CENTRAL AMERICAN POLICE TRAINING: State and USAID Should Ensure Human Rights Content is Included as Appropriate, and State Should Improve Data

Abstract

Agencies have established objectives and delivered training to professionalize police in Central America's Northern Triangle but have not consistently done so to promote police respect for human rights. U.S. strategies include objectives to professionalize police, and the Departments of State (State) and Defense (DOD) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have delivered related training. These strategies also highlight the importance of police respect for human rights, but agencies have few objectives or other control mechanisms to ensure police receive related training. For instance, none of the 14 State projects and 2 of the 8 USAID projects that GAO reviewed had such objectives. Officials said this is because objectives were designed to be broader in focus. DOD also does not have objectives but has other control mechanisms to ensure its training includes human rights content. Federal standards for internal control call for managers to establish control mechanisms consistent with priorities. Without them, it may be difficult for State and USAID to ensure that training supports agencies' goals to promote police respect for human rights.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2018
Accession Number
AD1167187

Entities

People

  • Jennifer Grover

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Border Security
  • Central America
  • Congress
  • Contracts
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Department Of State
  • El Salvador
  • Foreign Relations
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • House Of Representatives
  • Human Rights
  • International Law
  • Law
  • Law Enforcement
  • Military Training
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Training
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • United States Southern Command

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

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  • Psychological Intervention/Treatment for Stress, Anxiety, PTSD, and Related Emotional and Cognitive Health Symptoms.