Political repression is the persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take part in the political life Politics , is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in other group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power" and refers of society A Society or a human society is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations such as social status, roles and social networks. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals sharing a distinctive culture and institutions. Without an article, the term refers either to the entirety of.
Political repression may be represented by discriminatory CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR policies, human rights Human rights are "rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Proponents of the concept usually assert that everyone is endowed with certain entitlements merely by reason of being human violation, surveillance abuse Surveillance abuse is the use of surveillance methods or technology to monitor the activity of an individual or group of individuals in a way which violates the social norms or laws of a society. Mass surveillance by the state may constitute surveillance abuse if not appropriately regulated. Surveillance abuse often falls outside the scope of, police brutality Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer. It is in some instances triggered by "contempt of cop", i.e., perceived disrespect towards police officers. Hubert Locke writes, "When used in print or, imprisonment Incarceration is the detention of a person in jail. People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime. Incarceration rates, when measured by the United Nations, are considered distinct and separate from the imprisonment of political prisoners and others not charged with a specific crime. Historically, the, involuntary settlement Forced settlements in the Soviet Union took several forms. Though the most notorious was the Gulag labor camp system of penal labor, resettling of entire categories of population was another method of political repression implemented by the Soviet Union. At the same time, involuntary settlement played a role in the colonization of remote areas of, stripping of citizen's rights A lishenets , from Russian word лишение, "deprivation", properly translated in this context as a disenfranchised, was a person stripped of the right of voting in the Soviet Union of 1918 — 1936. Disfranchisement was a means of repression of the categories of population that were classified as "enemies of the working people&, lustration Lustration has two meanings, historical and modern: Historically, it was the term for various ancient Greek and Roman purification rituals. More recently, in the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989 – 1991, the term came to refer to government policies of limiting the participation of former communists, and and violent action such as the murder, summary executions A summary execution is a variety of execution in which a person is killed on the spot without trial. Summary executions are practiced by police, military, and paramilitary organizations and are associated with guerrilla warfare, terrorism and counterinsurgency, torture, forced disappearance A forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly imprisoned or killed by agents of a state or other organization, but the organization does not admit that they have carried out this act, thereby placing the victim outside the protection of law and other extrajudicial punishment Extrajudicial punishment is punishment by the state or some other official authority without the permission of a court or legal authority. The existence of extrajudicial punishment is considered proof that some governments will break their own legal code if deemed necessary of political activists Activism, can be described as intentional action to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument, dissidents A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement, or general population.
Where political repression is sanctioned and organised by the state, it may constitute state terrorism State terrorism refers to acts of terrorism conducted by governments. Like the definition of terrorism and that of state-sponsored terrorism, the definition of state terrorism remains controversial and without international consensus, genocide CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR, politicide or crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a. Systemic and violent political repression is a typical feature of dictatorships A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:, totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single political person, faction, or class, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible. Totalitarianism is generally characterised by the coincidence of authoritarianism (where ordinary states and similar regimes. In such regimes, acts of political repression may be carried out by secret police Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy to protect the power and authority of a political regime or state forces, army, paramilitary A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military force, but which is not regarded as having the same status; they are essentially civilians organized to act like a military force. The term uses the Greek prefix para- , also seen in words such as paramedic groups or death squads A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extra-judicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign. These killings are often conducted in ways meant to ensure the secrecy of the killers' identities, so as to avoid accountability. Relevant activities have also been found within democratic contexts as well.
If political repression is not carried out with the approval of the state, a section of government may still be responsible. An example is the FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime. Its motto is "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity", COINTELPRO COINTELPRO was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. The FBI used covert operations from its inception, however formal COINTELPRO operations took place between 1956 and 1971 operations in the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language between 1956 and 1971.
In some states, such as the former Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (help·info), tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, IPA [sɐˈjʊs sɐˈvʲeʦkʲɪx səʦɪ, "repression" can be an official term and official legal policy of repression Article 58 of the Russian SFSR Penal Code was put in force on February 25, 1927 to arrest those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. It was revised several times. In particular, its Article 58-1 was updated by the listed sub-articles and put in force on June 8, 1934 with respect to internal political opponents of the state, see Soviet political repression Throughout the Soviet history millions of people became victims of Soviet political repression, which was an instrument of the internal politics of the Soviet Russia and Soviet Union since the first days after the October Revolution. Culminating during the Stalin era, it still existed during the "Khrushchev Thaw," followed by increased.
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Data on human rights violation and state repression
There are currently a wide variety of databases available which attempt to measure, in a rigorous fashion exactly what governments do against those within their territorial jurisdiction. The list below was created and maintained by Prof. Christian Davenport at the Kroc Institute & the University of Notre Dame. These efforts vary with regard to the particular form of human rights violation they are concerned with, the source employed for the data collection as well as the spatial and temporal domain of interest.
