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Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Police Training Program 2007. Introductions. How would you like to be known? What is your position? Where are you stationed/posted? Tell us one thing that we no-one else here knows about you. Objectives.
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Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Police Training Program 2007
Introductions • How would you like to be known? • What is your position? • Where are you stationed/posted? • Tell us one thing that we no-one else here knows about you.
Objectives • Cover the basic concepts of protection, gender and sex • Examine power relationships, especially in the refugee context; • Examine SEA in the context of human rights; • Clarify police roles & responsibilities in combating SEA; • Increase awareness of the Kenya Code of Conduct for aid workers & the Civil Service Code of Conduct (Public Officers Act); • Strengthen the management of SEA cases with special emphasis on the needs of women and children.
Protection in Refugee Environments • What is protection? • Who needs protecting? • Who should protect?
Safety Dignity Integrity Securing people’s safety Inner emotional experience; all kinds of abuses and violations are attacks on a person’s dignity Bringing together priorities of safety, dignity and material needs Protection
Empowerment Rights-based People are key actors in their own protection; People have rights to protection, while authorities have legal obligations to respect the law and ensure protection. Protection
Protection: “all activities aimed at ensuring full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and spirit and the relevant bodies of law, i.e. human rights law, international humanitarian law, and refugee law.”.
Who needs protecting? • We all need protection, but some groups may require special care: • Refugees/Internally Displaced Persons • Women and girls • Disabled/Mentally ill • Same sex couples • Minorities • Others….
Who Should Protect? • States • The primary actors responsible for the protection of civilians. • States unable to meet all their responsibilities directly are charged with enabling humanitarian interventions by impartial organizations.
Who Should Protect? • Mandated and specialized agencies lead on particular aspects of humanitarian protection. • UNHCR Works with states on refugee protection • ICRC Oversees implementation/development of • IHL • OHCHR Promotes and protects human rights • UNOCHA Coordinates humanitarian action • UNICEF Protects women and children • FAO Food and security needs • WHO Health • ILO Employment • IOM Migration
Non-mandated agencies • Other impartial humanitarian NGOs are also entitled to offer humanitarian action in support of persons affected by armed conflict and disaster. • This is in line with the general principle that individuals and groups, as well as states have a responsibility to promote and respect human rights.
Human Rights: Key Concepts • Rights: The rules that say the needs of men and women should be met and honoured. • Human Rights: The basic needs that all governments have agreed that men and women are entitled to. They are founded on respect for the dignity and worth of each person. • Universal: Applied equally to all people without discrimination • Inalienable: Something that cannot be taken or given away. You are born with it. Every human has inalienable rights because they are human. • Primacy: Governments have agreed that when Human Rights conflict with Laws and customs, the Human Rights are the ones to be respected.
Human Rights Instruments • The Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted on 10th December 1948. • The UDHR recognizes freedoms and rights to which all individuals, men, women and children, are entitled. • Other Human Rights Instruments have been developed including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
Why Do People Violate IHL & HR? • Stress; • Pathological behaviour; • The challenge of encouraging people to change abusive/exploitative behaviour; • Large differentials in power; • Lack of enforcement of IHL and Human Rights Law; • Policies that condone or encourage such behaviour.
Power Generally, the ability (real or perceived) Or potential to bring about significant change, usually in people’s lives through the actions of oneself or of others.
Types and Sources of Power • Economic • money, employment, purchasing power • Political • policymaking, access to resources, command of military • Social • education, appearance, charm, status in tribe/clan or community, gender, age, religious authority
Different Uses of Power • Negative • rape, corruption, harassment, exploitation, violence, denying justice, neglecting human rights, altering evidence, false accusations, cronyism • Positive • educating, protecting, fair decision-making, being accountable, respecting rule of law, respecting fellow human beings
Gender and Sex • Sex is biologically determined and immutable (it is fixed) • Gender is socially determined and dynamic (it can change)
Gender-based violence Physical, mental or social abuse which is directed at a person on the basis of gender or sex.
Examples of GBV • Rape both outside and inside marriage; • Sexual assault; • Attempted rape; • Sexual harassment; • Female genital mutilation; • Forced prostitution; • Sexual exploitation and abuse; • Domestic Violence; • Confinement; • Early/forced marriage; • Dowry abuse; • Widow abuse; • Denial of education • …and the reluctance to criminalize and prosecute these abuses.
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Key Concepts • Violence • Abusive or unjust exercise of power • Gender-Based Violence • Physical, mental or social abuse which is directed at a person on the basis of gender or sex.
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Key Concepts • Sexual Abuse Actual threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions. • Sexual Exploitation Any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to profiting monetarily, social or politically from the sexual exploitation of another.
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Key Concepts • Informed Consent • When an individual is aware of what all her/his options are, and is able to make a decision without coercion.
