Fiona Macaulay
University of Bradford, Division of Peace Studies, Faculty Member
- Gender, Social Policy, Criminal Justice, Latin American politics, Brazil, Wiorkers' Party, and 21 moreLatin American Studies, Criminal Law, Latin American Foreign Policy, Civil Society, Prisons, Brazilian Politics, Brazilian Foreign policy, Sociology of prison life, Unasur/Unasul, Comparative Regionalism, Politica Externa brasileira no governo lula, South and Central American Politics, South American Defense Council, Women's Studies, Criminology, Security Studies, Corruption, Crime, Organized Crime, Crime Prevention, and Juvenile Justiceedit
- I research gender, politics, violence and criminal justice institutions in Latin America, mainly Brazil. I am interes... moreI research gender, politics, violence and criminal justice institutions in Latin America, mainly Brazil. I am interested in how institutions, civil society and political actors interact in defining and protecting, in practical terms, human rights.edit
This chapter addresses the differential impact of drug policy enforcement on women and the interactions of these processes with other sources of social marginalisation. It explores how broader processes of stigmatisation and exclusion... more
This chapter addresses the differential impact of drug policy enforcement on women and the interactions of these processes with other sources of social marginalisation. It explores how broader processes of stigmatisation and exclusion play out in the context of global drug policy enforcement, limiting women’s access to effective voice and representation. The author illustrates the increasing salience of this issue through an exploration of global rightwing pushbacks and the intersectional impacts on those whose voices and identities are increasingly criminalised. The framing of women who interact with drugs or drug markets as deviant and anomalous by policy actors is constrictive of their rights, and it is crucial that reform agendas be advanced.
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This chapter focuses on the forms of legality and illegality produced by, and within, prison systems in Latin America due to surging incarceration rates in many countries that led to severe overcrowding and a loss of state control of... more
This chapter focuses on the forms of legality and illegality produced by, and within, prison systems in Latin America due to surging incarceration rates in many countries that led to severe overcrowding and a loss of state control of individual facilities. In these the state either committed violence against prisoners, permitted violence between prisoners, or ceded the carceral space to the prisoners themselves. The chapter discusses this effective “prisoner capture”, a double-sided phenomenon of illegality in the state’s practices of detention on the one hand, and informal, or parallel, governance exercised by those that it detained, on the other. State authorities held tens of thousands of people in extended and legally unjustifiable pre-trial detention, and frequently denied convicted prisoners their legal rights, including timely release. This officially sanctioned form of kidnapping created such overcrowding and underinvestment in prisons that national, constitutional, and international minimum norms on detention standards were routinely, systematically and grossly violated. These multiple illegalities on the part of the state in turn encouraged the emergence of prisoner self-defence and self-governance organizations. This resulted in “prisoner capture” of a different kind, when inmates took over the day-to-day ordering of prison life. In turn, this produced a parallel normative and pseudo-legal world in which inmates disciplined, and even adjudicated on, other inmates in the absence of state officials within the prison walls. The chapter opens by signaling what the study of Latin American prisons and penal practices can add to the field of socio-legal studies in the region. It then examines the reasons for prisoner capture by the state, proceeding to discuss the consequences of prisoners’ increasing control of the carceral space, including the implications of this phenomenon for the dominant socio-legal literature on prisons and imprisonment.
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The rule of law, that is, the fair, competent, effective, and predictable application of laws that enhance, rather than undermine, social accountability and fundamental human rights, is a core function of the state, and forms part of its... more
The rule of law, that is, the fair, competent, effective, and predictable application of laws that enhance, rather than undermine, social accountability and fundamental human rights, is a core function of the state, and forms part of its social contract with the citizenry. However, ensuring that a government upholds the rule of law requires a number of checks and balances. Some of this accountability and enforcement function lies with the other branches of government: oversight of the executive by the legislative branch through its committees and reports, and by the judiciary, which has its own proactive powers and can be petitioned by citizens and their representatives. But this republican structure can still be unresponsive or resistant to scrutiny, particularly when elites across the branches of government are indifferent to, or collude in, maintaining chronic problems in the justice system. Active non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are therefore recognised as a crucial component in the effective application of the rule of law due to their independence from government and their often-different perspective on the impact of unevenly applied and unjust laws and law enforcement through direct contact with the victims of arbitrary treatment. This chapter explores ways in which NGOs (both international and local) can contribute to strengthening rule of law through a case study of how the Open Society Institute and its Justice Initiative (OSJI) and a network of Brazilian NGOs developed a campaign to reduce the excessive use of pre-trial detention. It demonstrates how NGOs can fulfil important watchdog functions and are able to change laws, policies and practices that significantly improve the rule of law by working strategically with one another, with international partners and with sympathetic state actors.
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This commentary surveys some of the trends and gaps in current research on criminal justice reform in Latin America – with a focus on Brazil, and on two specific areas: police and prison/penal reform. It explores two principal themes: the... more
This commentary surveys some of the trends and gaps in current research
on criminal justice reform in Latin America – with a focus on Brazil, and on two
specific areas: police and prison/penal reform. It explores two principal themes: the
uneven and thin production of knowledge about criminal justice issues; and the
impact this has on policy reforms and on the ways in which these are framed and
interpreted in terms of their relative success and failure. Overall it argues that we still
know very little about criminal justice institutions and the actors within them. We
also need many more finely-grained analyses of the dynamics of reform efforts and
of the policy environments in which these take place in order to understand how
and why reform initiatives are often derailed or subverted, and, more rarely, flourish
and can be embedded and replicated.
on criminal justice reform in Latin America – with a focus on Brazil, and on two
specific areas: police and prison/penal reform. It explores two principal themes: the
uneven and thin production of knowledge about criminal justice issues; and the
impact this has on policy reforms and on the ways in which these are framed and
interpreted in terms of their relative success and failure. Overall it argues that we still
know very little about criminal justice institutions and the actors within them. We
also need many more finely-grained analyses of the dynamics of reform efforts and
of the policy environments in which these take place in order to understand how
and why reform initiatives are often derailed or subverted, and, more rarely, flourish
and can be embedded and replicated.