Global coverage
- " CIRI Human Rights Data Project The Cingranelli-Richards Human Rights Data Project (http://www.humanrightsdata.org) annually rates the level of government respect for a variety of internationally recognized human rights. The CIRI data set currently contains quantitative indicators of 13 human rights for 195 countries, annually from 1981-2006. The data set is typically updated, 1981-2006". by Profs David Cingranelli and David Richards
- by Freedom House
- "Genocide & Politicide, 1955-2005" by Prof. Barbara Harff and the Political Instability Task Force
- "Political Terror Scale, 1976-2006 by Prof. Mark Gibney
- "Worldwide Atrocities Dataset, 1995-2007 by the Political Instability Task Force/KEDS
- "World Freedom Atlas, 1990-2006" - Mapping Program by Prof. Zachary Forest Johnson
Regional coverage
- "European Protest and Coercion, 1980-1995" by Prof. Ron Francisco
Selective coverage of state repression
- "The Kansas Event Data System (KEDS)" by Profs. Deborah “Misty” Gerner and Phill Schrodt
- "Intranational Political Interactions Project, 1979-1992" by Profs. David Davis and Will Moore
- "Minorities at Risk, 1945-2006" by the Center for International Development and Conflict Management
Country coverage of state repression
- "Guatemala, 1960-1996" by the International Center for Human Rights Research
- "Kosovo, 1999" by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group - Benetech
- "Rwanda, 1994" by Profs. Christian Davenport and Allan Stam - The Genodynamics Project
- "Sierra Leone, 1991-2000" by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group - Benetech
- "Timor-Leste, 1974-1999" by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group - Benetech
- "United States vs. the Black Panthers, 1967-1973" by Prof. Christian Davenport
- "United States vs. the Republic of New Africa, 1968-1974 by Prof. Christian Davenport
See also
- Amnesty International Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation. Its stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."
- Death squad A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extra-judicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign. These killings are often conducted in ways meant to ensure the secrecy of the killers' identities, so as to avoid accountability
- Dissident A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement
- Forced disappearance A forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly imprisoned or killed by agents of a state or other organization, but the organization does not admit that they have carried out this act, thereby placing the victim outside the protection of law
- Human rights abuse Human rights are "rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Proponents of the concept usually assert that all humans are endowed with certain entitlements merely by reason of being human
- National security National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the nation-state through the use of economic, military and political power and the exercise of diplomacy
- Police state The term police state describes a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power
- Political killing Extrajudicial punishment is punishment by the state or some other official authority without the permission of a court or legal authority. The existence of extrajudicial punishment is considered proof that some governments will break their own legal code if deemed necessary
- Preventive repression
- Restrictions on political parties Restrictions on political parties have existed in many countries at various times. In Uganda, for instance, political parties were restricted in their activities from 1986; in the non-party "Movement" system instituted by Museveni, political parties continued to exist but could not campaign in elections or field candidates directly . A
- Secret police Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy to protect the power and authority of a political regime or state
- Worldwide Governance Indicators Based on a long-standing research program of the World Bank, the Kaufmann-Kraay-Mastruzzi Worldwide Governance Indicators capture six key dimensions of governance between 1996 and present. Sometimes referred to as the "KK", "KKZ" or "KKM" indicators, they measure the quality of governance in over 200 countries, based
Further reading
Articles
- Understanding Covert Repressive Action: The Case of the U.S. Government against the Republic of New Africa (186kb PDF file) by Christian Davenport, Professor, University of Maryland.
- State Repression and Political Order by Christian Davenport, Professor, University of Maryland.
- Police brutality on 12 years old girl outside her home for no reason Galveston, Texas.
Books
- Davenport, Christian (2007). State Repression and the Domestic Democratic Peace New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Davenport, Christian, Johnston, Hank and Mueller, Carol (2004). Repression and Mobilization Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Donner, Frank J. (1980). The Age of Surveillance: The Aims and Methods of America’s Political Intelligence System. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-40298-7
- Donner, Frank J. (1990). Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-05951-4
- Goldstein, Robert Justin. (1978). Political Repression in Modern America, From 1870 to Present. Boston, G. K. Hall, Cambridge, MA: Schenkman. ISBN 0-8467-0301-7
- Jensen, Joan M. Army Surveillance in America, 1775 - 1980. New Haven. Yale University Press. 1991. ISBN 0-300-04668-5. Book review retrieved April 3, 2006.
- Talbert, Jr. Roy. Negative Intelligence: The Army and the American Left, 1917 - 1941. Jackson. University Press of Mississippi, 1991. ISBN 0-87805-495-2. Book review retrieved April 3, 2006.
- Irvin, Cynthia L. "Militant Nationalism between movement and party in Ireland and the Basque Country
Categories: Human rights abuses | Persecution | Political repression
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