New Tactics is very pleased to introduce you to the Training Law Enforcement for Prevention of Ill-Treatment and Torture featured resource practitioners! If you would like to contact one of these practitioners directly, you may click on the names that provide a hyperlink to their New Tactics personal biography account. Please click on the 'contact' tab to send a message to their email. The resource practitioners are listed by organizational teams (in alphabetical order) and then as individual resource practitioners (in alphabetical order).
Amnesty International-Dutch Section, Police and Human Rights Program, (The Netherlands. The main objective of the Amnesty International - Dutch Section, Police and Human Rights Program is to enhance the understanding of policing within the AI movement and wider human rights community in order to improve the effectiveness of interventions on police compliance with human rights principles. Policing is at the heart of a broad spectrum of human rights discourses. This has been apparent for many of those working on civil and political rights who have generally targeted police as human rights violators. However, policing also has a direct relevance to economic, social and cultural rights. Police can and should play an important role in ensuring a safe environment in which individuals can seek to realise their full range of rights – be they social and economic or civil and political.
Anneke Osse, has worked with the police in the Netherlands for some 12 years, as a trainer and management consultant. In the first 4 years she was a trainer in interrogation and other communication skills for police detectives, later she worked in the fields of police ethics, integrity, human rights and corruption prevention. During all these years she has also been an active member of Amnesty International's Professional Group of Police. In 2004, she joined Amnesty International's Dutch section professionally. Her main area of interest is how police and human rights NGOs can work together.
Association for the Prevention of Torture – APT, (Geneva, Switzerland) is an independent non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, operating globally to prevent torture and other ill-treatment. The APT was founded by the Swiss banker and lawyer, Jean-Jacques Gautier, in 1977. The APT envisions a world in which no one is subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as promised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The APT specialises in torture prevention, rather than the denunciation of individual cases. This approach enables the APT to collaborate with state authorities, police services, the judiciary, national institutions, academics and NGOs that are committed to institutional reform and changing practices. The APT has played a leading role in the establishment of international and regional standards and mechanisms to prevent torture, such as the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the African Commission’s Robben Island Guidelines for the prevention of torture in Africa. The APT team participating in the dialogue is listed in alphabetical order.
Barbara Bernath studied political science and International relations and holds a Master’s degree in human rights. Prior to joining the APT she worked for the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs and worked with the ICRC in Colombia. She was responsible for APT’s Europe programme for 6 years until 2005 when she moved to the APT’s Detention Monitoring Programme. In September 2009 she became the organization’s Chief of Operations. She is fluent in French, German and English.
Matthew Pringle has been with the APT since January 2004, where he works as the Europe and Central Asia Program Officer. Much of the APT’s work in the region relates to the countries of the former Soviet Union, Mongolia and Turkey, where the organisation has a range of torture prevention activities. Before joining the APT Matthew worked as a researcher in the Europe and Central Asia Program of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London for 5 years, during which time he was responsible for various former Soviet Union and Western European countries. Prior to working at Amnesty International he obtained a Ph.D. in the political sciences from Brunel University in London.
Jem Stevens is a graduate in law with a master’s degree in human rights and democratisation. Before becoming the APT’s Asia-Pacific Program Officer in 2009, she worked as a Human Rights Officer with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal. She has also worked for a number of human rights and non-profit organisations in Japan, including as part of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Scholarship programme. She speaks fluent English and Japanese and good French.
Walter Suntinger, Free-lance human rights consultant and trainer, Managing Partner in HumanRightsConsulting Vienna; member of the Human Rights Advisory Board to the Austrian Ministry of the Interior; board member of the Association for the Prevention of Torture; consultancies in the fields of: human rights in police and judicial system, human rights approaches in development and business; on behalf of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the UN, UNDP, the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, OMV AG, and Amnesty International; Current or former) lecturer, University of Vienna, Johns Hopkins University-Bologna Center, University of Oregon (study abroad program in Vienna), the European Peace University in Stadschlaining. Selected Publications: Alle Menschenrechte für alle. Informationen zu Menschenrechten und Menschenrechtsbildung (together w. Barbara Weber 1999); academic co-author of Amnesty International, Combating Torture, A Manual for Action (2003); Menschenrechte und Polizei, Handbuch für TrainerInnen (2005).
International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims and Member Torture Treatment Centers
The IRCT is the umbrella for more than 140 independent torture rehabilitation organisations in over 70 countries. Each year IRCT members treat more than 100,000 torture survivors and their families. The IRCT has special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council and the UN Department of Public Information, and participatory status with the Council of Europe.