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This chapter argues that a key factor behind the persistence of malfeasance among the members of Brazil’s National Congress is the array of serious deficiencies in the operation of the criminal justice system at the subnational level —... more
This chapter argues that a key factor behind the persistence of malfeasance among the members of Brazil’s National Congress is the array of serious deficiencies in the operation of the criminal justice system at the subnational level — that is, within each of Brazil’s 27 states. These flaws are, in large part, a function of the administrative matrix of Brazilian federalism. When combined with the opportunities afforded by the political matrix of Brazilian federalism, these defects have permitted the emergence and rhizomic spread, horizontally and vertically, of a political-criminal nexus that has compromised the capacity of the state, and society, to restrain corrupt politicians and officials. As in many other federations the bulk of the activity of the criminal justice system nationwide is conducted by the state police and state-level prosecutorial service and courts. These operate within the structure of the state governments, act largely autonomously of their federal counterparts (and often of each other), and are frequently heavily influenced by essentially local political factors. They are often dysfunctional and rarely pursue investigations of local politicians, either for criminal violence or political misdoings. Corrupt federal politicians have often attained high office, and felt free to plunder public resources, precisely because they have been unhindered in such practices in their posts at state and municipal level. Therefore, expecting federal agencies to detect and punish corruption practised by politicians at the highest rungs of a career ladder built on backhanders, patronage, pork-barrel, and, sometimes, old-fashioned intimidation is very often a case of too little, too late. [written before the 'ficha limpa' law came into effect, but still a valid analysis, I think]
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This book chapter highlights a number of lessons suggested by various efforts to reform the police in Latin America over the period 1995-2010 . It focuses on two clusters of countries in Latin America. One is Brazil and the Southern Cone... more
This book chapter highlights a number of lessons suggested by various efforts to reform the police in Latin America over the period 1995-2010 . It focuses on two clusters of countries in Latin America. One is Brazil and the Southern Cone countries (Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay), which made the transition to democracy from prolonged military authoritarian rule in the mid- to late 1980s. The other is Central America and the Andean region (principally El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, and Colombia), which emerged/have been emerging from armed conflict since the mid- 1990s. The chapter examines first the long history of international involvement in police and security sector reform in order to identify long-run tropes and path dependencies. It then focuses on a number of recurring themes: cycles of de- and re-militarization of the policing function; the “security gap” and “democratization dilemmas” involved in structural reforms; the opportunities offered by decentralization for more community-oriented police; and police capacity to resist reform and undermine accountability mechanisms.
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ABSTRACT
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This paper analyses the problem of subjecting the Brazilian police to truly effective control and oversight. It highlights three key dimensions of police accountability within the Brazilian context -- transparência, fiscalização and... more
This paper analyses the problem of subjecting the Brazilian police to truly effective control and oversight. It highlights three key dimensions of police accountability within the Brazilian context -- transparência, fiscalização and responsabilidade -- through which to measure the effectiveness of oversight mechanisms. The paper then analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the current institutional mechanisms of police control, focusing on the military police courts, the internal affairs departments of the police, and the police ombudsmen’s offices and the prosecution service. Finally the problem of accountability is set within a wider historical, social and cultural context. [very little has changed, structurally, since this paper was written in 2002....]
Research Interests: Brazil and Police Reform
ABSTRACT
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Brazil has embarked on many of the judicial reforms taking place in other Latin American countries. Since 1985 there have been two waves of reform. The first centred on the issue of judicial independence, leaving aside other aspects such... more
Brazil has embarked on many of the judicial reforms taking place in other Latin American countries. Since 1985 there have been two waves of reform. The first centred on the issue of judicial independence, leaving aside other aspects such as duration of cases, access to jus- tice, or resources which lead to an overloading of the system of justice administration.
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This book chapter analyses the institutional and political dynamics of the stop-start process of the attempted reform of the Brazilian judiciary in the two decades from the mid-1980s, examining four key issues related to the judiciary's... more
This book chapter analyses the institutional and political dynamics of the stop-start process of the attempted reform of the Brazilian judiciary in the two decades from the mid-1980s, examining four key issues related to the judiciary's contribution to democracy:judicial independence and exercise of judicial review; internal management and accountability; differential access and treatment within the justice system; and modernisation and efficiency.
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Informal prisoner governance in Latin American penal institutions raises a number of dilemmas for policy. The responses must encompass decarceration and diversion policies, and an approach to prison security that emphasises coproduction... more
Informal prisoner governance in Latin American penal institutions raises a number of dilemmas for policy. The responses must encompass
decarceration and diversion policies, and an approach to prison security that emphasises coproduction and co-governance rather than
coercive control.
decarceration and diversion policies, and an approach to prison security that emphasises coproduction and co-governance rather than
coercive control.
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This article analyses processes of international policy transfer and diffusion in an understudied aspect of security sector reform: prisons. It looks at how Latin American countries, especially Brazil, have responded to a growing security... more
This article analyses processes of international policy transfer and diffusion in an understudied aspect of security sector reform: prisons. It looks at how Latin American countries, especially Brazil, have responded to a growing security crisis of capacity, effectiveness and violence within their prison systems by adopting, adapting and even resisting reform models available globally in three reform areas: prison administration (state-run versus forms of privatisation and public-private partnerships); control (the technologies of super-max versus the intelligence- and relationship-centred approach of dynamic security); and governmentality (the ethos
underpinning state and societal treatment of offenders as subjects and objects of penal discipline). It also examines how Brazil has produced its own home-grown models of penal governance—prisons run by civil
society in partnership with the state—which challenge some of the current dominant tropes in prison reform. The globalization of neoliberal modes of governance may often aim at institutional monocropping, and isomorphism certainly occurs, yet examination of actual practices confirms that Brazil, and the region, have adopted a hybridised diversity of penal reforms.
underpinning state and societal treatment of offenders as subjects and objects of penal discipline). It also examines how Brazil has produced its own home-grown models of penal governance—prisons run by civil
society in partnership with the state—which challenge some of the current dominant tropes in prison reform. The globalization of neoliberal modes of governance may often aim at institutional monocropping, and isomorphism certainly occurs, yet examination of actual practices confirms that Brazil, and the region, have adopted a hybridised diversity of penal reforms.
