Addressing organised crime through a transitional justice framework
Live Project
PROJECT TEAM
Huma Haider
Independent Researcher
Contact: huma@humahaider.com
Huma Haider is an independent research consultant and international lawyer, with over 17 years of experience producing policy relevant research and guidance for international development advisors. She is a former Research Fellow at the GSDRC, International Development Department, University of Birmingham. Her research areas centre on transitional justice in divided societies, coexistence, reconciliation, conflict sensitivity, international humanitarian law, and the role of diaspora and refugee communities in peacebuilding. Her geographic area of focus is the Western Balkans, specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has also worked as a lawyer in the Prosecutor’s Office of the War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Transitional justice (TJ) has traditionally centred on addressing the legacies of large-scale violations of political and civil rights. However, human rights violations often involve socio-economic injustices. A growing body of research argues that corruption, for example, is linked to human rights violations and can infringe on the enjoyment of civil and political rights. Research also links crimes committed by state officials against civilians to their close relationship with organised crime groups (OCGs) and finds that OCGs can be responsible for perpetrating acts of violence that amount to crimes against humanity.
Despite linkages between large-scale human rights violations and economic crimes, and the coexistence of TJ and counter-OC initiatives, these connections have not been looked at systematically or comprehensively.
Studies find that impunity for economic crimes reinforces impunity for human rights violations; and that both types of crimes could benefit from being investigated and prosecuted together. Research also finds that truth commissions (TC), a key TJ tool, have increasingly examined issues of endemic corruption of prior regimes; with the TC in Colombia also becoming the first commission to engage with drug economies. Further, binary views of victim and perpetrator, common in TJ scholarship and practice, can be inadequate in contexts of organised criminality. Rather, criminal justice actors and investigators need to recognise that women and children, for example, can be both victims and perpetrators (e.g. engaging in human trafficking to escape being trafficked themselves; joining a drug cartel as a child), possibly allowing for legal leniency; and raising questions as to who is recognised as a victim for the purposes of reparation.
This research project aims to introduce and provide insights into such crucial issues. By exploring the linkages between TJ, corruption and OC the research will pool concepts and evidence to promote a shared narrative and framework for thinking about, discussing and addressing accountability and justice for human rights violations, corruption and OC. The research seeks to encourage collaboration across academic disciplines and professional silos.
PUBLICATIONS
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Publication anticipated for early Summer 2025.
RELATED PROJECTS
Addressing organised crime and security sector reform and governance: Linkages, processes, outcomes and challenges
The research deepens the evidence base on the connections between security sector reform/governance and SOC, looking into how they influence and impact one another, positively and adversely. By doing so it aims to encourage collaboration across academic disciplines and professional silos, integrating SSR/G perspectives and programming into the fight against SOC and vice versa.
Organised crime groups and peace processes
Organised crime actors can be spoilers or partners in peace processes. Negotiation may not only be considered preferable, but also necessary where criminal groups have strong territorial control, filling governance gaps and gaining legitimacy, and has indeed become a reality in practice. There is, however, limited guidance and research on such strategies and processes. This research addresses this gap by reviewing the evidence and offering observations for policymakers and practitioners to consider when creating framework for engaging with OC in peace negotiations.
Negotiating with criminal groups: Colombia’s Total Peace policy
Colombia’s Total Peace policy allows the government to negotiate with armed and criminal groups in order to reduce violence and protect life. This project is harnessing this unique opportunity to research the legal framework applied for different types of engagement with criminal groups at the local and national level, the way in which criminal governance and the Total Peace policy interacts and finally, identify the extent into which legal frameworks and local criminal governance structures shape negotiations with armed and criminal groups in Colombia.
Para-statal armed groups, illicit economies and organised crime
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