Page 6 - Empowerment and Protection - Conclusions Chapter

rates as the biggest source of insecurity. Police were not seen as sources of protection – instead, citizens felt vulnerable to police abuse of state power and saw police as threats to security rather than as protectors. With security forces unaccountable to citizens or the law, the state was at best negligent and at worst a predator.
Corruption undermined the legal system and deepened insecurity. In place of a predictable system of rules and their enforcement, the state acted in ways that were perceived as arbitrary and personality-dependent: “When you see people wearing uniforms, you a priori perceive them as a [source] of danger. You don’t know what to expect from them.” As a result, citizens had very low trust in state institutions, and fell back on themselves and their personal networks for security. In some cases, citizens had withdrawn all social trust: “Count on yourself. That’s all.”
While many Ukrainian respondents seemed to express resignation in the low performance of the state, some respondents believed the state’s duty was to provide security. One respondent explicitly called for regime change, which is indicative of the mass unrest in Kyiv at the time. While the state was maligned as a source of insecurity, the expectation that it should provide security still prevailed.
In Mexico, respondents similarly describe a state
in which weak and corrupt law enforcement and justice systems have resulted in citizen insecurity and violence perpetrated by both non-state and state actors. The weakness of the justice system and law enforcement capacities, compounded by corruption and collusion of the state apparatus in illegal activities, leaves the state unable to protect citizens against the twofold threat of drug cartels or predatory state behaviour.
Insecurities resulting from the weak rule of
law intensiied when the Mexican government initiated a militarised campaign to stop drug violence in 2006. Devastating violence against citizens grew exponentially. According to an interviewee of Nuevo León in northern Mexico, “[a militarised approach] led to more fear and the suppression of activities in the public space.” With the rule of law already weak, the militarisation of the conlict left citizens with few avenues for state protection or redress.
A citizen security approach developed by civil society in collaboration with government has proven more effective in protecting citizens from violence. By aiming to strengthen the accountability of local oficials to their communities, many of the reforms that have been instituted to address the violence have focused on rule of law reforms. This has included reform of the legal framework, the judicial system, and strengthening law enforcement mechanisms. Strengthening citizen voices in security policymaking helped to demilitarise the conlict in Mexico, increasing human security.
In both Ukraine and Mexico, the absence of state services and state protection has left citizens vulnerable to violence from crime, and the impunity and negligence of police forces and
the ineffectiveness of the justice system are also signiicant threats to security. Citizens’ efforts to develop greater security involve strengthening the rule of law and making the state more accountable and responsive to citizens.
Strengthening citizen voices in security policymaking helped to demilitarise the conlict in Mexico, increasing human security.
Indigenous societies and the state: the Philippines and Zimbabwe
In Mindanao, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe,
the existence of traditional tribes presents a different relationship between the rule of law
and human security. The role of the state vis-à-
vis indigenous governance structures is complex and simultaneously a driver of conlict as well as a potential source of security. In traditional societies, establishing contemporary rule of law can impose a foreign and sometimes hostile system of governance that complicates or destroys traditional customs
and identities. Yet if used to carve out legal space for traditional governance structures and leadership within the state, it can be a source of community security.
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