INSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC PRACTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE POLICE FORCE’S ACCOUNTABILITY IN TANZANIA

Abstract

This article discusses some aspects of human rights protection and the police force in Tanzania. Essentially, it focuses on the way human rights norms are being or should be implemented within our domestic legal structure and its democratic institutions. The article emphasises on the need for the police forces to respect the fundamental human rights of individuals as well as addressing all forms of human rights violations, this being part and parcel of institutional democratic practice and accountability. In other words, it argues that the role of the police forces in the field of human rights is of two-way traffic: that is to say, they have to promote human rights whenever they execute their roles of policing but, at the same time, they have to guard and act against any violation of the same rights.