National, Public/Private, Human: Linked (In)Securities in Mexico's Failing Post-Authoritarian Transition

This paper seeks to problematize the conceptual and political relationships between what are considered different kinds of security—national, public/private, and human—and other concepts such as human rights and the rule of law. A concern with public security is often associated with conservative political forces—the “law and order” outlook; the reciprocal concern with human rights tends, for its part, to be associated with the left. In the current political and social climate of Mexico, this polarization is unnecessarily detrimental to human rights work. Indeed, this polarization need not happen; the human rights agenda need not be trumped by public security. As with many other issues in Mexico today, the murders of young women in Ciudad Juarez have a lot to tell us about getting out of the dilemma. The paper will show that, when taken together, the concepts and concerns of public security and human rights lead to a strong concept of human security, linked to the establishment of the rule of law....