The ethics of enforcement: human rights-based policing in duty-oriented societies
Abstract
This article examines the tension between rights-based policing and duty-based morality. Liberal democracies, concerned for individual autonomy, procedural safeguards, and encroachment by the state, continue to create tensions with morality rooted in relational duty and collective ethics. In particular, non-Western societies often conceptualize justice in terms of social harmony and duty, representing justice shaped by a cultural context. Through multidisciplinary theory and comparative cases, this article shows how the imposition of rights-based frameworks results in cultural resistance. The paper discusses informal justice systems. Therefore, on the one hand, it explores the promise and peril of hybrid justice models. Accordingly, on the other hand, it proposes a more sophisticated or nuanced conceptualization that respects cultural contexts, without undermining the universality of core human rights protections.
Received: 12 November 2025; Accepted: 03 April 2026
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