LATIN AMERICA: Highest Crime Rates in World Require Effective Measures

• by Marcela Valente (buenos aires)
• Wednesday, May 12, 2010
• Inter Press Service

So says the Report on Citizen Security and Human Rights, presented by the Organisation of American States' (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) this week in Buenos Aires.

'The report shows up the false dichotomy between security and human rights, and establishes what states should do to prevent crime, and what they should not do,' Gastón Chillier, head of Argentina's Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), told IPS.

'If anything is clear in the region, it is that no strong-arm policy is effective against crime. Governments must decide whether they are going to keep fighting violence with violence, or are going to seriously discuss a democratic security policy,' he said.

For the first time in 50 years, the IACHR has taken the step of analysing the problem of public safety with state officials and non-governmental organisations, and making recommendations to the states.

Amerigo Incalcaterra, the representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said at the presentation Tuesday in Buenos Aires that the region accounts for eight percent of the world's population, and 40 percent of all homicides.

However, he said, human rights should not be seen as obstacles to government action, but as key guidelines for authorities and officials.

The report points out that 'member states are having serious difficulties finding effective solutions' to crime, and warns of the growth of private security and groups bent on 'social cleansing,' like 'para-police' and paramilitary 'death squads.'

The Commission makes recommendations 'on how to improve the institutions, laws, policies, programmes and practices on prevention and control of crime and violence' in the region.

According to the report, the countries of the Americas 'have some of the highest rates of crime and violence in the world and their young population has been the most affected, both as victims and as perpetrators.'

The homicide rate in the Americas is 25.6 per 100,000 population, much higher than the average figure for Europe (8.9 per 100,000), Southeast Asia (5.8 per 100,000) and the Western Pacific (3.4 per 100,000), it says.

The indicators are even more alarming if the homicide rate is broken down by age and economic background, which shows that crime mainly involves young people in the middle and low-income sectors, the report says.

The cost of violent crime is estimated at between two and 15 percent of GDP in the OAS countries.

'For the first time in decades the population of Latin America lists crime as the main concern, even greater than unemployment. The judicial branch, public prosecutor’s offices, the police and the prison system have failed to develop the capability to respond effectively through lawful measures to prevent and suppress crime and violence,' the report says.

This lack of capability has fuelled the 11 percent growth of the market for private security services in the region over the last 15 years. Private security companies, which often operate without proper oversight and supervision, are apt to commit abuses and violence.

In many cases, the number of people employed by these firms is well above that of the state's police force, the report says.

According to the Commission, citizen security requires a police force that protects the population, stronger administration of justice and a prison system aimed at the rehabilitation and social reintegration of inmates.

To be effective, public policies on security must be sustainable over time, it says, since by their nature they need to be enforced over the medium and long-term, and must be supported by strong political consensus and social agreements.

The Commission also said that one of its central concerns regarding citizen security in the region is the participation of the armed forces in policing tasks.

Clear and precise separation is essential between internal security as a police function and national defence as a function of the armed forces, it says.

The history of the hemisphere shows that intervention by the armed forces in issues of internal security is generally accompanied by human rights violations in a context of violence, it adds.

It also warns about relations between the police and migrants. In many countries of the region, immigrants are not only stigmatised and blamed for the increase in violence and crime, but are themselves especially victimised by crime and by state and private violence, it says.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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