Assessing the potential of civil organizations within regions affected by organized crime to hold state institutions to human rights-based development

评估受有组织犯罪影响地区民间组织推动国家机构实现基于人权的发展的潜力

• 批准号: ES/P006167/1
• 负责人: Trevor Stack
• 金额: $ 74.11万
• 依托单位: University of Aberdeen
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FP006167%2F1
• 关键词: Assessing; potential; civil; organizations; within

Although scholars and analysts suspect that civil society has the potential to mitigate the effects of criminal violence, few have conducted substantial research on the topic, and they have focused mainly on national (and international) civil organizations. We propose to focus on civil organizations based in the affected regions themselves, specifically within the west-central Mexican states of Michoacán and Jalisco, a region with high levels of criminal violence.It is increasingly recognized that treating organized crime as a matter of security is insufficient and can even exacerbate the problem, and that organized crime must be addressed through holistic strategies that include development consistent with human rights, providing opportunities for a dignified economic, social and political life outside the sphere of criminal organizations. In the state of Michoacán, for example, after "self-defence" vigilante groups ousted local police accused of serving organized crime in 2014, the federal government established a Commission for Security and Integral Development promising to deliver equitable and participative development to the region.Yet holistic strategies are notoriously difficult to execute when, as often in Mexico, state institutions in the affected regions are captured, wholly or partially, by the same criminal organizations and their associates. In these contexts, criminal organizations can for example use their hold over local (and state) government to frustrate the designs of national government, as well as of international agencies.Researchers and policy-makers suspect that civil society has an important role to play in these contexts. Civil society can monitor the actions of state institutions, insist on participating in development projects, resist development that hurts or fails to benefit vulnerable groups, and advocate strategies that do meet the needs of the broader population, thus helping to offset the hold of criminal organizations over those institutions, as well as creating alternative livelihoods for the population. However, although there have been some studies of the role of national (and international) civil society in holding state institutions to account, the potential role of civil organizations within the regions themselves is little studied. This is our focus.The few studies conducted, and initial research by the applicants, suggest that civil society organizations are often themselves hemmed in by organized crime, and find it difficult to resist penetration by organized crime, much less to advance an agenda contrary to its interests. This helps to account, indeed, for the reluctance of many researchers to conduct sustained fieldwork in these contexts.Despite the forbidding panorama, the project will use comparative ethnography, following strict protocols designed to mitigate risk to researchers and research subjects, to identify and explain positive examples of organizations which have played an effective role in holding state institutions to a human rights agenda, and specifically one designed to offset the noxious effects of organized crime activities.Project outputs will include an academic monograph co-authored by Guerra (CIDE), Maldonado (Colegio de Michoacán) and Stack (Aberdeen), and a volume edited by Stack to include papers from an international conference in London and others chapters co-authored by the applicants with the postdoctoral RAs.Unusually for an academic research project, we have chosen to put the policy outputs on an equal footing with the academic outputs. To this end, we have incorporated 2 policy analysts Domingo (ODI) and Jesperson (RUSI) as Co-Investigators. We have followed their instructions from the outset to ensure that the data collection and analysis will be adequate to the task of producing a series of well-grounded policy briefs, applicable to other regions of Mexico (and the world) affected by criminal violence.

尽管学者和分析人士怀疑民间社会有可能减轻刑事暴力的影响，但很少有人对这一专题进行实质性研究，他们主要关注国家(和国际)民间组织。我们建议把重点放在受影响地区本身的民间组织上，特别是在犯罪暴力严重的墨西哥中西部米却肯州和哈利斯科地区。人们越来越认识到，将有组织犯罪作为安全问题来对待是不够的，甚至可能使问题恶化，必须通过包括符合人权的发展在内的整体战略来处理有组织犯罪，为犯罪组织之外的有尊严的经济、社会和政治生活提供机会。例如，在米却肯州，“自卫”义警组织在2014年驱逐了被控为有组织犯罪服务的地方警察后，联邦政府成立了安全和综合发展委员会，承诺为该地区提供公平和参与性的发展。但众所周知，在墨西哥，当受影响地区的国家机构全部或部分被相同的犯罪组织及其同伙俘虏时，整体战略很难执行。例如，在这些情况下，犯罪组织可以利用其对地方(和州)政府的控制来挫败国家政府和国际机构的计划。研究人员和政策制定者怀疑，民间社会在这些情况下可以发挥重要作用。民间社会可以监督国家机构的行动，坚持参与发展项目，抵制伤害或未能惠及弱势群体的发展，倡导确实满足广大民众需要的战略，从而帮助抵消犯罪组织对这些机构的控制，并为民众创造替代生计。然而，尽管已经有一些关于国家(和国际)民间社会在追究国家机构责任方面的作用的研究，但关于区域内民间组织的潜在作用的研究很少。几项研究和申请者的初步研究表明，民间社会组织本身往往受到有组织犯罪的围困，难以抵抗有组织犯罪的渗透，更不用说推动与其利益背道而驰的议程了。这确实有助于解释为什么许多研究人员不愿在这些情况下进行持续的实地考察。尽管全景令人望而生畏，但该项目将使用比较人种学，遵循旨在降低研究人员和研究对象风险的严格协议，以确定和解释组织在让国家机构遵守人权议程方面发挥有效作用的积极例子，特别是旨在抵消有组织犯罪活动有害影响的组织。项目产出将包括格拉(CIDE)、马尔多纳多(Colegio de Michoacán)和斯塔克(Aberdeen)共同撰写的学术专著，以及由Stack编辑的一卷，其中包括伦敦一次国际会议的论文和申请者与博士后RAS共同撰写的其他章节。对于学术研究项目，我们选择将政策产出与学术产出放在同等的地位。为此，我们聘请了2名政策分析师多明戈(ODI)和杰斯珀森(RUSI)作为联合调查员。我们从一开始就遵循他们的指示，以确保数据收集和分析足以完成编制一系列有充分依据的政策简报的任务，这些政策简报适用于墨西哥(和世界)受犯罪暴力影响的其他地区。

项目成果

In the Name of Poppy: Eradication and Counterinsurgency in Southern Mexico

以罂粟之名：墨西哥南部的铲除和反叛乱

• DOI: 10.31389/jied.117
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Journal of Illicit Economies and Development
• 作者: Alvarez I

Citizens against Crime and Violence - Societal Responses in Mexico

公民反对犯罪和暴力 - 墨西哥的社会反应

• DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv2v55hns.5
• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Guerra E

Hacia la justicia cuando escasean las garantias: sociedad civil en contextos de violencia

Hacia la justicia cuando escasean las garantias：暴力背景下的民事社会

• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Guerra E

Civil Society Organizations and Harm Reduction Policy: The Mexican Case

• DOI: 10.1177/00914509231214344
• 发表时间: 2024-03-01
• 期刊: CONTEMPORARY DRUG PROBLEMS
• 作者: Guerra，Edgar;Zwitser，Guus
• 通讯作者: Zwitser，Guus

Responding to violence through art and culture: lessons from Michoacán

通过艺术和文化应对暴力：米却肯州的经验教训

• 发表时间: 2019
• 作者: Guerra E