Democratic Policing and Accountability

This text presents a collection of essays which explore one of the most important and under-discussed areas of human rights abuses worldwide - human rights violations by the police. The chapters bring together an array of diverse perspectives which address the issues and challenges that the accountability of police conduct poses for a liberal democracy. In addressing this matter, each contributor draws on their own experience of police accountability. The book draws on the experiences of the Canada-Brazil Technical Co-operation Project on Institutional Violence, carried out during the period of 1996-99. The project was managed by the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa and the Nucleo de Estudos da Violencia at the University of Sao Paulo. As a result, many of the contributions focus on aspects dealing with police accountability in Canada and Brazil.