Human Rights Commission Recommends Improvement of Human Rights Education for Police Officers: "Legal Basis Establishment and Management System Development Required"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] On the 7th, the National Human Rights Commission recommended the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency to improve related systems, including establishing legal grounds to strengthen the responsibility for human rights protection so that human rights education for police officers can be systematically and substantively promoted.

The Commission explained the purpose of the recommendation, stating, "Due to the nature of their duties exercising public authority to maintain public peace and order, the police require a higher level of human rights awareness than any other state agency," and added, "With the adjustment of investigative authority between the prosecution and police, the police now hold powerful authority throughout the criminal procedure, increasing their responsibility as an institution protecting citizens' human rights."

First, the Commission recommended specifying legal grounds for human rights education in laws such as the 'Act on the Organization and Operation of the National Police and Autonomous Police' to address the current situation where the importance of human rights education for the police is increasing but there is no legal basis.

Additionally, it recommended revising the 'Police Human Rights Protection Regulations,' a directive of the National Police Agency, to clearly and specifically stipulate the time, target, stages, and content by job function of human rights education, ensuring minimum education hours for each provincial police agency, and to organize an education system so that all police officers can complete specialized and differentiated training.

Furthermore, the Commission recommended establishing an integrated management system to oversee and manage human rights education, which is currently operated individually by each police station, and creating a cooperative system involving external human rights experts to strengthen diverse feedback and cooperation in the overall operation of human rights education.

The Commission stated, "Through this recommendation, we hope that police human rights education will be conducted more systematically and substantively, enabling the police to cultivate human rights-friendly work capabilities and the ability to respond to various human rights situations, thereby enhancing their role as an institution protecting human rights."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.