Download the file - United Nations Rule of Law

38Understanding Urban Safety and SecurityPreventing ormitigating theimpacts of threats tourban safety andsecurity hinges uponallowing civil societyto play an active,informed roleNarratives ofresilience arenecessary for publiceducation, as well asfor political leadersDisasters reveal theresilience andcapacity ofgovernments. Theperformance ofinfrastructure is areliable indicator ofhow well publicagencies are doingtheir jobsAn important theoretical insight by Amartya Senabout famines is relevant here. Sen observed in 1982 that nofamine had ever occurred in a democracy. 58 He explained thesocietal and economic adjustments to shortage of food ashighly dependent upon the free flow of information within ademocratic society. Similarly, the ability to anticipate a threatto safety and security, such as a tsunami or a flood, dependsheavily upon the flow of information, in time, to peoplelikely to be affected by such an event. If information on animpending hurricane is available, as in the case of Havana,people can make precautions or evacuate. In either case, thedisaster is not a surprise, becomes more of a process than anevent and is therefore possibly more manageable in some ofits impacts.It is important, therefore, to acknowledge thatpreventing or mitigating the impacts of threats to urbansafety and security hinges upon allowing civil society to playan active, informed role. What this means, however, inspecific places depends heavily upon culture. The meaningof culture here is closely tied to values and perceptions ofkey factors, such as authority, identity, status, risk, costs,participation and impact. The contextual meaning of theseconcepts shapes the content of human behaviour in thesesituations. For example, how women communicate and worktogether within tsunami-affected villages in southern Indiadepends heavily upon caste. The modes and style ofwomen’s participation in community recovery groups afterthe earthquake in Bursa, Turkey, were contingent uponwhether they were highly religious. Responses to gangs inGuatemala or Honduras must be highly conditioned by anunderstanding of what are the issues facing the identity ofyoung male gang members and why they join such violentgangs in the first place.An important part of this engagement by civil societyis the nature of participation itself. There are three aspectsof the participatory claim that deserve attention: the proceduralaspect, the methodological dimension and theideological position. Participation can have very differentfunctions, outputs and outcomes. It is clear that in each ofthe three threats to security considered in this GlobalReport, there is an important role for citizen participation inmitigating the worst effects of these phenomena, as demonstratedby the participatory risk assessments in South Africaor Peru. The Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) hasdemonstrated that citizen participation in the aftermath ofthe Indian Ocean Tsunami has made an enormous differencein the rate and quality of recovery in the local areas of India,Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand affected by this tragedy.If culture is important as a factor in explaining behaviour,it is also central to identifying normative approaches toensuring urban safety and security. There are many examplesof communal – not just community – responses to theseissues. Communal identities and values, whether religious orethnic, play a major role in determining what behaviours areacceptable and what are not. So, too, do they determinewhat is popularly regarded as ‘justice’ in the prevention ofviolence and punishment.Lessons learned on the pathways toresilienceTaken individually, institutions and policy, the human rightslegal framework, and civil society and culture each representpathways to strengthening social resilience in cities. Takentogether, they are highly interdependent and are integral,interwoven fibres in the texture of social resilience.In suggesting that building social resilience should bea core social and development objective for all countries,regardless of income level, it is also important to acknowledgethat scholars and practitioners have been working withthis concept and applying it in both the natural and socialsciences for several decades. This work has been collectedand summarized in various volumes and websites. 59 Much ofthis work is useful in understanding how the concept ofresilience can be an effective normative objective for policyand the international community. In this regard, several keylessons deserve attention.Some of these lessons come from studies of responseto disaster, 60 but also apply to other threats to urban safetyand security. These can be described as follows:• Narratives of resilience are necessary for public education,as well as for political leaders. While these storiesare not always universally accepted and, in fact, areusually highly contested, as the cases of Mumbai andNew Orleans suggest, they provide an important role inbuilding resilience itself. Telling the stories of howsecurity of tenure was achieved in Klong Toey inBangkok or the barriadas of Lima helps to build popularunderstanding and support for other efforts. Similarly,the stories of the Young Lords in helping to controlviolence in New York or how crime in Medellin wasstopped all help to build a popular image in urbanculture about what is possible.• Disasters reveal the resilience and capacity of governments.The performance of infrastructure is a reliableindicator of how well public agencies are doing theirjobs. Similarly, the performance of departments withingovernment, as well the performance of leaders, isdeeply revealing of the strength and character of publicinstitutions. One former government official has notedthat ‘adversity does not build character; it reveals it’. 61Whether institutions have been working together priorto a disaster is a critical determinant of performance. Asthe mayor of Baltimore bluntly commented in a seminaron disaster preparedness: ‘You don’t want to beexchanging business cards on the scene.’ 62• Similarly, if the municipal police are able to contain acriminal problem in one neighbourhood withoutunnecessary violence, they are able to demonstratecapacity, which enhances their credibility for the nexttime. Furthermore, in cases where relocation of peoplefrom their homes is unavoidable, such relocations canbe handled with sufficient advance notice, followingappropriate consultation and participation of the peopleconcerned. There is a much greater likelihood that theprocess can occur smoothly and lead to real improvementsfor the people affected.