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This chapter examines an innovative experience in prison management pioneered in the 1990s in São Paulo state, Brazil, whereby small, decentralised prison units were co-managed by community-based NGOs and the state prison authorities.... more
This chapter examines an innovative experience in prison management pioneered in the 1990s in São Paulo state, Brazil, whereby small, decentralised prison units were co-managed by community-based NGOs and the state prison authorities. These Resocialisation Centres (Centros de Ressocialização - CRs) were human rights compliant, run at half the cost of mainstream prisons, and emphasised rebuilding humane relationships between prisoners, and prisoners and their families. The CRs were inspired by Catholic volunteers completely taking over local jails, which came to be known as APACs. The chapter contrasts the APAC and CR ethos and practice. The former insisted on Christian faith, voluntarism and a sceptical view of the state as a penal actor. The latter preferred a secular approach, semi-professionalised NGOs, and formal partnerships that see the state as potentially capable of meeting its human rights and democratic legal commitments to those it incarcerates. The CR model of co-production of offender rehabilitation and desistance thus enables the local community to assist the state’s ‘moral performance’ within its penal institutions. The CR experiment is analysed in relation to competing models of prison governance (including forms of semi-privatization), and competition between criminal justice, civil society and religious actors for ‘ownership’ of the offender.
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This article examines prisons in Brazil that are co-governed by the state and local NGOs. This little-known but ground-breaking model of good prison administration has been quietly piloted over the last two decades. In São Paulo state... more
This article examines prisons in Brazil that are co-governed by the state and local NGOs. This little-known but ground-breaking model of good prison administration has been quietly piloted over the last two decades. In São Paulo state from the late 1990s up to 22 small prisons known as Resocialization Centres (Centros de Ressocialização - CRs). They hold around 250 inmates, are located in provincial towns, and administered in an innovative partnership between the state prison authorities and non-profit bodies. The CRs comply with the human rights guarantees for detainees under domestic and international law, reportedly achieve far lower re-offending rates, and cost much less to run than conventional prisons. The article gives first an account of how the CR model emerged and developed. It then analyzes in turn the two unusual and interrelated characteristics for which the CRs are primarily notable: their rehabilitative regime and ethos, and their administrative set-up. It is based on a pilot study of four CRs conducted in October 2004, involving semi-structured interviews and focus groups, with the inmates, families, prison service and NGO staff, criminal justice system operators and opinion-formers in the local community. This is the first ever evaluative study conducted of the CR model.
[Originally published as ‘Os Centros de Ressocialização no Estado de São Paulo: Estado e sociedade civil em um novo paradigma de administração prisional e de reintegração de ofensores’ Revista de Estudos Criminais No. 26, July/Sept 2007, pp. 63-86 ISSN 1676-8698.]
[Originally published as ‘Os Centros de Ressocialização no Estado de São Paulo: Estado e sociedade civil em um novo paradigma de administração prisional e de reintegração de ofensores’ Revista de Estudos Criminais No. 26, July/Sept 2007, pp. 63-86 ISSN 1676-8698.]
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The Resocialization Centres in São Paulo State:
State and Civil Society in a New Paradigm of Offender Reintegration and Prison Administration
State and Civil Society in a New Paradigm of Offender Reintegration and Prison Administration
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A review essay on Lina Penna Sattamini, A Mother’s Cry: A Memoir of Politics, Prison and Torture under the Brazilian Military Dictatorship, Duke University Press, 2010; 188 pp., ISBN 9780822347361 and James N. Green, We Cannot Remain... more
A review essay on Lina Penna Sattamini, A Mother’s Cry: A Memoir of Politics, Prison and Torture under the Brazilian Military Dictatorship, Duke University Press, 2010; 188 pp., ISBN 9780822347361 and James N. Green, We Cannot Remain Silent: Opposition to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the United States, Duke University Press, 2010; 450 pp., ISBN 9780822347354
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The federal government under Cardoso was not ideologically committed to the adoption of specific 'neoliberal' policies in the field of crime control and criminal justice through the reform of the courts, the police, and the prison system.... more
The federal government under Cardoso was not ideologically committed to the adoption of specific 'neoliberal' policies in the field of crime control and criminal justice through the reform of the courts, the police, and the prison system. Its failure to curtail institutionally driven human rights violations resulted from a more diffuse “environmental” effect of neoliberalism whereby fiscal management concerns monopolized the government’s economic and political capital and from structural constraints on domestic political and governance configurations such as federalism and the character of the Ministry of Justice. Penal policy in Brazil, as elsewhere, was incoherent and volatile because of the confluence of two distinct political ideologies, economic neoliberalism and social neoconservatism, with the federal government pursuing strategies of delegation and denial. Policy transfer and norm convergence were affected positively by the international human rights regime and its domestic allies and negatively by local moral conservatives and producer groups acting as policy blockers rather than entrepreneurs.
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This article examines the evolution of, and interplay between, human rights and democracy in Brazil, which are a work-in-progress rather than a fixed set of outcomes in terms of both the values expressed by the institutions and... more
This article examines the evolution of, and interplay between, human rights and democracy in Brazil, which are a work-in-progress rather than a fixed set of outcomes in terms of both the values expressed by the institutions and individuals within them, and the practices of those state institutions. The analysis begins by tracing the shifts in Brazil's attitudes towards, and interaction with, regional and international human rights regimes since the first steps towards political democracy in the post-war period, and in particular since 1985. The second section of the chapter then explores a number of domestic political variables affecting Brazil's human rights record and considers the degree of responsiveness of these variables to a changing international context.
