Effectiveness of the International Community in Reduction of State Orchestrated Police Brutality in Africa: Hypocrisy or Sincerity?

Abstract:

This research focuses on the effectiveness of the international community in minimizing state orchestrated police brutality. The specific objectives of the study were to: establish the response of the international community actors, explore how sovereignty is negotiated between the international community and individual member states, and determine if there is a significant effort by the international community in reducing state orchestrated Police brutality in Uganda. Nigeria, and Kenya. The study draws on the theory of Organized Hypocrisy and Liberalism Theory to underline constructs that define the study. Explanatory design technique was selected on the basis that it will make it possible for the researcher to solicit for both qualitative and quantitative data. The study applied purposive, snowballing, and convenient sampling techniques to solicit data from 300 respondents using survey questionnaires, while interview schedules were used for key informants. The study underscores that various media platform are applied to enhance negotiations between the international community and individual states. The study concludes that non-interference clauses impede the negotiations among and between countries, thus affecting international community's response to police brutality. Moreover, the study concludes that majority of the effort to contain and/or end state orchestrated have hit a snag because of lack of collective effort to enforce international protocols and conventions on human rights protection. This study recommends that individual states in the international system should work towards deepening synergies for collective response to state orchestrated police brutality, particularly in the Global South where this problem seem to persist. Furthermore, this study recommends that novel international protocols, declarations and conventions should be legislated with a view to give credence to the international community in policing human rights issues in member states without being seen or considered as interfering with the member states' sovereignty. Three themes that emerged from the study were: hypocrisy, Liberalism/human rights and realism — real politic.