Human Rights and Organised Crime Agendas: Four Areas of Convergence for Policymaking
April 2024
Briefing Note 29
Ana Paula Oliveira, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC)
PUBLICATION SUMMARY
As a global challenge, organised crime is increasingly threatening the safety and security of citizens. Despite the real-world impact, there is an apparent disconnection between international human rights laws and policies, and responses to transnational organized crime. Even though the regulatory frameworks may have different objectives and scopes, human rights and responses to organised crime are not concepts at odds. Without aiming to provide an exhaustive or comprehensive account of all human rights issues deriving from the workings of organised crime, this briefing note identifies four areas that justify greater attention to the fundamental rights of natural persons, and convergence in the human rights and crime agendas:
(Organised) crimes that amount to human rights violations.
Violation of rights due to lack of remedies for crimes committed by organised criminal groups.
Violations of human rights committed in the context of preventing and combating organised crime: The ‘war’ on drugs and Violation of rights of victims and witnesses during organised crime investigations.
Lack of accountability for human rights violations by organised crime groups.
Policy implications
There is a current need for meaningful integration of both crime prevention and human rights agendas. Some suggested ways forward in no particular order of importance would be:
Data collection and analysis on the impact of organised crime on human rights.
Support community resilience efforts.
Fight against impunity.
Change the narrative in the repression of crime.