Exploring human rights in the police education : an Icelandic case study

Changing demographics combined with the globalization brought new challenges to the Icelandic society. For instance, the new ethnic diversity in the population provoked tensions between police officers and marginalized groups. Almost at the same period, in 2016, the police education moved from the police academy to a university degree, in a program where human rights are a key concept to better the practices. My research questions are how human rights are addressed in the Icelandic police education and how they inform their professional development? The focus was put on examining two courses of the program and Tibbitts Accountability/Professional Development human rights education model. I conclude that the courses include the main features of the model, by amongst other using efficient teaching and learning strategies to help the police officers to protect and reduce human rights violation, but that they would likely gain to include a better critical reflective component. Further research is needed to determine how the new education will influence the professional development of police officers. Key terms: human rights, police education, accountability, professional developmen