{"id":21374,"date":"2015-04-30T11:32:30","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T14:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=21374"},"modified":"2015-05-11T18:44:51","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T21:44:51","slug":"infusing-participation-in-pacification-the-new-executive-commission-for-the-monitoring-and-evaluation-of-pacification-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=21374","title":{"rendered":"Infusing Participation in Pacification: The New Executive Commission for the Monitoring and Evaluation of Pacification Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost seven years after the\u00a0implementation<\/a> of the first\u00a0Pacifying Police Unit<\/a> (UPP) in Santa Marta<\/a>, the ambitious security policy aiming to wrest control of favela territories from drug gangs is showing major weaknesses. As 2015\u00a0began with daily shootings in pacified favelas<\/a>, on February 6 the government of the State of Rio de Janeiro published an official decree<\/a>\u00a0establishing a program charged with furthering the institutionalization and impact of the pacification policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The decree officially creates the\u00a0Executive Commission of Monitoring and Evaluation of Pacification Policy (CEMAPP)<\/a>, a technical body responsible for the implementation of public policies within the territories policed by Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) forces. The main objective of the commission is to foster dialogue\u00a0between civil society and the different government secretariats\u2014such as education and drug prevention, culture, sports, health, housing, social services, and human rights\u2014in order to strengthen social\u00a0programs in the community. The CEMAPP is presided over by Governor Luiz Fernando Pez\u00e3o and is comprised\u00a0of\u00a014 State Secretariats along with representatives of\u00a0the business sector.<\/p>\n

Governor Pez\u00e3o, who admitted “it is undeniable that there have been problems with the UPPs,” framed\u00a0the CEMAPP as\u00a0a means to addressing those issues. He declared<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cThe objective of this commission is to combine all our forces to rescue the initial project, in order to guarantee a social legacy for the communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each secretariat\u00a0party to CEMAPP has\u00a090 days to present a plan outlining interventions to improve the State Pacification Policy. The founding decree states that each plan must involve different technical offices in collaborative and multidisciplinary work. The CEMAPP, in close collaboration with the State Security Secretariat (Seseg), will then prioritize the most urgent issues. Seseg is responsible for the actual implementation of the pacification program, and for promoting and overseeing communication<\/a> between community security councils, civil society stakeholders, government departments, and public security workers.<\/p>\n

The commission will gather every 15 days, to assure constant progress and monitoring.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Citizen Security: An improvement over proximity policing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The decree establishing CEMAPP also aligns the state’s\u00a0security policies to the concept of Citizen Security as proposed by the United Nations Development Programme<\/a> (UNDP). From the perspective of human rights, Citizen Security conceives of security as a right to which all members of a society are entitled, so that they are able to live their daily lives with minimal threat\u00a0to their personal security, their civic rights and their right to use and enjoy property.<\/p>\n

The practical manifestation of\u00a0Citizen Security involves planning and policy implementation that take into account unique local contexts\u00a0through participatory processes<\/a>, with institutional and civil society actors collaborating. It includes actions to both prevent and control criminality and violence through social and individual development processes. The UNDP suggests\u00a0successful Citizen Security programs require a strong local government, strong institutional support for participatory platforms, and, as a potential result of the first two points, integrated social policies that see security issues as inherently entwined\u00a0with other key areas of economic and social development.<\/p>\n

The CEMAPP echoes this focus on strong government leadership, while also stressing the importance of community participation alongside\u00a0effective cooperation between\u00a0various government departments and stakeholders.\u00a0In early March of this year,\u00a0Pez\u00e3o said<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cWe want to find a way for the state, city and federal governments to come together to support the communities through social services, and to take out of the hands of the Military Police a series of services that are needed but which having nothing to do with public security.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One significant unanswered question, however, is how exactly the commission will provide community members with meaningful opportunities to participate<\/a> in and influence public security policy.<\/p>\n

From the Caf\u00e8 Comunit\u00e1rio<\/em>\u00a0to the Conselho de Gest\u00e3o Comunitaria<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Today, a significant challenge\u00a0hindering integration between the\u00a0formal and informal territories\u00a0of Rio de Janeiro\u00a0is the failure of the State to apply\u00a0its policies and programs to the real needs of favela communities. In particular, the State fails to guarantee basic social services to all citizens, despite promises of improved programs time after time<\/a>. As a direct consequence, favela residents often have low confidence in the capacity of the State to provide viable solutions to their problems and to improve their quality of life.<\/p>\n

