Posts Tagged ‘organised crime’

Report on four areas where synergies in human rights and anti-crime regimes should be enhanced

December 29, 2023

On 27 Dec 2023 Ana Paula Oliveira posted for Global Initiative on the Report of an interesting topic: the convergences between organized crime and human rights agendas, as well as communities’ responses to mitigate the negative impact of organized crime on human rights over the past year.

The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA), which in 2023 celebrated 30 years since it was adopted….Global issues such as digitization, climate change and conflict pose multiple challenges to human rights. Organized crime cuts across many of these challenges. In this context of reflection on the effectiveness of the human rights framework, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) has worked to raise awareness of the convergences between organized crime and human rights agendas, as well as communities’ responses to mitigate the negative impact of organized crime on human rights over the past year. In 2023, the topic was selected for the GI-TOC’s Resilience Fund Fellowship. In this context, the Fund organized its first in-person Fellowship meeting with a group of grantees and Fellows to discuss pressing human rights implications of organized crime. The meeting provided a platform for the Fellows to share experiences and current challenges related to the human rights impact of organized crime in their communities.

Building on this work, the GI-TOC, with the support of the Sector Programme on Human Rights of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) and the government of Norway, launched the first institutional report on the issue, ‘Four reasons why organized crime is a human rights issue’ during the 24-hour Organized Crime Conference (OC24). This report draws attention to four areas where synergies in human rights and anti-crime regimes should be enhanced, so that safeguards for human rights are woven into states’ policy responses to transnational organized crime.

As a final 2023 activity and part of the series of follow-up events to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the VDPA (VDPA+30) and the 75th anniversary of the UDHR, the GI-TOC organized a series of events to raise awareness of the intersection between organized crime and human rights in Vienna with the support of the Government of Austria. The programme comprised a two-day expert group meeting held from 29 November to 30 November in Vienna and a public event. The expert group meeting (EGM) brought together experts based in Vienna and selected global experts (comprising academia, non-governmental organizations, and representatives from international and grassroots organizations) from both the human rights and crime prevention fields to discuss the multifaceted interactions between organized crime and human rights. It was designed to spark discussion on organized crime as a global challenge that keeps human rights from being fulfilled, based on our research and evidence on the issues.

During this series of discussions, the GI-TOC also hosted a public panel at the Vienna Diplomatic Academy. This was followed by a reception where participants could engage more informally. This event reflected on high-level principles, community experiences and responses, as well as the dissemination of community tools to respond to organized crime violence through a human rights lens.

This report summarizes the key points discussed in this series of events and proposes a way forward for those who want to pursue further work on the issue.

https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/human-rights-responses-organized-crime/

Conference report

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Sad symbolic number reached in Mexico: 100,000 disappeared.

May 17, 2022

The 100,000 officially registered disappearances in Mexico illustrate a long-standing pattern of impunity in the country, indicating the tragedy continues daily, UN human rights experts warned.

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) on 17 May 2022 expressed grave concern about the growing numbers registered by Mexico’s National Register of Disappeared Persons

There are now over 100,000 people in Mexico’s national register of the “disappeared.” The UN says organized crime is among the leading causes of missing people in the country. Human rights organizations and relatives of the missing have called on the government to step up investigations and conduct searches more effectively

In the last two years the numbers have spiked from about 73,000 people to more than 100,000 — mostly men.

Mexico has seen spiralling violence since the war on drugs began in 2006, with over 350,000 people having died since then. Last year, the country of more than 129 million people saw 94 murders a day on average.

“It’s incredible that disappearances are still on the rise,” Virginia Garay, whose son went missing in 2018 in the state of Nayarit, told news agency Reuters. “The government is not doing enough to find them,” said Garay, who works in a group called Warriors Searching for Our Treasures that seeks to locate missing loved ones.

Civil society groups that help try and locate missing people stress that many families do not report disappearances because of distrust in the authorities. The actual figure of missing people is therefore believed to be much higher than the official data.

“Organized crime has become a central perpetrator of disappearance in Mexico, with varying degrees of participation, acquiescence or omission by public servants,” a report by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, released last month, said.

