The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy serves as the hub of the Harvard Kennedy School’s research, teaching, and training in the human rights domain. The center embraces a dual mission: to educate students and the next generation of leaders from around the world in human rights policy and practice; and to convene and provide policy-relevant knowledge to international organizations, governments, policymakers, and businesses.

 

News and Announcements

Yanilda Maria Gonzalez Making a Movement

Making a Movement: Yanilda María González on Police Violence Against Racialized Communities

March 18, 2024

In her essay for the Carr Center's latest publication, Making a Movement: The History and Future of Human Rights, Yanilda María González discusses one of the most pervasive racial justice challenges: continued police violence against racialized and impoverished communities. 

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Latest Publications

The ties that bind: How armed groups use violence to socialize fighters

Citation:

Dara Kay Cohen. 9/12/2017. “The ties that bind: How armed groups use violence to socialize fighters.” Journal of Peace Research, 54, 5, Pp. 701-714. See full text.
The ties that bind: How armed groups use violence to socialize fighters

Abstract:

How do armed groups use violence to create social ties? What are the conditions under which such violence takes place?

 

In this article, I describe how armed groups use one type of atrocity, wartime rape, to create social bonds between fighters through a process of combatant socialization. As a form of stigmatizing, public, and sexualized violence, gang rape is an effective method to communicate norms of masculinity, virility, brutality, and loyalty between fighters. Drawing on literature about socialization processes, I derive a set of hypotheses about individual-level factors that may influence vulnerability to violent socialization, including age, previous socialization experiences, and physical security. I analyze the support for these hypotheses using newly available survey data from former fighters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The results show the broad applicability of considering group violence as a form of social control within armed groups, suggest some of the limits of violent socialization, and have implications for both theory and policy.

 

: Dara Kay Cohen | Sept 16 2016
: How do armed groups use violence to create social ties?
Last updated on 01/24/2020

Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective

Citation:

Siddharth Kara. 10/2017. Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective, Pp. 360. Colombia University Press. See full text.
Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective

Abstract:

Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective book by Siddharth Kara
 

Siddharth Kara is a tireless chronicler of the human cost of slavery around the world. He has documented the dark realities of modern slavery in order to reveal the degrading and dehumanizing systems that strip people of their dignity for the sake of profit—and to link the suffering of the enslaved to the day-to-day lives of consumers in the West. In Modern Slavery, Kara draws on his many years of expertise to demonstrate the astonishing scope of slavery and offer a concrete path toward its abolition.

From labor trafficking in the U.S. agricultural sector to sex trafficking in Nigeria to debt bondage in the Southeast Asian construction sector to forced labor in the Thai seafood industry, Kara depicts the myriad faces and forms of slavery, providing a comprehensive grounding in the realities of modern-day servitude. Drawing on sixteen years of field research in more than fifty countries around the globe—including revelatory interviews with both the enslaved and their oppressors—Kara sets out the key manifestations of modern slavery and how it is embedded in global supply chains. Slavery offers immense profits at minimal risk through the exploitation of vulnerable subclasses whose brutalization is tacitly accepted by the current global economic order. Kara has developed a business and economic analysis of slavery based on metrics and data that attest to the enormous scale and functioning of these systems of exploitation. Beyond this data-driven approach, Modern Slavery unflinchingly portrays the torments endured by the powerless. This searing exposé documents one of humanity’s greatest wrongs and lays out the framework for a comprehensive plan to eradicate it.

: Siddharth Kara | Oct 2017
: Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective book by Siddharth Kara
Last updated on 01/24/2020

New UN Team Investigating ISIS Atrocities Raises Questions About Justice in Iraq and Beyond

New UN Team Investigating ISIS Atrocities Raises Questions About Justice in Iraq and Beyond

Abstract:

New UN Team Investigating ISIS Atrocities Raises Questions About Justice in Iraq and Beyond: 

 

On September 21, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously passed resolution 2379 to pursue accountability for atrocity crimes perpetrated in Iraq by the Islamic State (also called ISIS, ISIL or Da’esh). The resolution, in paragraph 2, requests the UN Secretary-General "To establish an Investigative Team, headed by a Special Adviser, to support domestic efforts to hold ISIL (Da’esh) accountable by collecting, preserving, and storing evidence in Iraq of acts that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by the terrorist group ISIL (Da’esh) in Iraq . . . to ensure the broadest possible use before national courts, and complementing investigations being carried out by the Iraqi authorities, or investigations carried out by authorities in third countries at their request."

The desirability of such an investigative team is well understood. ISIS has perpetrated widespread and systematic murder, kidnapping, sexual violence (including forced marriage and sexual slavery), and destruction of cultural heritage. The creation of this investigative team is thus a welcome, even if belated, development. However, this initiative prompts questions about the body’s scope, use of evidence, comparison to Syria, and precedential value. 

 

Suggested Citation:

Kaufman, Zachary D., New UN Team Investigating ISIS Atrocities Raises Questions About Justice in Iraq and Beyond (September 28, 2017). Just Security, September 28, 2017. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3044527

: Zachary D. Kaufman | Sept 28 2017
: New UN Team Investigating ISIS Atrocities Raises Questions About Justice in Iraq and Beyond
Last updated on 01/24/2020
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Upcoming Events

2024 Apr 01

Engaging with the Conflict in Israel and Palestine: A Conversation with Tarek Masoud and Derek Penslar

4:00pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

Allison Dining Room

Event DescriptionDuring this conversation, Derek Penslar and Tarek Masoud will discuss their experiences as commentators on the violence in Gaza. As both members and critics of their respective communities, both speakers will examine how their unique positions have affected them during the current moment.

Speakers

Derek Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History. He is the director of undergraduate studies within the department and...

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2024 Apr 03

Israel and Gaza and its Repercussions on American Campuses: A Conversation with Rabbi David Wolpe

5:00pm to 6:00pm

Location: 

David Ellwood Democracy Lab R-414-AB

Event DescriptionThe violence in Israel and Gaza has heightened tensions worldwide – including on college campuses across America. With both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine students facing threats and several instances of both antisemitic and anti-Arab rhetoric, this period has sparked debate as to how institutions of higher education can ensure that college campuses remain places of safety. Rabbi David Wolpe will delve into these issues when he joins to discuss the current situation in Israel and Gaza and how the conflict has permeated...

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“The Carr Center is building a bridge between ideas on human rights and the practice on the ground. Right now we are at a critical juncture. The pace of technological change and the rise of authoritarian governments are both examples of serious challenges to the flourishing of individual rights. It’s crucial that Harvard and the Kennedy School continue to be a major influence in keeping human rights ideals alive. The Carr Center is a focal point for this important task.”

 

- Mathias Risse