This chapter examines the five and a half years in office of Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first woman president. Her two terms in office, the second of which was truncated by her impeachment, coincided with the end of a two-decade cycle of... more
This chapter examines the five and a half years in office of Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first woman president. Her two terms in office, the second of which was truncated by her impeachment, coincided with the end of a two-decade cycle of post-transition democratic governance dominated politically by two parties (the PSDB and PT) and their presidents (Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva). Her presidencies saw the decay of a political consensus in the liberal centre ground, and a fragmentation of the party system that stressed Brazil’s form of coalitional presidentialism to breaking point. The capture of the nation’s legislature by new socially conservative forces that were both responding to, and attempting to reshape, Brazil’s political culture, began to threaten some of the progress on gender equality achieved in since the transition in the mid-1980s. The chapter explores the role that gender politics and discourses played in this political environment, her election, her government and her controversial impeachment in 2016.
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This article analyses the governance tools available to three Brazilian presidents – Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff – to direct and enact policy in the area of law-and- order, that is, to prevent... more
This article analyses the governance tools available to three Brazilian presidents – Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff – to direct and enact policy in the area of law-and- order, that is, to prevent crime, improve policing and develop effective penal responses. It examines the commonalities and the differences in the ways that each approached their key roles as president: communicating with the public on the issues, using the agencies of the federal bureaucracy, managing intergovernmental relations with the subnational units (states and municipalities), and managing their multiparty coalition and relations with Congress. In particular, it highlights the way in which Brazil’s highly fragmented and porous party system, which underpins the country’s coalitional presidentialist form of governance, has also encouraged the entry into legislative arenas of direct representatives of criminal justice professionals (police) and indirect representatives of private security actors. This has resulted in increasing producer capture of law-and-order policy within both the federal bureaucracy and legislative arenas at all levels of government. In the crisis of the Dilma presidency, to which they contributed, they were able to move from being veto-players to agenda-setters on law-and-order policy, intent on reversing the direction set by these presidents.
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This book chapter examines the growing number of law enforcement personnel elected to political office in Brazil. It focuses on the surge in the number of former police and army officers elected to the national congress that accompanied... more
This book chapter examines the growing number of law enforcement personnel elected to political office in Brazil. It focuses on the surge in the number of former police and army officers elected to the national congress that accompanied the victory of Bolsonaro in 2018. The chapter looks at the reasons for their much greater success rate in 2018, and at the implications of a much enlarged 'bancada da bala' (security sector caucus) both for law and order policy and for democracy in Brazil
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Domestic politics in Brazil is still very disconnected from the country’s foreign policy and international stance on human rights issues. That indifference creates a twofold problem, both for Brazil’s ambition to be a major world power,... more
Domestic politics in Brazil is still very disconnected from the country’s foreign policy and international stance on human rights issues. That indifference creates a twofold problem, both for Brazil’s ambition to be a major world power, and for a world that needs a country with Brazil’s heft and legitimacy with the nations and institutions of both the Global North and South
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This article examines the Workers' Party administration in São Paulo, 1989-1992, headed by Luiza Erundina. It was an early, and very important, experience of governance, with some of the central tensions prefiguring tensions within the... more
This article examines the Workers' Party administration in São Paulo, 1989-1992, headed by Luiza Erundina. It was an early, and very important, experience of governance, with some of the central tensions prefiguring tensions within the party that would become even clearer as it made its way into power, and the national presidency
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Review of Ted G. Goertzel, Fernando Henrique Cardoso: Reinventing Democracy in Brazil (Boulder, CO, and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999) published in the Journal of Latin American Studies No 34, 2002
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What difference does an increase in numbers of women in parliament make? Is there a threshold percentage (critical mass) at which women begin to change the agenda and culture of legislatures, or does it matter more what kinds of... more
What difference does an increase in numbers of women in parliament make? Is there a threshold percentage (critical mass) at which women begin to change the agenda and culture of legislatures, or does it matter more what kinds of alliance-building strategies the minority of women representatives pursue to be effective? This paper investigates the conditions under which women work across party lines, with both men and women who, under other circumstances, are their electoral competitors. It focuses principally on the experience of Latin America, and examines in detail the case of a successful cross-party women’s alliance in Brazil. It begins by examining the validity of one of the key arguments of the proponents of gender quotas: that of critical mass. It then proposes that we should perhaps look at more at other ‘critical’ variables, such as the characteristics and strategies of critical actors who have been successful in forging strategic alliances. It also highlights the importance of a number of variables related to the critical structures of regimes of representation and governance, especially the party system. In particular it notes the nature of political cleavages and the degree of ideological intensity in the party system, and organizational histories and the degree and type of institutionalization of individual parties. The political habitus of the party system and of individual parties has a strong bearing on the likelihood of women representatives seeking cross-bench alliances. However, within this structural analysis one should not omit mention of the opportunities afforded by critical junctures, such as regime change or constitutional revision, which can momentarily freeze such dynamics and allow in new actors with a greater propensity to seek alliances for specific ends.