Marcelo Silva, president of Vidigal<\/a>‘s Residents\u2019 Association, explained that: \u201cCommunity members’ participation in solving local problems represents a real challenge today. People come to the Association just to complain about problems and only when they directly affect them. It is really difficult for people to organize themselves in collective action<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeking to\u00a0overcome the technical gaps in the relationship between citizens and public institutions, the CEMAPP plans to transform\u00a0the Caf\u00e9 Comunit\u00e1rio<\/em> (Community Caf\u00e9)\u2014<\/em>the existing community participation space within favelas\u2014into a new kind of platform: Conselho de Gest\u00e3o Comunit\u00e1ria\u00a0<\/em>(Community Management Council).<\/p>\n

According to Roberto Valente, the UPP Commander of Provid\u00eancia<\/a>, \u201cThe Caf\u00e8 Comunit\u00e1rio <\/em>is\u00a0organized and managed by UPP officers. In these meetings, people complain about issues not related to police responsibility, such as water, sewage, electricity, transport issues. I am not the mayor. We are not able to give them any solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Meeting<\/a><\/p>\n

The main change proposed for the Conselho de Gest\u00e3o Comunit\u00e1ria <\/em>is that UPP officers and community leaders will collaborate to lead and mediate the meetings. Moreover, during each Conselho <\/em>session\u00a0the issues expressed by participants will be written in an official record and communicated both to the State Government and to the public institutions directly responsible for the problems\u2019 resolutions. Valente said: \u201c[This new system] allows for monitoring and timely\u00a0solutions to residents\u2019 complaints, thanks to a direct dialogue with public servants…The Conselho de Gest\u00e3o Comunit\u00e1ria’<\/em>s aim is to make the community the protagonist in this process. In these meetings, the police are\u00a0just participants, community supporters.”<\/p>\n

S\u00e3o Jo\u00e3o: The first favela to receive\u00a0CEMAPP projects<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Morro do\u00a0S\u00e3o Jo\u00e3o<\/a>, located in the North Zone<\/a>, is the first community to receive a program of social actions and public services promoted by CEMAPP. As established by the decree, the UPP officers of S\u00e3o Jo\u00e3o participated in a training\u00a0course with the Special Operations Commander (COE), a branch of the Military Police. Trainings covered\u00a0stop and frisk techniques, proximity policing, human rights and conflict mediation.\u00a0On March 30, the Commission visited the community to learn the main demands of residents\u00a0and conduct\u00a0a first evaluation of investments to be prioritized.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe objective of the community visits is to guarantee access to public services, as a reinforcement of the pacification policy. In this way, we both increase the dialogue with residents and ensure the strength\u00a0to extend the UPPs,\u201d\u00a0declared security secretary, Jos\u00e9 Mariano Beltrame<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The CEMAPP\u00a0emerges in the midst of a security crisis in Rio de Janeiro. Now more than ever this crisis shows the negligence of a State unable to guarantee its citizens democratic and equal access to social rights<\/a>. In this context, two outcomes are possible. The\u00a0CEMAPP may truly\u00a0seek to build platforms for collaboration between citizens and government in order to restore confidence in the State and gradually alleviate the crisis. Or the CEMAPP may follow the path of\u00a0failed prior\u00a0attempts<\/a> that\u00a0appeared well intended but ultimately sunk\u00a0due to lack of authentic participation<\/a> and political will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost seven years after the\u00a0implementation of the first\u00a0Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) in Santa Marta, the ambitious security policy aiming to wrest control of favela territories from drug gangs is showing major weaknesses. As 2015\u00a0began with […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":21763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1277,335,329,1329],"tags":[245,1343,25,1406,37,15,152,917,301,809,66,443,156,363],"writer":[1614],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uppwatch","8":"category-policies","9":"category-solutions","10":"category-by-international-observers","11":"tag-beltrame","12":"tag-governor-pezao","13":"tag-human-rights","14":"tag-morro-do-sao-joao","15":"tag-north-zone","16":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","17":"tag-participation","18":"tag-police-reform","19":"tag-public-policy","20":"tag-public-security","21":"tag-santa-marta","22":"tag-security","23":"tag-south-zone","24":"tag-vidigal","25":"writer-valentina-romanin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21374"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=21374"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=21374"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=21374"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=21374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}