Addressing organised crime and security sector reform (SSR) and governance: Linkages, processes, outcomes and challenges
Project Live
PROJECT TEAM
Huma Haider
Independent research consultant
Contact: huma@humahaider.com
Huma Haider is an independent research consultant and international lawyer, with over 15 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
Organised criminal (OC) actors can extend influence over security sector officials through corruption, paying them to selectively enforce the law. In some cases, the rise of OC has eroded the state’s capacity to deliver security. In other contexts, organised crime can rise where state security institutions are considered strong. Collusion between OC actors and law enforcement agencies, and the political protection of security sector officials involved in illicit activities, can represent a cohesive state with sole capacity to enforce the law.
There are notable linkages between security institutions; security sector reform and governance (SSR/G); and OC. This research addresses a gap in analysing connections between SSR/G and OC, exploring mutual impact – including effective state security responses to OC, and how OC is influenced by SSR/G politics. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the project demonstrates the importance of an OC-informed perspective into SSR/G and an understanding of SSR/G in addressing OC.
SSR studies indicate that programming often prioritises less politically sensitive capacity building interventions. Yet strengthening the capabilities of corrupt security institutions can be counterproductive in the fight against OC. Developing accountability and oversight of security sector institutions, such as anti-corruption mechanisms and transitional justice processes (vetting and transitional trials) could help to reduce OC infiltration.
OC studies reveal that governments often rely on militarised responses to counter OC, resulting in negative outcomes, including escalating violence, weak civilian policing, overcrowded prisons, human rights violations, and deteriorating public trust. In contrast, community-oriented policing is employed in various contexts to improve public trust in the police and intelligence-gathering to counter OC. Countering OC requires comprehensive interventions across the criminal justice chain, alongside socio-economic programming within SSR to counter the appeal of joining organised criminal groups.
This research project aims to deepen the evidence base on the connections between SSR/G and OC – how they influence and impact one another, positively and adversely. It seeks to encourage collaboration across academic disciplines and professional silos, integrating SSR/G perspectives and programming into the fight against OC and vice versa.
PUBLICATIONS
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Publications from this project will be posted here when available