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“Gender Day” is an obligatory annual learning event for all first-year undergraduate and Masters students in the Department of Peace Studies (University of Bradford, England), designed as a foundational experience for a multicultural... more
“Gender Day” is an obligatory annual learning event for all first-year undergraduate and Masters students in the Department of Peace Studies (University of Bradford, England), designed as a foundational experience for a multicultural student body to develop gender analytical skills. The curriculum uses three carefully sequenced elements. The first session, based on peer-facilitated small-group discussion of participants’ lived knowledge of gender norms, engages the “heart” - emotion and personal experience. The second, a lecture on academic concepts around sex, gender and sexuality and their inter-relationship, engages the “head”. The third, a workshop demonstrating the practical techniques of applying gender analysis to a policy or intellectual problem in politics, international relations, and peace/conflict studies, engages their “hands”. This article analyzes why and how Gender Day was devised and argues that its positive gender-mainstreaming impact on students and the Department results from the pedagogical philosophy underpinning its three, integrated elements and the opportunity offered by a heterogeneous student cohort
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Does the enhancement of women’s rights and gender equality lead to greater security? The answer depends on how security is defined and by whom. Gender equity and equality will improve the human security of women, if enacted rather than... more
Does the enhancement of women’s rights and gender equality lead to greater security? The answer depends on how security is defined and by whom. Gender equity and equality will improve the human security of women, if enacted rather than just promised, and if women are protected from any potential
backlash from society or individual men. However, the relationship of gender equality to the security of a nation, such as Pakistan, of a security complex, such as the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, or of the wider community of nations, is somewhat contradictory, as social stability can require non-interference in certain gender regimes that continue to subordinate women. This inaction undermines women’s individual security. Whilst modernisation theory insists that women’s equality is integral to the social underpinnings of liberal governance and thus of the liberal peace, those very processes of modernisation cause the social disruptions that create both localised and globalized grievance-based movements, that can be both violent and socially reactionary. Gender equality was both a promise and a justificatory discourse in the post 9/11 military action in Afghanistan, but has been frequently compromised or discarded in favour of an
interpretation of “security” that privileges stability and social pacification. Modern Pakistan has seen similar oscillations. Can gender equality be promoted in Pakistan in a manner that enhances individual human security, national security and regional security?
backlash from society or individual men. However, the relationship of gender equality to the security of a nation, such as Pakistan, of a security complex, such as the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, or of the wider community of nations, is somewhat contradictory, as social stability can require non-interference in certain gender regimes that continue to subordinate women. This inaction undermines women’s individual security. Whilst modernisation theory insists that women’s equality is integral to the social underpinnings of liberal governance and thus of the liberal peace, those very processes of modernisation cause the social disruptions that create both localised and globalized grievance-based movements, that can be both violent and socially reactionary. Gender equality was both a promise and a justificatory discourse in the post 9/11 military action in Afghanistan, but has been frequently compromised or discarded in favour of an
interpretation of “security” that privileges stability and social pacification. Modern Pakistan has seen similar oscillations. Can gender equality be promoted in Pakistan in a manner that enhances individual human security, national security and regional security?
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This chapter examines how the Brazilian women’s movement has navigated political and institutional terrains in pursuit of new state mechanisms for promoting gender equity and equality policies. It begins by tracing the ups and down of... more
This chapter examines how the Brazilian women’s movement has navigated political and institutional terrains in pursuit of new state mechanisms for promoting gender equity and equality policies. It begins by tracing the ups and down of what is now the Special Secretariat for Policies on Women (Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres - SPM). Its prior incarnation, in the form of the National Council for Women’s Rights (Conselho Nacional dos Direitos da Mulher - CNDM), was one of the earliest national governmental units for women in the region, and its fortunes are an object lesson in the importance of institutionalization in the face of a weak and often opportunistic party system. The decline of the Council in the 1990s led to the emergence of horizontal and vertical networks composed of women’s grassroots groups, NGOs and the state and municipal government units. Therefore we see gender policy ‘trickling’ in different directions – sometimes upwards, when initiatives start at sub-national level and are adopted at higher levels of government, sometimes sideways, as initiatives sponsored by a particular party are adopted by other parties. The weakness of the CNDM in the heart of government has meant that gender policy has rarely trickled downwards, as it does in centralized countries with a gender unit with greater capacity. Thus the second section examines the role of women’s networks inside and outside the state, and below the level of central government, looking specifically at the state-level and municipal women’s councils, the women’s caucus in congress, and the networks and hubs of women’s groups and NGOs. The next section examines the wider political environment within which these groups operated, focusing on three key variables: the weakly ideological party system, a federal system of government offering a high number of entry points, and low state capacity. The article concludes by evaluating the overall impact of two decades of state gender policy-making as well as the relative success of this diverse feminist policy community in influencing specific gender policies, such as domestic violence and reproductive rights.
ISBN 978-0-8135-4729-9
ISBN 978-0-8135-4729-9
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Este artículo analiza cómo el movimiento de mujeres en Brasil ha navegado por terrenos políticos e institucionales en busca de nuevos mecanismos estatales que promuevan políticas de equidad e igualdad de género. Comienza trazando los... more
Este artículo analiza cómo el movimiento de mujeres en Brasil ha navegado por terrenos políticos e institucionales en busca de nuevos mecanismos estatales que promuevan políticas de equidad e igualdad de género. Comienza trazando los altibajos por los que ha pasado el Consejo Nacional para los Derechos de la Mujer (Conselho Nacional dos Direitos da Mulher - CNDM), ahora Secretaría Especial de Políticas para las Mujeres (Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres - SPM). La suerte del CNDM – uno de los primeros organismos gubernamentales para la mujer en la región –ilustra cómo las características del entorno político e institucional pueden constituir tanto un obstáculo como una oportunidad. Se destaca la necesidad de una institucionalización para hacer frente al débil y a menudo oportunista sistema de partidos, así como el potencial avance en las políticas de género a través de los múltiples y paralelos puntos de entrada que proporciona el sistema de gobierno federal. Irónicamente, el sistemático menoscabo y abandono que sufrió el CNDM por parte de las diferentes administraciones centrales durante la década de 1990 contribuyó a la emergencia de una serie de redes horizontales y verticales conformadas por grupos de mujeres de base, ONGs y departamentos de los gobiernos estatales y municipales, de modo que el movimiento de mujeres se reagrupó para compensar el vacío generado desde el centro. La segunda parte del artículo examina el papel de esas redes tanto dentro como fuera del Estado, así como en los niveles inferiores al del gobierno central, prestando especial atención a los consejos de mujeres creados a nivel estatal y municipal, a las bancadas de mujeres en el Congreso y a las redes y agrupaciones de mujeres y ONGs. El artículo concluye evaluando el impacto de todo ello sobre las políticas de género estatales a lo largo de dos décadas de activismo de una diversa red feminista de políticas públicas (feminist policy community).
ISBN 968-23-2617-6.
ISBN 968-23-2617-6.
