March 2015, the PDHJ through its Promotion and Education Department under the Human Rights Directorate has cooperated with the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL)’s Police Academy-Comoro, to develop a training of trainers for the Police members from the 13 Municipalities when they have to use the Training Manual on Human Rights for PNTL.

At the opening session, the Deputy-Provedor for the area of Human Rights, Dr. Horacio de Almeida, clarified that the joint training between the PDHJ and PNTL’s Training Center (CFP) became a very important phase for human rights development related to the roles of PNTL.

Deputy-Provedor explained to the participants that the important work of the PDHJ is to undertake prevention, promotion and protection for the human rights in our country, Timor-Leste.

The Deputy also reminded the participants that, in accordance with the article 147.2 of the RDTL Constitution, it is stipulated that the prevention of crime shall be undertaken with due respect for human rights, as “it’s you (the police) who must provide protection to our citizens; though they commit crimes against the law, as police officers, your interventions/actions taken must always be based on human rights principles so that all citizens of Timor-Leste can feel comfortable to live in a democratic State based on the rule-of-law”.

The Deputy hoped that there would be in the future more cooperation established between the PDHJ and the PNTL especially in the areas of training at the level of Municipalities. “Also, for you (the police) participating in this training on human rights, it’s a good advantage to increase your abilities on this relevant area, as our Government has been ratifying various international conventions on human rights”, said the Deputy.

Besides this, Mr. Emilio dos Santos, the Deputy-Commander of the Police Training Center – Comoro, requested the police officers participating in the training to have a sound understanding on the materials provided by the facilitators.

At the same opportunity, Mr. Emilio informed the Deputy-Provedor that the PNTL has had certified officers in the Districts who concluded their training in the area of trainer and each of them was given a cerfor, the last certificate for those in the area of training.

Meanwhile Mr. Emilio also requested the participants to use as maximum as possible this training opportunity, though very time-limited, to have a sound understanding on the materials provided by the facilitators although these participants actually have had the knowledge on how to convey trainings.

The training took place at the Centro Formasaun João Paulo II-Comoro-Dili during 5 days starting from 2 to 6 March 2015 supported by the Human Rights Advisory Unit, the UNDP/OHCHR Capacity Building Project for PDHJ and financial aid from the New-Zealand Government.