Violence against Social Activists: Causes, Patterns, and Transformations

The last ten years have seen an emerging debate about targeted violence against social activists, with a focus on the killings of human rights de­fenders, environmental activists, and re­presentatives of civil society organi­zations broadly speaking. Whereas violence against ci­vilians in (civil) war contexts is an established field of study, re­search on this type of violence – which is being observed mainly out­side of conventional armed conflict settings in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Honduras or the Philippines – is much less de­veloped and rather fragmented. Against this back­ground, the project aims at taking stock of existing data and studies and advancing our know­ledge through new empirical research. The aim is to identify causes, patterns as well as trans­formations of this specific type of violence.

The project is conducted in the context of the research center TraCe. It follows up on collaborative research conducted in the context of the Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ), which focused on the case of Colombia (see the project Violence and Political Order in Post-Agreement Colombia: An analysis of the assassination of social leaders).