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This chapter examines the ways in which the women's movement in Brazil has come to organize itself so as to exert maximum, effective lobbying pressure on particular points of the Brazilian state in order to get gender-sensitive... more
This chapter examines the ways in which the women's movement in Brazil has come to organize itself so as to exert maximum, effective lobbying pressure on particular points of the Brazilian state in order to get gender-sensitive legislation and policy formulated, debated and passed. The chapter begins with historical perspectives on how the women's movement has approached the state in Brazil prior to, and during, the transition to democracy in the 1980s. It then takes as a case study the Feminist Research and Advisory Centre (Centro Feminista de Estudos e Assessoria, CFEMEA, formed in the 1990s as a new kind of feminist lobbying organization. Its formation and modus operand, are described, and the chapter considers a number of theoretical models explored for understanding the new forms of organization which have emerged within the Brazilian women's movement as well as the movement's relationship with a state that is highly porous and now undergoing some profound structural changes. In broad terms, the content of the public policy areas around which women organize has not necessarily changed dramatically. However, this chapter argues that what has changed is the way in which women's and feminist lobbying has taken advantage of transformations in the state and political structures and entered into a more interactive and dynamic relationship with those structures.
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¿Qué diferencia representaría un gobierno del Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) para el status y los derechos de las mujeres en Brasil? Con el objetivo de analizar cómo se abordará los temas de género en el gobierno Lula, este artículo... more
¿Qué diferencia representaría un gobierno del Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) para el status y los derechos de las mujeres en Brasil? Con el objetivo de analizar cómo se abordará los temas de género en el gobierno Lula, este artículo examina primero la fundación del partido y su desarrollo, y la relación con los movimientos sociales, incluyendo los movimientos de mujeres. El PT aparenta ser novedoso en el sistema de partidos brasileño, en términos de la promoción del liderazgo de las mujeres y, a la vez, de su compromiso ideológico e institucional con la equidad e igualdad de género, como ha sido ilustrado por los gobiernos de este partido a nivel estadual y municipal, y por sus acciones en la esfera legislativa. El artículo indaga en la probable dirección que tomará la nueva Secretaría Especial para Políticas sobre la Mujer bajo la luz de la precedente e irregular trayectoria de la maquinaria nacional de Brasil para promover el status de las mujeres y las variedades de orientaciones políticas de género discernibles en las administraciones subnacionales del partido. Se concluye analizando algunas políticas de género puestas en marcha desde el inicio del gobierno Lula en enero de 2003. ENGLISH: [What difference will a Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores-PT) government make to women's status and rights in Brazil? In order to analyse the Lula government's approach to gender issues, the article first examines the party's foundation and development, and relationship to social movements, including the women's movement. The PT is shown to be a groundbreaker in the Brazilian party system, in terms both of promoting women's leadership and of its ideological and institutional commitment to gender equity and equality, as illustrated by the party's state and municipal governments, by its actions in the legislative sphere. The article then analyses the likely direction of the new Special Secretariat for Policies on Women in the light of the previous, uneven trajectory of Brazil's national machinery for promoting women's status, and of the kinds of gender policy orientations discernible in the party's subnational administrations. It concludes by analysing some of the gender policies put forward since the beginning of the Lula government in January 2003.]
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This chapter examines how the courts in Latin America, and specifically in Brazil, have increasingly “stuck their spoon” into the issue of spousal abuse. It begins by exploring the confluence of two concurrent trends in Latin America.... more
This chapter examines how the courts in Latin America, and specifically in Brazil, have increasingly “stuck their spoon” into the issue of spousal abuse. It begins by exploring the confluence of two concurrent trends in Latin America. The first is the noticeable diversion of domestic violence cases into the courts in a number of ways. The laws passed in the region in the mid 1990s tended to redirect domestic violence from resolution in the police stations and community into the courts, from criminal courts into family or civil courts, from criminal prosecution. The second trend has been towards informalised, transactional justice through the establishment of new judicial arenas, ranging from community-based mediation or arbitration projects to new specialised or fast-track courts, all aimed at increasing access to justice , especially for the low-income population. These new arenas filled up immediately with domestic violence cases, for which they were not designed. This chapter is concerned with the gendered quality of justice that results from the judicialisation of intimate social relations, and therefore addresses a number of inter-linked questions. Can the current judicial treatment of domestic violence comprehend and respond to these specifically gendered characteristics described above? How does the way victims of domestic violence are directed within the justice system affect their degree of choice and control over the outcome, which may encompass anything from retribution to restoration, reconciliation, rehabilitation or reduced offending? How does judicialised resolution of domestic conflict differ from that provided by other actors? What legal good is the justice system protecting? The chapter considers first the transnational influences on development in state responses to domestic violence in Latin America, before critically examining the case of the Brazilian Special Criminal Courts.
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This article analyses the specific ways in which Latin American countries have judicialised domestic violence over the last decade. In particular, it highlights the new definitions of spousal abuse and procedures adopted in both criminal... more
This article analyses the specific ways in which Latin American countries have judicialised domestic violence over the last decade. In particular, it highlights the new definitions of spousal abuse and procedures adopted in both criminal and non-criminal courts. The region has seen two countervailing tendencies, the first to criminalise, through penal codedefinitions and higher penalties, the second to divert this offence into legal arenas that tend, either implicitly or explicitly, towards effective decriminalisation and downgrading of this form of social violence due to their emphasis on conciliation and transactional procedures. This has resulted, in many cases, in a two-track, hybridised treatment of domestic violence that is ultimately unsatisfactory in meeting the various needs of women victims.
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This chapter traces the evolution of discourses and declarations on violence against women in international arenas. It then outlines some of the common challenges faced by Latin American countries in putting those principles into... more
This chapter traces the evolution of discourses and declarations on violence against women in international arenas. It then outlines some of the common challenges faced by Latin American countries in putting those principles into practice. Finally it looks at the specifics of Brazil's experiences, outlines the advances that have been made, and identifies the structural limitations to those gains as well as the opportunities that have made them possible.
