(en español a continuación)

Launch: Wednesday 19 June at 8-9:30 am EST
Format: Online/ Zoom (please register through this link)

About the project

Successful community initiatives that root out discriminatory policing exist around the world. In Our Hands: Communities rooting out discriminatory policing bears witness to that. In this collection of articles from around the globe collated by INCLO, activists, organizers, academics and researchers present the methods they adopted to eradicate discriminatory policing against their communities. 

In Our Hands stems from a need to acknowledge the failure of decades of gradual police reform –or lack thereof– and reckons with the legacy of historic and systemic racism in policing institutions all around the world. It is the result of a two-year exploration of the intersections and disconnects between safety, policing and community-led solutions to social issues.

We at INCLO needed to ask ourselves: How do demands to ‘defund’ or ‘detask’ police resonate in all parts of the world? Who are the communities disproportionately affected by traditional notions of “public order” and “safety” and what solutions do they want to propose? Are there global lessons we can learn from grassroots social movements fighting against stigmatizing policing and towards the full enjoyment of human rights for all?

In Our Hands includes articles about communities successfully bypassing discriminatory policing in the Global North and South: 

• Sex workers in Argentina invented a conflict resolution mechanism to avoid resorting to police; 
• Aboriginal Peacemakers in Australia reinstated ancestral mediation and reduced violent interventions in the community;
• Brazilian civil society united to get a judicial halt on police interventions in Rio de Janeiro communities and the result was an immediate drop in crime and police lethality;
• A group of people with lived experience in mental health crisis in Toronto successfully organized to become the first respondents in mental health crisis situations, a first in Canada;
• In Colombia, the Peasant Guard was created to mediate and resolve conflicts in the territory;
• In South Africa, the Housing Assembly looks for ways to overcome post-apartheid land distribution inequalities;
• In the United Kingdom, Art Against Knives is taking back the narrative and substituting stigmatizing discourses with artistic expression for Black youth.

In Our Hands also relies on the power of creativity and art. We partnered with the feminist platform femiñetas to commission illustrations that visually narrate and celebrate the efforts of communities reimagining safety and care for their members.

About the launch event:

Join us for the virtual launch of In Our Hands: Communities rooting out discriminatory policing, a compendium of non-policing community-led solutions to social issues collated by INCLO. The online panel will be held in English and Spanish with simultaneous translation and will feature the following speakers:

Georgina Orellano, National Secretary General of the Sex Workers’ Union of Argentina (AMMAR)
Nick Espie, Special Counsel at Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC)
Sherylle Dass, Regional Director of the Legal Resource Centre (LRC)
Moderation by Laura Kauer Garcia, Program Manager for Civic Space at INCLO

Opening remarks by Nayara Khaly from the United Nations Antiracism Coalition (Brazil), an international coalition created and led by Africans and people of African descent that seeks to better connect on the ground advocates and communities to the UN.

Visit the In Our Hands site for visuals or contact us at [email protected]

Speaker bios:

Georgina Orellano is a street prostitute, feminist and activist for the rights of Argentine sex workers. She has been the National Secretary General of the Sex Workers’ Union of Argentina (AMMAR) since March 2014 and is the author of the book Puta feminista. Historias de una trabajadora sexual (2022). Her work focuses on combating stigma and violence against sex workers, promoting legal recognition and labour rights. She has gained national and international recognition for her dedication to social justice and human rights.

Nick Espie is an Aboriginal man from the Arrernte nation in Central Australia. Nick is a Lawyer and Social Justice Advocate with decades of experience in legal practice and Aboriginal justice policy. He has worked in various management positions across the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region in Australia. In recent years Nick managed a NAAJA peacemaking project that brought together Aboriginal peacemakers from across remote regions in Northern Australia with a focus on reducing community conflict and interactions with the criminal justice system.

Sherylle Dass is co-editor of In Our Hands and is a practising Legal Practitioner admitted in the High Court of South Africa. She is currently the Regional Director of the Legal Resource Centre (LRC) based in Cape Town. Her previous roles include Managing Attorney of Harris, Nupen, Molebatsi Inc, where she practised Philanthropy Law, servicing various non-profit organizations. Before this Sherylle was a senior attorney at the Equal Education Law Centre and from 2007 to 2013 she managed the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme in Durban at Lawyers for Human Rights. She holds various positions on boards of non-profit organizations. 

Laura Kauer Garcia is the Program Manager for Civic Space at INCLO. Her work focuses on issues of free expression, the right to protest, shrinking civic space, as well as attacks on human rights defenders, including artists and cultural practitioners. Previously, Laura worked as a consultant for SHFT curating and managing their 2022 Safe Havens Conference in Mexico City and for the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN). She’s worked for the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) of PEN America and for Human Rights Watch. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from American University and a Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Latin American Studies at the University of London. 

