Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social, Economic and Legal Factors Influencing Human Rights Violations by Non-State Actors

现有文献表明，叛乱分子、准军事组织、叛军和其他非国家武装团体战略性地使用暴力来实现集团目标。然而，是什么影响了武装团体对其针对平民的各种侵犯人权行为的选择？本项目旨在分析武装团体战略性地使用侵犯人权手段背后的政治、经济和法律因素。它假设武装团体使用和改变他们犯下的违法行为，以操纵平民的行为方式，首先是维持和最大化武装团体的资金来源，其次是逃避起诉。通过对哥伦比亚非国家武装团体进行定性案例研究和定量统计分析，该项目审查了武装团体的资金来源和起诉水平所建立的激励结构如何影响其选择或避免各种侵犯人权行为。拟议的研究有助于与人权研究、犯罪学、法律研究和安全研究有关的跨学科研究，特别是与政治暴力和以平民为目标的文献有关。它提供了远远超出哥伦比亚案例的普遍性结果，因为所有武装团体都依赖资金并努力逃避可信的起诉。因此，其结果将使那些处理拉丁美洲和其他地区平民福利、安全和国防问题的人感兴趣。该项目还揭示了政治、经济和法律因素的相对影响，最终确定了特定侵犯人权行为的警告信号。这些资料应有助于决策者、人权倡导者、执法机构以及政府和非政府组织，优先考虑更有效地保护易受伤害平民的努力。这最终会影响到安全和防务，因为更有效的保护可以防止平民组建自卫力量，其暴力行为可能使和平进程进一步复杂化并延长国内冲突。

Existing literature suggests that insurgents, paramilitaries, rebels and other non-state armed groups use violence strategically to obtain group objectives. Yet, what influences the armed group's choice among the various types of human rights violations it targets the civilian population with? This project addresses analyzes the political-economic and legal factors underlying armed groups' strategic use of human rights violations. It hypothesizes that armed groups use and vary the violations they commit in order to manipulate civilians to behave in ways that, first, maintain and maximize the armed group's funding sources, and second, evade prosecution. Using qualitative case studies and quantitative statistical analysis of Colombian non-state armed groups, the project examines how the incentive structures created by an armed group's funding sources and prosecution levels influence its selection or avoidance of various human rights violations. The proposed research contributes to interdisciplinary research relevant to human rights studies, criminology, legal studies and security studies, with specific relevance to the literature on political violence and civilian targeting. It provides generalizable results extending well beyond the Colombian case, since all armed groups rely on funding and strive to escape credible prosecution. Thus, the results will interest those dealing with questions of civilian welfare, security and defense in Latin America and beyond. The project also reveals the relative influence of political economic and legal factors, ultimately identifying warning signs of particular human rights violations. This information should assist policy makers, human rights advocates, law enforcement agencies and governmental and non-governmental organizations, prioritize efforts to more efficiently and effectively protect vulnerable civilians. This ultimately impacts security and defense, as more effective protection prevents civilians from forming self-defense forces whose violence could further complicate peace processes and prolong civil conflicts.