This review looks at government responses to violent protests in a selection of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Focusing on the 2011 Arab Spring protests, it finds that the initial response of most regimes was violent repression – Tunisia where the president stepped down, and Morocco and Jordan where the respective monarchies promised reform, are the only ...» more
Security & justice
Interventions to Reduce Forced Marriage
This review drew largely on academic papers as well as reports by international development organisations. Evidence and hence lessons on how to combat forced marriage are limited and sometimes contradictory. Overall, the literature points to a number of approaches that can be effective, notably: empowerment of girls; community approaches to change social norms and attitudes on ...» more
Non-State Policing in Fragile Contexts
Non-state policing refers to the use of non-state (informal) actors, e.g. vigilante groups, private security firms, to carry out ‘law and order’ functions (preventing crime, investigating, detaining and punishing those responsible for crimes). Non-state policing is not a synonym for community policing (a much broader term, usually associated with formal police agencies) but ...» more
Drivers and enablers of serious organised crime in Southeast Asia
There are many definitions of organised crime. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has developed a general definition: Organized crime is a continuing criminal enterprise that rationally works to profit from illicit activities that are often in great public demand. Its continuing existence is maintained through corruption of public officials and the use of intimidation, ...» more
Security and Justice Evidence Mapping Update
This evidence mapping was conducted to identify the empirical evidence on the outcomes of security and justice (S&J) interventions ranging from security reform to training border guards and to update an original evidence mapping published in September 2015. The findings are presented in the form of an evidence gap map, which provides an accessible and visual representation ...» more
Serious and Organized Crime in Jordan
This review presents findings on the prevalence and nature of serious and organized crime in Jordan, and efforts to combat this. The extremely limited literature on the topic indicates that Jordan has low levels of serious and organized crime: the main forms are smuggling of goods and drugs, and human trafficking. The influx of large numbers of Syrian refugees has promoted ...» more
Humanitarian Access, Protection, and Diplomacy in Besieged Areas
This rapid literature review examines the lessons learned in terms of providing humanitarian access and protection for civilians in besieged areas. The focus is on the following besieged areas: Syria (e.g. Raqqa, Aleppo, Deir-Ez-Zor and Eastern Ghouta), Hudaydah in Yemen and Mosul in Iraq. The recent literature is dominated by the conflict in Syria while there is very little ...» more
Rule of Law Challenges in the Western Balkans
The rule of law, in its most basic form, is based on the principles that society is governed openly and fairly according to widely known and accepted rules; that no one is above the law, including those in authority; and that justice is accessible to all (Bara and Bara, 2017, 24-25; MavrikosAdamou, 2014; Memeti, 2014). A country operates under “rule of law” when it has, among ...» more
Regional cooperation and political stability and prosperity
Regional cooperation takes a number of forms. Types of formal regional cooperation include preferential trade agreements, free trade agreements, customs unions, common markets, economic unions, economic and monetary unions, full economic integration, and political unions (Marinov, 2015, pp. 24-25). The literature identifies a number of benefits and risks of regional ...» more
Modern slavery within the tea industry in Bangladesh
The main factor driving modern slavery within the tea industry in Bangladesh is the extreme marginalisation of tea garden workers, who are mostly descendants of migrants from India, by wider society. Social and economic exclusion mean workers have no alternative to working under highly exploitative conditions in the tea industry. The review found considerable literature on the ...» more
Interventions to support victims of modern slavery
This review found few evaluations of interventions to support victims of modern slavery, even though there is recognition of the need for support services. While there is little evidence on effectiveness of interventions, the literature highlights the importance of victim-centred, holistic (multi-disciplinary) approaches to supporting victims. There is strong consensus in ...» more
Interventions to combat modern slavery
This report details findings from evaluations of a range of interventions to combat modern slavery. While there are three broad areas of efforts to tackle modern slavery – prevention, protection and prosecution – the main focus to date has been on prevention and, to a lesser extent, protection; prosecution has received far less attention. The literature indicates that ...» more
Women’s participation in peacebuilding and reconciliation in Iraq
This rapid review synthesises data from academic, policy and NGO sources on women’s participation in peacebuilding in Iraq. Peacebuilding will be defined as a ‘range of measures targeted to reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict management and to lay the foundation for sustainable peace and ...» more
Digital tools and improving women’s safety and access to support services
It is broadly accepted that digital media and the internet can provide new forms of communication and engagement for women that make networking easier, increase their social capital and facilitate the creation/growth of women’s movements. Technology can also be used to mitigate gender-based violence and improve women’s safety in a number of ways: Electronic monitoring ...» more
International humanitarian law and human rights violations in Syria
All parties involved in the Syrian conflict have carried out extensive violations of international humanitarian law and human rights. In particular, all parties are guilty of targeting civilians. Rape and sexual violence have been widely used as a weapon of war, notably by the government, ISIL and extremist groups. Reports by the International Independent Commission of Inquiry ...» more
Human rights and governance provisions in OECD country trade agreements with developing countries
Trade agreements increasingly feature governance and human rights provisions. Countries taking the lead in this are the United States and Canada (the EU was not covered in this review). However, they tend to be selective in their provisions, focusing in particular on labour rights, transparency and anti-corruption, as well as public participation and intellectual property ...» more
Role of business in tackling modern slavery in supply chains
Key findings: Not much research has been done on business supply chain management and modern slavery: The available literature is extremely limited. Pressures on companies to tackle modern slavery in supply chains are increasing: These include growing consumer concerns about the issue, fears of reputational damage, the potential for companies to charge more for ‘slave ...» more
Funding of anti-modern slavery interventions
This review looks at the availability of funds to tackle modern slavery1 and human trafficking2, and the availability of data in this regard. It seeks to move beyond the findings of Martina Ucnikova’s 2014 paper, OECD and Modern Slavery: How much aid money is spent to tackle the issue?, and identify updated (post-2013) data on funding by governments as well as private sector ...» more
Modern slavery in the DRC
‘Modern slavery’ encompasses a variety of situations in which one person is forcibly controlled by one or more others for the purpose of exploitation (Cockayne, 2015). ‘Forced or compulsory labour’ is defined by the ILO Forced Labour Convention as ‘all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered ...» more
National Security Office responsibilities and functions
It should first be noted that only ‘grey literature’ was identified for this helpdesk. Some information is included from government websites. Much of the material is commentary, included to give an idea of what is being said on this area. It must be taken into account that this information is conjecture. This rapid review found information on Canada, India, Iran, Israel, Kenya, ...» more
