By Kefiloe Kajane
The Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) this week signed a memorandum of understanding with Sesotho Media and Development (SM&D) and the She-Hive Association to work together in an initiative called ‘the accountability and capacity building initiative by Lesotho civil society organisations.
The new initiative brings together civil society movements, police and the members of the public ensure that police protect and respect human rights.
The initiative is a 42-month grant contract under the 11 European Development Fund with a contribution of about M12 769 402.
According to executive director of SM&D and also coordinator of the project ‘Mamolefe Petlane, the project will be implemented in six districts of Lesotho.
She indicated that the intervention seeks to address the respect of security sector institutions to the rule of law in Lesotho.
She explained the main objective of action is to support multi-sector participatory change process leading to enhancement of the respect, promotion, fulfillment and protection of human rights by the Lesotho police.
“This will be archived by creating platforms for meaningful joint consultations linking the public, police and CSOs in identifying and documenting human rights abuse challenges involving LMPS.
“Its key aim is to encourage the LMPS to use international human rights standards and principles to police effectively and promote practices within the service that are compliant with the principles of human rights. It also aims to break the silence on potential human rights violations in the LMPS and it will help create safe spaces for discussions on these issues,” she explained clearly.
Petlane continued explicitly: “Lesotho is a member of the United Nations and the African Union. As a country, we have ratified many UN Human Rights Conventions and thus has made binding international commitments to adhere to the standards laid down in these universal human rights documents.
“Our own constitution and relevant supporting legislation and the systems of the judiciary and law enforcement have all been set up to protect the rights, well-being, dignity, and lives of Basotho. Findings from the 2018 Afro barometer survey revealed that most Basotho are concerned by police brutality which is perceived as a problem in the country.”
She stated that in 2020, following a public call by the European Union seeking to promote human rights and support CSO’s as actors of governance and development; SM&D with their partner SHEHIVE approached the LMPS to discuss the challenge of human rights violations by its members.
The LMPS commissioner Holomo Molibeli said the members of the police were committed to protecting and promoting human rights. He argued that they are bound by the country’s legislation and the international norms to work towards the preservation of human rights, noting that the service should perform their duties according to the law.
He further expressed that Lesotho is faced with the challenge of police brutality and as the police they did not runaway or tried to protect it. He indicated that they viewed it as a wrong-doing..
“We see police brutality as abuse of power and we actually took all the initiatives that we had to take. The direction that this initiative is taking is very smart as we need to create awareness and make sure that we have whistle blowers whenever there is a suspected violation of human rights,” Molibeli concluded in his warnings.
