Feudal Forces: Democratic Nations - Police Accountability in

FEUDAL FORCES: DEMOCRATIC NATIONSAcknowledgementsThe Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative produced this report as part of its work on police accountability and reform inSouth Asia. The report is the result of the work of many people, both inside and outside CHRI.CHRI would like to thank the police officers, civil society representatives, staff of national human rights institutions, donors andtheir partners and policing experts from around South Asia and the world, who all participated in a March 2007 CHRIconference focused on sharing experiences of policing in South Asia. The conference informed a number of the aspects of thisreport.CHRI thanks those who provided useful information and data on South Asia: Raza Ahmad (Asian Development Bank), MukhtarAhmed Ali (Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives), Dr. Shoaib Suddle (National Police Bureau, Pakistan) for informationon Pakistan; Basil Fernando (Asia Human Rights Commission), Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena (activist lawyer), and KingsleyWickremasuriya (former police officer) for Sri Lanka; and Sara Hossain (lawyer) for Bangladesh.CHRI thanks the external reviewers who took the time to provide their comments on the report: Philip C. Stenning (Centre forCriminological Research, School of Criminology, Education, Sociology and Social Work, Keele University), Mukhtar Ahmed Ali(Director, Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, Pakistan), and Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena (activist lawyer and DeputyDirector and Head, Civil and Political Rights Unit, Law and Society Trust, Colombo).CHRI also thanks the team that put the report together. The report was researched and written by Swati Mehta. Swati completedmuch of the initial research during the drafting of CHRI’s 2005 report to the Commonwealth Heads of Government on policeaccountability, with the invaluable guidance and assistance of Janine Rauch, who coordinated the 2005 report. This report wasedited by Daniel Woods, with editorial input from Devika Prasad. This report was designed and laid out by ChenthilkumarParamasivam.CHRI would particularly like to thank Friedrich Naumann - Stiftung für die Freiheit for its financial support.CHRI police programmeCHRI has worked across the Commonwealth on issues of police reform for around ten years. This report is produced as partof a number of activities focused on building knowledge and catalysing accountability-focused reform in South Asia, funded byFriedrich Naumann - Stiftung für die Freiheit during 2007. CHRI’s programme in India and South Asia aims to develop andcatalyse a reform movement in the region by creating and strengthening regional and local networks working on police reformand policing issues, as well as by increasing documentation and media attention around human rights violations by the police,policing practices, accountability and police reform processes in South Asia. The programme’s activities in India have includedfacilitating a series of regional civil society consultation workshops to help build capacity and inform the grassroots movementfor police reform, advocating for police accountability and reform to governments and in the community, assisting with thedrafting of a Model Police Act for India and intervening in public interest litigation concerned with issues of policing. Theprogramme began expanding its work into South Asia in 2007, with a regional roundtable that brought together 50 representativesfrom India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Delegates hailed fromacross government, civil society, media, human rights institutions and police organisations and met to discuss and debate thetrends, commonalities and challenges of policing in South Asia. This report is the next step in CHRI’s engagement with policereform and accountability in South Asia.4 :: POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY IN SOUTH ASIA