“State parties are directly responsible for enforced disappearances committed by public officials, but may also be accountable for disappearances committed by criminal organizations,” the report added.

The missing people include human rights defenders, some of whom went missing because of their own involvement in the fight against disappearances.

According to the UN committee, over 30 journalists have also disappeared in Mexico between 2003 and 2021. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2022/01/31/more-killings-of-journalists-in-mexico-in-2022/

https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/05/mexico-dark-landmark-100000-disappearances-reflects-pattern-impunity-un-experts

https://www.dw.com/en/mexicos-number-of-disappeared-people-rises-above-100000/a-61820055

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Alejandra Ancheita on the challenges for women defenders working on business and human rights

December 2, 2014

(Photo credit: Martin Ennals Foundation)

For the 3rd UN Forum on Business and Human Rights (going on at the moment), ISHR published also an article by Alejandra Ancheita, 2014 Martin Ennals Award Laureate and Executive Director of ProDESC. Women defenders and those working on business and human rights represent two groups facing particular risks yet, in Mexico, the State’s response is falling short, concludes Alejandra Ancheita in her article:

“The challenges and risks that human rights defenders (HRDs) are facing in Mexico and other Latin American countries are diverse and growing daily in the absence of comprehensive State action to address this situation. The inadequate response of the Mexican government to the hundreds of cases of attacks and intimidation has become evident in various spaces. For instance in the recent Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations, the Mexican State received 24 recommendations on the situation of human rights defenders and journalists in the country, whilst the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists,  in the Interior Ministry, has received 130 applications for protection. Its response has been insufficient, particularly for those groups of defenders who face particular and heightened risks. As a woman human rights defender who works on issues related to business and the environment, I ought to know.……

Importantly, the fact that women human rights defenders face specific threats has been well established. However, existing protection mechanisms have not yet adjusted to incorporate this reality into their functioning, thus leaving women defenders vulnerable to gender-specific threats and aggressions. This is a global phenomenon and, in over 15 years as a human rights defender in Mexico, I have personally suffered violations of my human rights because of my gender and numerous colleagues have found themselves in the same situation.….

Integral security for women defenders must also seek to transform public opinion to understand and support our work. The first step in this regard is for States to recognize that working to defend certain rights can make women HRDs particularly vulnerable, for example by working on indigenous land rights in Latin America. Public statements made by public officials on the importance of our role and the legitimacy of our work are key. Authorities must investigate and punish those responsible for statements that seek to defame or attack defenders or delegitimize their work, even when such statements are made by non-State actors like community leaders or company representatives. Given the severe impact inflammatory statements have on women defenders’ work and wellbeing, they must be treated as aggressions in and of themselves.…..

In the vast majority of countries there are no specific mechanisms in place to protect human rights defenders. Where mechanisms have been created they are often hindered by operational failings, a lack of financial or human resources, the absence of gender-sensitivity, limited options for collective or community measures, and absent political will…..

As my work is based in Mexico, and due to my incorporation into the Federal Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists last year, this is the Mechanism I am best-placed to comment on. One very positive aspect of the mechanism is that four of the nine members of the decision-making body come from civil society. However, the Mechanism is also faced with several challenges.

The Mechanism falls short in the preventative aspect. Recently, various actors including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the CEDAW Committee have highlighted impunity for violations against women defenders as the greatest obstacle in improving their safety. In spite of this concern, the law establishing the Mechanism does not guarantee the adequate investigation and prosecution of perpetrators.

The Mechanism also fails to incorporate a gender perspective to better understand the situation facing women HRDs. I believe that the Mexican authorities have the opportunity to set best practices in this regard, by providing gender-sensitive training to staff and by developing gender indicators to guide the granting, planning and implementation of protection measures.

Mexican authorities responsible for the Mechanism must also effectively involve defenders in the design and implementation of protection measures, as well as conducting risk assessments in a more transparent way. This is particularly important in the case of defenders working on issues that impact upon private actors such as business, or those defending land rights in isolated communities. Finally, cooperation and coordination between federal, state and local authorities in the implementation of protection measures need to drastically improve……..”

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