SEA and the law. • Most of the crime that constitutes PSEA is prima facie criminal and hence punishable in law. E.g. in Kenya it is an offence to have unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman without her consent (rape). • When the survivor is under 18 years it is immaterial that she consented as the minimum age of consent is 18 years. • Consent may be negated when it was obtained by coercion, intimidation, force, false pretence, impersonation or misrepresentation, in which case it will still be rape (i.e. no consent)
Prevention and Response Tools for Aid Workers • UN Secretary-General’s Bulletin • Inter-agency Codes of Conduct (e.g. Kenya Code of Conduct) • Individual agency policies/procedures (Administrative and Human resources) • Interagency protocols (e.g. Kenya) • IASC Complaints and Investigation Procedures and Guidance related to Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation
Kenya Police and PSEA. • The Kenya police do not have their own COC but by virtue of working in the refugee hosting areas, are considered humanitarian workers and expected to act with the same restraint. • Officers are bound by the civil servants COC • The COC states that civil servants should not take advantage of their positions to exploit the public and they should not abuse their office.
QUIZ • Under the Public Officer’s Act, police offices are prohibited from having sex with people who are under 18. True or False? • Humanitarian workers are forbidden to have sexual relationships with beneficiaries under all circumstances. True or False? • If you suspect that a staff member is violating the standards in the Public Officer’s Act, you must (check all that apply): • Tell him.her to stop • Investigate on your own • Report ( to the Senior Officer) • The Kenya Code of Conduct only applies to behaviour that takes place during working hours. True or False?
Quiz 1. Under the Public Officers Act, police officers are prohibited from having sex with people under 18. True or False? • True – sexual activity with children (people under the age of 18) is prohibited because national law states that the age of consent is 18. (see section III.7.9 (1) A public officer shall carry out his duties in accordance with the law).
Quiz 2. Humanitarian workers are forbidden to have sexual relationships with beneficiaries under all circumstances. True or False? • False – According to the SG’s bulletin, sexual relationships between humanitarian workers and beneficiaries are strongly discouraged, because such relationships are based on inherently unequal power dynamics.
Quiz 3. If you suspect that a fellow police officer is violating the standards in the Public Officer’s Act, you must (check all that apply) • Tell him.her to stop • Investigate on your own • Report ( to the Senior Officer) • The answer is C and this applies regardless of whether you are in the same agency. You must report suspicions.
Quiz 4. The Kenya Code of Conduct only applies to behaviour that takes place during working hours. True or False? • False – The Kenya Code applies all the time (not just during working hours). There is a responsibility that comes with the position that extends beyond working hours.
PSEA Mechanisms • Legal tools • Inter-agency and Agency Codes of Conduct • Government Codes of Ethics • PLUS… • Our own Personal Responsibility
Personal Responsibility • If it isn’t illegal, it does not mean it is right; • Upstanding conduct; • Positive role models; • Responsibility to help others behave well
Procedures: A police officer accused of SEA • After receiving a complaint, an officer of senior rank opens a file into the matter (A junior officer cannot open a file on his senior but can pass the complaint to a more senior officer). • Evidence is collected and then reviewed by the OCPD. • The case is passed to the PPO and then to the CP. • At HQ a commission looks into the case and forwards it to the AG who again reviews the case. • If established that the officer has a case to answer, then s/he is arrested and taken to court
Procedures contd. • This procedure can be skipped if there is sufficient evidence to support a prosecution without all the steps e.g. when it happens in full glare of the public. • When the act is misconduct but not a crime, the officer will face disciplinary measures within the system as prescribed by the personnel rules and procedures. • In such cases, the officer is to be interdicted and is not allowed to be on duty, or to leave the police station barracks without the consent of the OCS.
The Police and SEA • In a recent workshop, the police focal person for PSEA reiterated that “ police officers are not supposed to interact with refugees except on an official capacity -refugees are traumatized/vulnerable and in need of protection” • It was also stated that the force will not tolerate officers who go against the grain of the COC and morality to sexually abuse and exploit beneficiaries. • He reiterated that the definition of rape includes cases where intimidation, false presentation, impersonation or bribery is used to obtain consent for sexual relations.
SEA complaints mechanisms • Purpose: • To enable refugees, host community and staff make SEA complaints and seek redress in a safe environment. • The mechanism ought to be: • Effective • Accessible • Safe for the users
The role of the police in SEA by humanitarian workers • In cases of SEA where it is suspected that a crime may have been committed, the case is referred to the police for legal action. • Alternatively, a complainant may go straight to the police and the reporting officer must follow the appropriate procedures e.g. ensuring protection for the survivor. • In some cases, the aid worker may have immunity from prosecutions and the police must consult with the COO and the AG to have a way forward.
Concluding thought… As police officers, we must do all we can to create and maintain an environment that prevents sexual exploitation and abuse, corruption or abuse of power, and protect the safety, dignity and integrity of all the people we are entrusted to serve.
Thank you!!!! • Please complete the workshop evaluation forms…
