Preventive Powers of Police in Namibia – A Rights-Based Approach

Namibia gained independence and ended the rule of apartheid only in 1990. It is often lauded as a model of human rights-based countries in Africa. Immediately after independence, the country introduced a distinctly rights-based Constitution with a broad Bill of Rights and also promptly laid the base for a modern police by enacting the Police Act of 1990. In that framework the Namibian Police are endowed with a broad set of ‘police powers’, i.e. means or measures of the police like questioning, arrest, search and seizure etc. ‘Preventive’ powers as a legally distinctive feature refers to law and order policing and prevention of crime, both clearly to be distinguished from investigation of criminal offences. Standards of human and fundamental rights protection developed under criminal procedure law are not directly applicable when it comes to the broad field of “preventive” powers of police. Subsequently these powers often lack a clear cut notional and legal concept, resulting in a deficit of predictability and delimitations despite of a rights based approach in the Constitution and the Police Act in general.