Francis Kiwanga
Executive Director, Legal and Human Rights Centre
Accountable Policing
Corruption, Training
local police training, corruption
Daniel Scher
Tanzania
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania, United Republic of
Mon Aug 10 2009
Abstract
Francis Kiwanga, executive director of the Legal and Human Rights Centre in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, discusses the organization’s engagement with the Tanzanian police on human rights issues. Beginning in the early 2000s, the LHRC introduced police training in human rights issues at the district and regional levels in Tanzania. Other initiatives that Kiwanga discusses include successfully lobbying to have human rights included in the college-level training curriculum for police officers; creating booklets, pamphlets, and other materials to educate people about their rights when they are arrested by police; providing ad hoc training on human rights to senior police officials; and working with police to introduce gender and children’s desks in each region and police station. Kiwanga concludes by discussing a few of the successes and continued challenges of police reform in Tanzania.
Full Profile
At the time of this interview, Francis Kiwanga was the executive director of the Legal and Human Rights Centre, an advocacy center founded in 1995 that focuses on issues of human rights, good governance and provision of legal-aid services, located in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Prior to joining the Legal and Human Rights Centre, Kiwanga served in the Tanzanian civil service and worked in the private sector.