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In the context of the transition to democracy in Brazil and Chile in the late 1990s, the chapter examines the complex and contradictory ways in which women’s agency have been encouraged or inhibited as certain dimensions of women’s... more
In the context of the transition to democracy in Brazil and Chile in the late 1990s, the chapter examines the complex and contradictory ways in which women’s agency have been encouraged or inhibited as certain dimensions of women’s citizenship (social, political, economic and sexual) have been promoted or suppressed. The degree and nature of women’s empowerment is further qualified by the collective fields (family, community, nation) and by the literal and metaphorical spaces of power (household, municipality, nation state) in which women are located. The chapter explores the relationship between the empowerment of women and democracy, and asks how democratisation, as a political process, interacts with other political and economic processes such as decentralisation and neoliberalism. In particular, how do political parties with their discrete ideologies, organisational processes and policy positions regard women as objects (of policy) or as subjects and actors involved in shaping politics?
[this is an early summary of the doctoral research published in my book 'Gender Politics in Brazil and Chile]
[this is an early summary of the doctoral research published in my book 'Gender Politics in Brazil and Chile]
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This chapter examines the way in which women in Latin America have taken an increasingly pro-active and transformative approach to the legal apparatus of their respective countries over the last two decades. This development reflects... more
This chapter examines the way in which women in Latin America have taken an increasingly pro-active and transformative approach to the legal apparatus of their respective countries over the last two decades. This development reflects growing international attention to legislation and access to the justice system as tools for enjoying women’s full enjoyment of citizenship. The chapter begins by surveying how women have historically been marginalised from the justice system and denied adequate protection of their rights. It then looks at how women across the region have begun to overturn antiquated and discriminatory laws and practices, as part of a wider global trend. Finally the chapter looks at legal aid and legal literacy projects in Latin America, in particular by Themis, a Brazilian NGO that trains women grassroots outreach workers, who not only inform women of their rights, but also empower them in relation to the justice system, and local politics.
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This chapter analyses how women in Latin American were key collective and individual protagonists in the profound social, economic and political changes that swept the region from the mid-1980s onwards. These include the crumbling of... more
This chapter analyses how women in Latin American were key collective and individual protagonists in the profound social, economic and political changes that swept the region from the mid-1980s onwards. These include the crumbling of authoritarian and military rule and redemocratization, and the ending of civil wars. It explores how the renegotiation of the political game affected women and how they, in turn, acted upon the political system to further their own interest and deepen democracy. The chapter focuses, in particular, on Central America and on Brazil and the Southern Cone countries.
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Abstract No. How have party systems and individual parties in Latin America responded to, and filtered, women's movement demands for political voice representation and state gender policies. Does this vary between national and... more
Abstract No. How have party systems and individual parties in Latin America responded to, and filtered, women's movement demands for political voice representation and state gender policies. Does this vary between national and local levels of government? This study ...
Page 233. SIX Comparisons and Conclusions [\ M1cn] blacks [in the United States] won the vote in the South and a share of patronage in the municipalities of the North in response to the disturbances of the 196os, black leaders ...
... political and decision-making power in society. In Chapter 3 Elisabeth Friedman examines the alliance-building pro-cess in a campaign to reform the labour code in Venezuela in the late 1980s. In the case of Venezuela, female ...
‘Education for peace: a challenge to the traditional methods of teaching and to the reach of disciplines’ in Sérgio Danilo Junho Pena and Heather Jean Blakemore (eds.) Themes in Transdisciplinary Research, Fed. University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte (2010): 165-88. ISBN 978-85-7041-843-2more
This article reflects on the challenges facing peace education and research, particularly in the light of the development of the Department Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. What is peace? To whom do we teach it? How should we... more
This article reflects on the challenges facing peace education and research, particularly in the light of the development of the Department Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. What is peace? To whom do we teach it? How should we teach it? What outcomes do we hope for? This links together some key issues in teaching and research in the field of peace and alternatives to violence. Who produces knowledge, and using what assumptions and disciplinary frameworks? The second issue is the application of that knowledge to government policy, and the actions of individuals and communities in dealing with violent conflict. The third element relates to the pedagogical processes by which discourses, practices and cultures of violence are dismantled and new ways of learning are encouraged. Finally, how do these elements come together to produce action and transformation?
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Gender politics in brazil and chile MACAULAY Fiona.
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Os Centros de Ressocializacao no Estado de Sao Paulo: Estado e sociedade civil em um novo paradigma de administracao prisional e reintegracao de ofensores
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Brazil has embarked on many of the judicial reforms taking place in other Latin American countries. Since 1985 there have been ovo waves of reform. The first centred on the issue of judicial independence, leaving aside other aspects such... more
Brazil has embarked on many of the judicial reforms taking place in other Latin American countries. Since 1985 there have been ovo waves of reform. The first centred on the issue of judicial independence, leaving aside other aspects such as duration of cases, access to justice, or resources which lead to an overloading of the system of justice administration. The second wave of reforms was aimed at addressing these other problems. The article seeks to assess the problems of the justice system in Brazil, paying particular attention to structural constraints, levels of politicization and uneven application of the law, as well as to the successes and failures of the reform processes.Brasil se introduce en la dinámica de las reformas judiciales que se producen en América Latina. Desde 1985 se pueden percibir dos olas de reformas. La primera de ellas centrada en conseguir la independencia judicial, olvidándose de aspectos como la celeridad del proceso, el acceso a la justicia o los recur...
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What difference will a Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores-PT) government make to women’s status and rights in Brazil? In order to analyse the Lula government’s approach to gender issues, the article first examines the party’s... more
What difference will a Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores-PT) government make to women’s status and rights in Brazil? In order to analyse the Lula government’s approach to gender issues, the article first examines the party’s foundation and development, and relationship to social movements, including the women’s movement. The PT is shown to be a groundbreaker in the Brazilian party system, in terms both of promoting women’s leadership and of its ideological and institutional commitment to gender equity and equality, as illustrated by the party’s state and municipal governments, by its actions in the legislative sphere. The article then analyses the likely direction of the new Special Secretariat for Policies on Women in the light of the previous, uneven trajectory of Brazil’s national machinery for promoting women’s status, and of the kinds of gender policy orientations discernible in the party’s subnational administrations. It concludes by analysing some of the gender polic...