Alice Verghese, Head of Training, at the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims –
IRCT, (Denmark). Alice has an MSc in Social Policy and Planning in
Developing Countries. Developing a strategy and new programme of work
for IRCT as an external training service provider. Regional
experience predominantly in Asia on health, refugee assistance,
emergency programmes, torture rehabilitation and prevention. Fourteen
years of experience within INGOs.
- Assistance Centre for Torture Survivors – ACET, (Bulgaria)
Evgeni Genchev, M.D., (Bulgaria) is a psychiatrist and a pioneer of Bulgarian psychotherapy. He is a founder of the Assistance Center for Torture Survivors (ACET). In his more than 10 years long practice in torture rehabilitation and torture prevention in Bulgaria, he has taken part in all the projects for police officers training in human rights and ill-treatment and torture prevention, that ACET has organized. He has also taken part in the publications ACET has made on the topic. His international experience includes training of staff for torture rehabilitation and prevention (working with the police) in Kosovo and active participation in the professional meetings of the Balkan Network for Torture Survivors (BA.N). His other professional activities include private practice in psychotherapy, training psychodrama, teaching in university Master programs for social work and training and supervision of staff of social institutions for children and adolescents. - Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture - TRC, (Palestine, Headquartered in Ramallah [Central], with three branch offices in Hebron [South], Jenin and Nablus [North]).
Emile Mukhlouf, the current Director of the Planning and Development department, and one of the most active members of TRC, joined TRC in 2004 as an Administrative Manager. Since then, Mr. Makhlouf has displayed remarkable and immense talents on the one hand, and special interest in Human Rights issues and NGOs development on the other. Moreover, he has proved to be highly capacitated in other fields of TRC’s work like finance and projects management. Indeed, he utilized the experience that he got through working as a volunteer in several international humanitarian organizations before joining TRC in advancing the work of the center.
Suhair Jubeh is from Jerusalem, married with one daughter and one son. She graduated from Birzeit University in psychology with a minor in sociology and has a high diploma in school counseling. Her professional background at the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (TRC) in Palestine began in 2001 as a Psychologist. She worked in several different positions including the head of the Psychology Department and as a supervisor for TRC branches. Her recent position is Manager for the Capacity Building Unit. She has taken many training courses in psychotherapy such as Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Narrative therapy, Group therapy and Family therapy. She has been in charge to coordinate training courses such as for law enforcement agencies, vocational training for victims of torture, as well as trainings in mental health, trauma complications and crisis intervention.
- Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture in Ethiopia - (Ethiopia)
Tekeste Ayalew is the Senior Program and Communication Officer at the Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (RCVTE) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia since September 2005. He has a Bachelor of Art Degree in social studies with significant training in the country and abroad in the area of Development, Gender, HIV/AIDS, Conflict Management, Advocacy in Human Rights Projects and much more. Prior to RCVTE, he worked for German Technical Cooperation [GTZ] as a Researcher and Communication Coordinator, Save the Children Canada Christian Relief and Development Association, an umbrella organization of over 280 NGOs in Ethiopia as an assistant Membership Affairs Officer.
Yohannes Beshah is a holder of MSC in economic policy and planning from North Eastern Nniversity in Boston (USA). He served as Head of the Department of Human Resource Development, Head of Employment and Vocational Training and Head of International Relations in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs for twenty years. He also served as Executive Director for the Ethiopian Employers Federation (EEF) for seven years. Before joining RCVTE as Executive Director, he was the General Manager for NOAH Transport Share Company. During his career, he visited many different countries around the globe and participated in many workshops, symposiums, seminars and high level meetings.
Professor Dr. Vahit Biçak graduated from the Faculty of Law, Ankara University in Turkey (1985-1989). In 1996, he became a doctor in law with a thesis on improperly obtained evidence. He received his PhD from the University of Nottingham in Great Britain. He is a full professor and has been teaching Criminal Procedure Law, Criminal Law and Human Rights since 1995 at the Police Academy in Ankara . He has represented Turkey at the Council of Europe, the Committee of Experts on Police Ethics and Problems of Policing. In 2003, he was appointed as a director to the Presidency of Human Rights in the Prime Ministry, which is the highest administrative position concern¬ing human rights. He served two years on this position and left the office in September 2005. He has published numerous books and articles, both in English and Turkish, on human rights issues in Turkey and on the theoretical and practical aspects of criminal procedure law and constitutional law.
Ralph Crawshaw served as a police officer in England, completing his service in the rank of Chief Superintendent. He holds degrees in political science and international human rights law from the University of Essex, and is a Fellow of the Human Rights Centre at that University. Since 1990 he has been extensively involved in the field of human rights and policing, working in an independent capacity with the Council of Europe, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. This has principally involved delivering human rights educational programmes on behalf of these organisations for police, prosecutors and military in various countries throughout the world. He has also carried out investigations into violations of human rights. His particular interests in, human rights terms, include the right to life, the prohibition of torture, and the prohibition of arbitrary arrest and detention. He is also interested in the relationship between human rights and policing, and the laws of war that are relevant to police during armed conflict, disturbance and tension. With co-authors he has produced text books on various aspects of human rights and policing, and a teaching manual.
