Criminal Legalities and Minorities in the Global South: Rights and Resistance in a Decolonial World

Description

This book explores how the law and the institutions of the criminal justice system expose minorities to different types of violence, either directly, through discrimination and harassment, or indirectly, by creating the conditions that make them vulnerable to violence from other groups of society. It draws on empirical insights across a broad array of communities and locales including Afghanistan, Colombia, Pakistan, India, Malawi, Turkey, Brazil, Singapore, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. It examines the challenges of protecting those at the margins of power, especially those whom the law is often used to oppress. The chapters explore intersecting, marginal identities influenced by four factors: rebuilding after violent regimes, economic interest behind the violence, entrenched cultural biases, and criminalisation of diversity. It provides scholars from the Global North with important lessons when attempting to impose their own solutions onto nations with a different history and context, or when applying their own laws to migrants from the Global South nations explored in this book. It speaks to legal and social science scholars in the fields of law, sociology, criminology, and social work. Preface Contents Notes on Contributors 1 Introduction 1 Challenges in Studying the South 2 Demanding Rights: Global South in the Global North? 3 Decolonizing the Literature 3.1 Rebuilding After Violence 3.2 Economic Interests and the State 3.3 Entrenched Cultural Biases 3.4 Criminalizing of Diversity 4 Conclusion References Part I Rebuilding after Violence 2 The Carandiru Prison Massacre and Ongoing Military Repression in Brazil 1 Introduction 2 Military Rule in Brazil: The National Security Doctrine and The Police 3 Transition Without Reforms: The Absence of Changes in the Military Police Institution 4 The Carandiru Case: Failed Accountability and Reform Attempts 5 The Role of the Judiciary in Guaranteeing Impunity 6 Reforms and Failures 7 The Irrepressible Violence of the Military 8 Conclusion References 3 Politics Before Law: The New Penal Code of 2017 and Its Limited Protections for Ethnic Minorities in Post-conflict Afghanistan 1 Introduction 2 Afghanistan’s Multiethnic Society 3 The Four Cases of Unsanctioned Offenses 3.1 Hate Speech: General Taqat’s “Bastards” 3.2 Religious Persecution: Assaulting the Living and the Dead 3.3 Workplace Discrimination: The Notorious Makh Kakh Agenda 3.4 Discrimination and Disenfranchisement in the Electoral Process: Fattening the Sheep 4 Conclusion References 4 Between Denial and Memory: A Socio-Legal Reading of Securitization Narratives in Transitional Colombia 1 Introduction 2 The “Statute of Security”: A Historical and Theoretical Analysis 3 Resisting the a Priori Culpability Approach to Criminal Law 4 Securitization in a Restricted Democracy: The Violence of the DSP 5 Othering: The Outcome of Authoritarian Criminal Law? 6 Conclusion: Transitional Justice and the Continuing Failure to Prosecute Crimes of the Powerful References Part II Economic Interests of the State 5 Formless Punishment and Exclusion: Criminalizing the Migrant Through the Indian National Register of Citizens 1 Introduction 2 The Foreigner, the “Illegal”, and the Citizen 3 NRC’s Evolving Web of Enforcement 4 Detention Laws, Due Process, and the NRC 5 Conclusion References 6 (Cr)Immigration and Merit-Based Migration in Singapore: The Permanent “State of Exception” 1 Introduction 2 Crimmigration and the Permanent “State of Exception” 3 Migration Policies in Singapore 3.1 Colonial Migration to Singapore 3.2 Modern Singapore’s Merit-Based Migration System 4 Three Case Studies: Riots, Terrorism, and Pandemics 4.1 Little India Riot and the Public Order Additional Temporary Measures Act (POATM) 4.2 Bangladeshi Terrorists and the Internal Security Act (ISA) 4.3 COVID-19 and the Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 5 Crimmigration and the “State of Exception” in the Law 5.1 Punishment 5.2 Surveillance 5.3 Deportations 6 Conclusion References 7 Colonial Legal Continuities in Post-colonial Pakistan: The Katchi Abadi of Qayyumabad and the Construction of Law, Ownership, and Crime 1 Introduction 2 Urban Issues in Pakistan 3 The Case of Qayyumabad 4 Methodology and Research Significance 5 Land Reform Regimes in Sindh 6 Criminal Justice System and Katchi Abadis 7 The Legal Construction of ‘Non-Permanence’ 8 ‘Non-Permanence’, ‘Crime’, and Colonial Law 9 Conclusion References 8 Disciplining Colonial Subjects: Neoliberal Legalities, Disasters, and the Criminalization of Protest in Puerto Rico 1 Introduction 2 Neoliberal Legalities in PR: Promesa and Organized Abandonment 3 Punitive Governance and Resistance in the Wake of Promesa 4 New Penal Code of PR of 2012 and the Criminalization of Grassroot Socio-Environmental and Anti-Austerity Mobilization 5 Law 20 of 2017, Hurricane María and Anti-Corruption Mobilizations 6 Conclusion References Part III Entrenched Cultural Values 9 “Truth” and “Consent” in Sexual Violence Reporting in Criminal Justice and Legal Contexts in Singapore 1 Introduction 2 Singapore’s Gender Regime: Exalting “Asian Values” and Responding to the Struggles of Women 3 Meeting the Threshold for “Truth” 4 Proving Non-Consent 5 The Logics of State-Tolerated Violence 6 Conclusion References 10 Between Toys and Behind Bars: Mothers in Jail in the State of Ceará, Brazil 1 Introduction 2 The Rights of Children and the Youth and the “Doctrine of Integral Protection” 3 Women Deprived of Liberty and Their Children: Between Toys and Behind Bars 4 The Application of the ECS at the Ceará Court of Appeals 5 Impacts of the ECS on the Management of Imprisoned Women in the State of Ceará 6 The ECS and the Supreme Court: Habeas Corpus No. 143,641/SP (February 20, 2018) 7 Conclusion References 11 The “War on Drugs” in Philippine Criminal Courts: Legal Professionals’ Moral Discourse and Plea Bargaining in Drug-Related Cases 1 Introduction 2 The “War on Drugs” as a Neoliberal War Against the Poor 3 Methodology 4 Legal Professionals’ Working Practices 5 Legal Professionals’ Moral Discourse 6 Plea Bargaining and Its Impact 6.1 An (Il)legal Solution 6.2 Reintroducing Plea Bargaining 6.3 Legal Professionals’ Embrace of Plea Bargaining 6.4 Continuing Detentions 7 Conclusion References Part IV Criminalization of Diversity 12 Circuits of Law: Everyday Criminalisation of Transgender Embodiment in Istanbul 1 Introduction 2 Transgender Citizenship and Law in Everyday Life 3 Modern Law and the Making of the Familial Citizen in Turkey 4 Methodology 5 Misdemeanour Laws and Fines: Everyday Policing in Istanbul 6 Criminal Trials: At the Intersection of the Formal and Informal 7 Conclusion References 13 Reaffirming Womanhood: Young Transwomen and Online Sex Work in the Philippines 1 Introduction 2 Including Transwomen in the Conversation 3 Sex Work in the Philippines 4 The Internet: Making Everyone Accessible to the World 5 Research Background 6 Growing up Trans in Mindanao 7 On Independence and Sisterhood 8 #Goals: Sex Operation and Settling Down 9 Journey for Philippine LGBT Rights 10 Conclusion References 14 A Queer Chinkhoswe: Re-imagining the Customary in Malawi 1 Introduction 2 A Queer Legal History of Malawi 3 Customary Laws and Chinkhoswe 4 The “Crime Against Malawian Culture”: A Queer Chinkhoswe 5 It’s Our Culture Too: Re-imagining the Customary 5.1 Pre-chinkhoswe 6 Conclusion References Index