June 7, 2011
Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces
Abstract:
The Examples from the Ground are concrete illustrations of ways in which a gender perspective has been integrated in different security sector institutions around the world. They range from measures to counter human trafficking in Kosovo, to women’s organisations’ involvement with security institutions in Nepal, to female parliamentarians’ contribution to post-conflict reconstruction in Rwanda. These examples can help policymakers, trainers and educators better understand and demonstrate the linkages between gender and SSR.
The examples are organised around the following nine themes, for which a short introduction is provided:
• Police Reform and Gender
• Defence Reform and Gender
• Justice Reform and Gender
• Penal Reform and Gender
• Border Management and Gender
• Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector and Gender
• National Security Policy-Making and Gender
• Civil Society Oversight of the Security Sector and Gender
• SSR Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation and Gender
Individual examples can also be downloaded individually, in English or in French, at:
http://gssrtraining.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view;=article&id;=4&Itemid;=131⟨=en...
May 24, 2011
Amnesty International
Abstract:
On 23 May 2010, the Governor-General of Jamaica declared a State of Public Emergency in
the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew. Within two days, at least 74 people, including one
member of the security forces, had been killed in Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston, scene of
much of the violence. At least 54 others, more than half of them members of the security
forces, were injured during police operations.
More than 40 of those killed in Tivoli Gardens are alleged to have been the victims of
extrajudicial execution by the security forces. Unlawful killings were also reported in other
operations conducted during the state of emergency. More than 4,000 people were detained
under emergency powers, without charge or trial or access to an effective means of
challenging the lawfulness of their detention before a court. Two people reportedly taken into
custody remain unaccounted for and may have been victims of enforced disappearance.
The May 2010 violence has been described as “the worst in Jamaican post-independence
history”. Despite the scale of the loss of life and compelling testimonies of grave human rights
violations – including possible extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and
arbitrary arrests – investigations into the violence have yet to establish the facts and the
responsibilities conclusively. Independent organizations and institutions in Jamaica continue
to call for a full public inquiry into the security forces operation. One year on, the demand for
justice by many survivors and victims’ families has yet to be answered....
March 7, 2011
Governance and Social Development Resource Centre
Abstract:
Violence and everyday insecurity are amongst the root causes of poverty: a simple and true statement that has at last been
acknowledged in several international agreements, including the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence (2008) and Dili Declaration
(2010). Several new funding mechanisms have even been established to support efforts to reduce violence, including
those that address the special security needs of excluded groups, women, youth and children. What recent policies have failed
to adequately consider, however, is that poor and dispossessed people often perceive the state as a perpetrator or accomplice -
whether by active complicity or passive omission – in the violence visited upon them. For policymakers and practitioners eager
to move beyond top-down approaches to reducing insecurity and violence, this policy briefing offers insights into how local
residents can be directly involved in finding solutions for their security and livelihood needs. Research from a range of contexts
characterised by violence and everyday insecurity suggests that external actors can help to broaden spaces where citizens can
take action in non-violent, socially legitimate ways, but that success depends on gaining a locally nuanced understanding of the
complex relationship between violent and non-violent actors, and between forms of everyday violence and political violence....
February 28, 2011
Institute of Development Studies
Abstract:
How does violence affect the everyday lives of citizens in countries, regions
and cities of the global South? This has been the central theme of five years’
work in the Violence, Participation and Citizenship (VPC) group of the
Development Research Centre (DRC) on Citizenship, Participation and
Accountability, an international research partnership coordinated by IDS from
2000–2010. While other DRC researchers studied new forms of citizenship that
could help make rights real, the VPC group undertook projects in four countries
to examine how violence affects the exercise of meaningful citizenship and how
efforts to open space for citizenship in such contexts affect the use of violence.
VPC set out to explore these dynamics in partnership with organisations and
community members in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Jamaica (Kingston), Mexico
(Chiapas and Guerrero States) and Nigeria (Kaduna, Kano and Plateau
States). Our investigative frame, developed as a group, was a set of questions
about the scope for participatory social action, the exercise of citizenship, and
processes of peaceful social transformation in contexts of violence....
November 2, 2010
Small Arms Survey // Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva
Abstract:
Jamaica’s murder rate—62 per 100,000 in 2009— is one of the highest in the world.
The small island grapples with violent crime within a context of gangs, guns, and allegations of political and police corruption.
This report presents an overview of the history, prevalence, and distribution of gangs, focusing in particular on their involvement in international drug and arms trafficking and the possible influence of deportees from the United States.
It finds that there is a dense social web connecting highly organized, transnational gangs to loosely organized gangs whose activities are often indistinguishable from broader community violence.
Persistent facilitation of gang activity by politicians continues to hinder targeted violence reduction efforts, despite the government’s public condemnation of crime and violence, and official support of violence reduction....
Jamaica 
