Lesson #5: Human Rights Consideration during Interviews

This lesson will look at the findings of the visit of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and their concerns regarding conduct during police interviews in Macedonia. The exercises and examples in the lesson encourage participants to identify exactly which treatment constitutes an abuse of human rights during the interview process. The police must at all times be sensitive to the rights and needs of the individual and at no point during the interview should the police make the citizen feel that they are under any form of duress. Initially, the lesson will focus on police conduct during the interview of suspects and then will move on to consider the needs of victims of crime.

The goal of this lesson is to examine how the interviewing of suspects by the police is an area that is vulnerable to the human rights violations. Emphasis will also be placed on the sensitivity required of the police regarding the different needs of victims of crime.

At the conclusion of this lesson, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the reasons why it is important for the police to respect human rights principles when involved in the interviewing of suspects and victims of crime
2. Underline the importance of the visit of the CPT in 1998 and their concerns regarding police conduct during interviews of suspects
3. Identify through application of a case study examples of police officers failing to adhere to human rights principles during interviews of suspects
4. Outline the specific needs of victims during police interviews
5. Develop a set of regulations concerning human rights and the interviewing process