On one hand, militarized approaches to
urban security entail the deployment of military trained personnel – or
military support by an external actor – to manage domestic security
concerns. The Brazilian experience leading UN stabilization mission
MINUSTAH in Haiti, for example, has strongly influenced the Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora
(UPP) law enforcement approach in Rio’s favelas. On the other hand, the
human and political costs of these approaches across the region – and
their questionable success in creating durable solutions to urban
violence – has seen national and international actors re-framing urban
violence as a humanitarian crisis requiring responses from humanitarian
actors.
Understanding the ways this shift in
discourse and policy will affect both state responses to violence and
humanitarian engagement in urban areas is fundamentally important and
needs further unpacking. A simplistic view might consider militarization
as a negative and humanitarianism as a positive, though both approaches
may be effective or detrimental for issues of state capacity,
democratic legitimacy, and citizen rights. Fundamentally, the
effectiveness and legitimacy of these emerging agendas will depend on
how, where, and why they are implemented, and are dynamics which need to
be more fully understood.
Objective of workshop
The workshop examines these emerging
approaches to engaging with violence in Latin American cities. In
particular, we consider: (i) under what conditions new militarized and
humanitarian approaches can create actionable, forward-thinking policy
to reduce urban violence; and (ii) how we might mitigate the negative
consequences of these emerging forms of engagement. In discussing these
themes, PRIO has convened invited international expert scholars and
practitioners, as well as Norwegian based researchers, policymakers and
humanitarian actors. Speakers include:
- Anthony Pereira (Kings College London – London, UK)
- José Luiz Ratton (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco – Recife, Brazil)
- Kees Koonings (University of Utrecht & CEDLA – Amsterdam, Netherlands)
- Markus-Michael Müeller (Freie Universitat Berlin – Berlin, Germany)
- Elena Lucchi (Independent Consultant – Munich, Germany)
- Benedicte Bull (SUM – Oslo, Norway)
- Per-Martin Norheim Martinsen (Institute for Defense Studies – Oslo, Norway)
- Joakim Hertzberg Ulstein (NUPI – Oslo, Norway)
- Wenche Hauge (PRIO – Oslo, Norway)
- Kristin Bergtora Sandvik (PRIO – Oslo, Norway)
- Kristian Hoelscher (PRIO – Oslo, Norway)
The workshop will be of relevance for
those in humanitarian organizations working with contexts of urban
violence, researchers concerned with themes of armed violence and
peacekeeping in urban areas in Latin America, relevant policy makers,
and interested members of the public and media.
The program for the event available here.