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Does the enhancement of women’s rights and gender equality lead to greater security? The answer depends on how security is defined and by whom. Gender equity and equality will improve the human security of women, if enacted rather than... more
Does the enhancement of women’s rights and gender equality lead to greater security? The answer depends on how security is defined and by whom. Gender equity and equality will improve the human security of women, if enacted rather than just promised, and if women are protected from any potential backlash from society or individual men. However, the relationship of gender equality to the security of a nation, such as Pakistan, of a security complex, such as the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, or of the wider community of nations, is somewhat contradictory, as social stability can require non-interference in certain gender regimes that continue to subordinate women. This inaction undermines women’s individual security. Whilst modernisation theory insists that women’s equality is integral to the social underpinnings of liberal governance and thus of the liberal peace, those very processes of modernisation cause the social disruptions that create both localised and globalized grievance-bas...
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This article examines an innovative domestic violence intervention: some 300 “second-response” police patrols set up since 2015 by military police forces and municipal guards in cities around Brazil. They enforce court-issued protection... more
This article examines an innovative domestic violence intervention: some 300 “second-response” police patrols set up since 2015 by military police forces and municipal guards in cities around Brazil. They enforce court-issued protection orders by paying repeat visits to women at high risk, referring them to support services, and ensuring abusers stay away. Drawing on interviews with officers who founded or now lead these patrols, and on local-level police data and studies, the article analyzes their origins and modus operandi and evaluates their impacts on victims, abusers, the community, and internal police force culture. Available evidence shows that victims enrolled in these programs are much less likely to suffer repeated assault or feminicide than those who are not. The article examines how this intervention fits with the other elements of local protection networks and compares these patrols with second-response police interventions developed elsewhere.
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Domestic politics in Brazil is still very disconnected from the country’s foreign policy and international stance on human rights issues. That indifference creates a twofold problem, both for Brazil’s ambition to be a major world power,... more
Domestic politics in Brazil is still very disconnected from the country’s foreign policy and international stance on human rights issues. That indifference creates a twofold problem, both for Brazil’s ambition to be a major world power, and for a world that needs a country with Brazil’s heft and legitimacy with the nations and institutions of both the Global North and South
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In order to contextualize the Brazilian and Chilean cases, this chapter surveys the various ways in which Latin America’s political parties have shaped the two interlinked dependent variables of this study: women’s political participation... more
In order to contextualize the Brazilian and Chilean cases, this chapter surveys the various ways in which Latin America’s political parties have shaped the two interlinked dependent variables of this study: women’s political participation and the formation of state gender policy. Parties are both gendered organizations that reflect the gender ideology of their membership and leaders through their internal culture and practices, and gendering institutions that act as gatekeepers, framing, encouraging or restricting women’s political agency as party supporters, activists, leaders, candidates and representatives, and (re)producing normative conceptions of gender relations through their electoral campaigns, party policies and legislative activity. Much analysis focuses only on ideology, especially the left—right axis, whereas I propose closer attention to three overlooked independent variables: the intersection of the left—right cleavage with the secular-religious one in the region’s party systems; the gendered political habitus that develops within individual parties and how this is sustained by practices of gendered political sociability; and the type as well as the degree of party institutionalization. These variables, in combination, determine the permeability of individual parties and party systems to gender issues.
This commentary surveys some of the trends and gaps in current research on criminal justice reform in Latin America – with a focus on Brazil, and on two specific areas: police and prison/penal reform. It explores two principal themes: the... more
This commentary surveys some of the trends and gaps in current research on criminal justice reform in Latin America – with a focus on Brazil, and on two specific areas: police and prison/penal reform. It explores two principal themes: the uneven and thin production of knowledge about criminal justice issues; and the impact this has on policy reforms and on the ways in which these are framed and interpreted in terms of their relative success and failure. Overall it argues that we still know very little about criminal justice institutions and the actors within them. We also need many more finely-grained analyses of the dynamics of reform efforts and of the policy environments in which these take place in order to understand how and why reform initiatives are often derailed or subverted, and, more rarely, flourish and can be embedded and replicated.
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ABSTRACT
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This chapter examines the social, economic and political contexts of gendered inequality, vulnerability and agency in which the war on drugs takes place. As the previous chapter has demonstrated, the drug war is failing and causes... more
This chapter examines the social, economic and political contexts of gendered inequality, vulnerability and agency in which the war on drugs takes place. As the previous chapter has demonstrated, the drug war is failing and causes multiple harms. Those harms are not evenly distributed: they affect overwhelmingly those in society who are most susceptible to being cast as socially undesirable or as violating moral and social norms. Ethnicity, gender, age, social class and occupation are some of the key factors that combine to produce ‘punishable subjects’ in drug policy. This chapter unpicks some of the ways in which women’s continuing inequality in all spheres plays out in drug policy. How do women continue to be framed, included or excluded in key fields of policy and practice such as development, healthcare and security?
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Palabras clave: genero, politica publica, Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), Brasil, mujeres. ABSTRACT: What difference will a Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores-PT) govern- ment make to women's status and rights in Brazil? In... more
Palabras clave: genero, politica publica, Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), Brasil, mujeres. ABSTRACT: What difference will a Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores-PT) govern- ment make to women's status and rights in Brazil? In order to analyse the Lula government's approach to gender issues, the article first examines the party's foundation and development, and relationship to social movements, including the women's movement. The PT is shown to be a groundbreaker in the Brazilian party system, in terms both of promoting women's leadership and of its ideological and institutional commitment to gender equity and equality, as illustrated by the party's state and municipal governments, by its actions in the legislative sphere. The article then analyses the likely direction of the new Special Secretariat for Policies on Women in the light of the previous, uneven trajectory of Brazil's national machinery for promoting women's status, and of the kind...
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Special journal edition edited by me and Chris Garces