Nayara Khaly Silva Sanfo (she/her) is an Afro-Brazilian woman of Ivorian descent living in São Paulo, Brazil. She is currently the coordinator of the United Nations Antiracism Coalition (UNARC). She is engaged in academic research on migration rights and social justice activism through the intersectionalities of gender and race in South America. Her professional journey is focused on education, policy-making through a decolonial approach, and international human rights institutions. She has worked with education and human rights for eight years, through the Samba Study Center (UNESP), the Amnesty International Activism Group in Franca city, and Teach for All Brazil. In addition, she worked as a parliamentary advisor in the Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo for many years.

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Nueva publicación – En nuestras manos: comunidades que sacan de raíz la discriminación policial

Lanzamiento: Miércoles 19 de junio, 8-9:30 am EST

Formato: virtual (inscripción en este link)

Acerca del proyecto

Iniciativas exitosas de colectivos que logran evitar las intervenciones policiales discriminatorias  en su comunidad existen en todo el mundo. En nuestras manos: comunidades que sacan de raíz la discriminación policial da fe de esto. En esta colección de artículos provenientes de todo el mundo, activistas, organizadorxs, academicxs e investigadores presentan las alternativas que adoptaron algunas comunidades de Argentina, Australia, Brasil, Canadá, Colombia, Indonesia, Irlanda, Sudáfrica y el Reino Unido.  

El proyecto “En nuestras manos” surge de la necesidad de reconocer el fracaso de décadas de reforma policial —o su misma ausencia— y de enfrentarnos con el legado del racismo histórico y sistémico de las instituciones policiales en todo el mundo. Esta colección de artículos recopilada por INCLO es el resultado de dos años de exploración sobre las intersecciones y desconexiones entre seguridad, vigilancia y soluciones comunitarias para abordar problemáticas sociales.

Nos vimos antes la obligación de preguntarnos ¿cómo resuenan en las distintas partes del mundo los pedidos de desfinanciamiento y de reasignación de tareas policiales?, ¿quienes son las comunidades desproporcionadamente afectadas por las definiciones clásicas de “orden” y “seguridad” y qué soluciones proponen?, ¿existen lecciones a nivel global que podamos sacar de los movimientos sociales se organizan en contra la discriminación policial y para el ejercicio pleno de los derechos humanos para todxs?

En nuestras manos incluye artículos sobre comunidades del norte y del sur global que logran demostrar que otro modo de resolución de conflicto –no violento y no judicial– es posible:

• Lxs trabajadorxs sexuales en Argentina diseñaron un mecanismo de resolución de conflictos para evitar recurrir a la policía;
• Los Peacemakers aborígenes en Australia reinstauraron la mediación ancestral y redujeron las intervenciones policiales violentas en la comunidad;
• La sociedad civil brasileña se unió para lograr una suspensión judicial de las intervenciones policiales en las comunidades de Río de Janeiro y el resultado fue una disminución inmediata del crimen y la letalidad policial;
• Un grupo de personas con experiencia vivida en crisis de salud mental en Toronto se organizó con éxito para convertirse en los primeros en responder a situaciones de crisis de salud mental, algo inédito en Canadá;
• En Colombia, se crearon los Guardias Campesinas para mediar y resolver conflictos en el territorio;
• En Sudáfrica, la Asamblea de Vivienda (Housing Assembly) busca formas de superar las desigualdades en la distribución de tierras post-apartheid;
• En el Reino Unido, Art Against Knives (Arte contra navajas) está recuperando el relato y sustituyendo los discursos estigmatizantes con expresiones artísticas de jovenes negrxs.

En nuestras manos (In Our Hands) busca también utilizar el poder de la creatividad y del arte y para ello nos asociamos con la plataforma feminista femiñetas para encargar ilustraciones que narran y celebran visualmente los esfuerzos de las comunidades que reimaginan la seguridad y el cuidado de sus integrantes.

Acerca del lanzamiento:

Vengan a escuchar quienes están detrás de estas iniciativas en el lanzamiento virtual de En nuestras manos. La conversación será en inglés y español con traducción simultánea con palabras de apertura a cargo de Nayara Khaly de la Coalición de Naciones Unidas contra el Racismo (Brasil), una coalición internacional creada y liderada por personas nacidas en África y/o de ascendencia africana que busca conectar mejor a los defensores y comunidades locales con la ONU.

Panelistas:

• Georgina Orellano, Secretaria General Nacional del Sindicato de Trabajadoras Sexuales de Argentina (AMMAR)
• Nick Espie, Asesor Especial en el Centro de Derecho de los Derechos Humanos (HRLC)
• Sherylle Dass, Directora Regional del Centro de Recursos Legales (LRC)
• Moderación a cargo de Laura Kauer Garcia, Coordinadora de Programas para el Espacio Cívico en INCLO

Para más información, comunicarse por mail a [email protected]