In April 1963, the United Nations held a Seminar on the Role of Police in the Protection of Human Rights, in Canberra, Australia. The Seminar was attended by delegates and observers from 19 countries and territories, including government ministers, police commissioners, academics, NGO representatives, judges and lawyers. The agenda covered topical issues such as compulsory finger-printing; freedom of police from political influence; the right of suspected persons to legal advice; and the unacceptability of the use of force to obtain a confession.

In April 2013, the ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security (CEPS) will be holding a conference to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original Seminar. The 2013 conference will examine issues at the 1963 seminar, address the evolution of human rights since 1963, and also consider new topics of concern that did not confront law enforcement in 1963. These issues include:
* The changing environment of accountability and human rights: police unions; integrity; corruption and police ethics.
* Criminal investigation and human rights: interrogation/interviewing; torture; violence.
* Internationalisation of policing: engagement in regional and multi-national peacekeeping missions; transnational crime.
* Balancing human rights and security/anti-terrorism.
* Indigenous people and policing.
* Gender; women in policing.
* Discrimination (e.g. gender, race, disability).
* The role of technology and forensic science.
* The role and differing structures of modern policing.

The 2013 conference will be an opportunity to re-engage professionals and academics in the fields of human rights and policing, and to create a discourse about issues that face police in the 21st Century.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Professor David Bayley, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, State University of New York at Albany, USA; author of Changing the Guard: Developing Democratic Police Abroad (2006, OUP).
• Peter Neyroud CBE QPM, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge; former Chief Executive Officer for the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA); former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, UK.
• Chief (Ret.) Dr Karin Montejo, former Division Chief at the Miami-Dade Police Department, USA; author of Women Cops: Positioning Yourself for Promotion, A Step by Step Guide for Getting Promoted up the Ranks.
• Professor Andy Hughes, University of Wollongong; former Head of ACT Policing, Fiji Police and United Nations Police; former senior executive in the AFP and Interpol.
• Detective Inspector John Zdrilic, Crime Manager of the NSW Police Central Hunter Local Area Command; former Senior Investigator at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia.
• Professor Chris Cunneen, Tropical leader in Justice and Social Inclusion, The Cairns Institute and School of Law; conjoint professor of criminology in the Faculty of Law of the University of New South Wales.
• Mark Burgess, CEO, Police Federation of Australia.
• Professor Seumas Miller, Professorial Research Fellow, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University.

The conference will be held from 16 to 18 April 2013, at the Rex Hotel in Canberra, Australia; which was the location of the original Seminar.

Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words addressing a topic relevant to human rights and the main themes of this conference, together with biographical background information of 100-150 words by 30 November 2012 to: humanrights2013@griffith.edu.au  All proposals are subject to a review process. Successful candidates will be informed in December 2012. Further information will be made available in due time. The organisers intend to publish a selection of conference papers.