Dr. Ibrahim el Ghazawi is a colonel in the Ministry of the Interior. He heads the Legal Affairs & Human Rights Office in Qena Security Headquarters. He is also a lecturer in human rights and international law for police trainees in the Police Academy in Cairo.
He served in two remarkable peacekeeping missions with UN peacekeeping Operations, the first was in Namibia 1989, and the second was in Bosnia 2001. He also works part-time as external faculty with Pearson Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ottawa, Canada, delivering training programs to African Officers on peacekeeping topics and human rights in armed conflicts. His PhD is in Children Rights, titled "Child Rights in Private International Law Scope".
Dr. Clinton Fernandes is Senior Lecturer in Strategic Studies at the Australian Defence Force Academy campus of the University of New South Wales. His principal area of research is in International Relations and Strategy. He focuses on the National Interest in Australia's external relations. He is a historian of the 24-year occupation of East Timor by Indonesia in its multiple dimensions: the clandestine resistance, the armed resistance, the Indonesian military, the diplomatic front and the solidarity movement. He teaches courses on The Role of Modern Intelligence, Modern Political Ideologies, and the Comparative Politics of Southeast Asia. He formerly served in the Australian Defence Force as an intelligence officer. In 1998 and 1999 he was Principal Analyst (East Timor) for the Australian Intelligence Corps. He was Head of Intelligence for the Australian Defence Force Support to the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Col. Cecil B. Griffiths has served as patrol officer, traffic officer, and detective in the Liberian police. He was appointed Chief Statistician of a new Central Statistics Unit, and was later promoted to the rank of Captain. In 1986 he was transferred to the police training academy, and later appointed Chief of Research and Curriculum Development. In 1987 Griffiths was appointed Administrative Assistant to the Director. As the war intensified in 1989-90, Griffiths was forced to flee the country, but was trapped for six weeks in rebel-held areas before reaching Ghana, where he remained for more than two years. He returned to Liberia in August 1992, and was again appointed instructor at the Police Academy. In January 1993, he was made Chief of Planning and Research, with the mandate of developing a short-range plan to provide nationwide police services and security coverage until inauguration day. In creating this plan he discovered that the problems confronting the department were primarily administrative in cause, and that a competent core of administrators with the professional will to take appropriate actions was needed to commence police department reform. Since 1995, Griffiths has been the President of the Liberian National Law Enforcement Association, which he helped create. He is author of the New Tactics tactical notebook, Promoting Human Rights Professionalism in the Liberian Police Force.
Philip Lyons spent several years as a law enforcement officer. He reached detective, specializing in crimes involving children, before leaving full-time law enforcement. He serves as the Executive Director for the Texas Regional Center for Policing Innovation (TRCPI) as well as a faculty professor at the Sam Houston State University in the College of Criminal Justice (1995 to present). TRCPI is one of more than a dozen Regional Community Policing Institutes nationwide, they are part of the only network of its kind providing training and technical assistance on a variety of community policing and other, timely law enforcement topics to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. TRCPI is committed to fostering police-community relationships leading to innovative methods of reducing crime and improving neighborhood safety. Dr. Lyons completed his graduate work at the University of Nebraska program in Law and Psychology. He earned his J.D. (law degree) from the College of Law and his Master of Arts and Ph.D. from the Graduate College with concentrations in forensic psychology, a specialty track which overlaps the law, psychology and clinical psychology training programs. Dr. Lyons has written or coauthored dozens of scholarly and professional works, including books, book chapters, and journal articles.
Nina Singh is an officer of Indian Police Service (IPS), the premier police service of India. She joined the IPS in 1989 and is currently posted as Inspector General of Police (Planning and Welfare) at the State Police Headquarters, Jaipur. Her responsibilities include resource management, modernization and welfare of state police. She has worked in various assignments across the state and acquired in-depth knowledge of police administration, crime investigation and maintenance of law and order. She has also worked as Member-Secretary of Rajasthan State Commission for Women, a watchdog to protect the rights and interests of women- especially those belonging to economically and socially disadvantaged sections of society. She has been closely associated with the police reform initiatives of Rajasthan. She did her MA from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and MPA from Harvard University, USA. She has acquired special skills on evaluation of social programs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. She has been decorated with the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Services. She is recipient of the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award for outstanding contribution to the society and Nari Shakti Samman for being a symbol of womanpower.


