EL BLOG DE LA FIIAPP. Cooperación Española

With a rate of 30 women deprived of liberty per 100,000 inhabitants, the female prison population rate in Latin America is the highest in the world[i]. Deprivation of liberty for this type of crime has a profound and often devastating impact on the lives of thousands of women deprived of their liberty, both personally and in their families and communities.

In recent times, criminal policy on drug trafficking has been characterised by a maximisation of criminal law, what does this mean? A greater use of criminal law as a tool to combat crime and guarantee social order, which in this case is materialised in the lack of proportionality in the treatment of minor drug offences, the excessive use of pre-trial detention, and a clear commitment to prison as the main retributive strategy; a space in which criminal alternatives are significantly reduced.

This approach has also permeated the general population, conditioning their understanding of the drug phenomenon and associated crimes, leading to demands for more control and security that ultimately translate into a reinforcement of drug interdiction policies and, of course, greater punitiveness and penal populism.

As for women, who represent 8% of the prison population in Latin America, their incarceration is on the rise, with a reported 56% increase of women in the prison population between 2000 and 2022, compared to a 24.5% increase in the overall prison population in the same period.

The consequence: a vicious circle that needs to be broken.

Differential impacts

Women imprisoned for minor drug offences experience a range of differential impacts compared to their male counterparts. In addition to the social stigma associated with prison, many women face the loss of custody of their children, which can have lasting emotional and psychological consequences. Furthermore, the lack of adequate access to mental health services and drug rehabilitation programmes for women with problematic drug use within prisons exacerbates existing problems and hinders successful reintegration into society upon release.

Incarceration does not address the structural causes that lead women to engage in drug-related activities. Poverty, social exclusion, lack of access to services, resources and meaningful opportunities are underlying factors that drive many women to enter the lowest rung of the drug trade as a means of livelihood. These determinants of criminal behaviour are, in turn, factors of recidivism, which confront us with a panorama of inequalities and social asymmetry.

In this context, it is urgent to move towards a new criminal rationality in terms of proportionality and the search for alternatives to imprisonment for these crimes and, in particular, for women. To advance in a policy dialogue between the powers of the State and institutions at all levels, involving the perspective of civil society and generating ways of working that comprehensively address the inequalities that are at the root and root of the problem.

International Women’s Day is a good time to reflect on and re-evaluate our policies and practices in relation to women in the criminal justice system, particularly with regard to minor drug offences. Adopting a more humane and community-centred approach not only benefits individual women, but also contributes to building more just, equitable and sustainable societies for all.

The COPOLAD III Programme is working in this direction, that of improving the response capacity and proportionality of penal frameworks in the face of drug-related challenges, as well as in the development of alternatives to detention or imprisonment aimed at reducing recidivism. On this path, COPOLAD has been accompanying national processes (Costa Rica; Paraguay; Trinidad and Tobago and, soon, the Dominican Republic), while generating articulations with regional organisations that work along these lines, and that have the potential to leverage changes on a regional scale and guarantee the sustainability and scaling up of the results that COPOLAD supports, as is the case of COMJIB and AIDEF.

Beatriz López Lorca

Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Castilla-La Mancha has been mobilised by FIIAPP (Spanish Cooperation) to support the European programme on drug policy COPOLAD III.

Mario Germán Sánchez González

Drug Policy Expert at FIIAPP (European COPOLAD Programme)

[i] IACHR. Women Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, 2023. In this regard, the prison population rate in a region or country is obtained by calculating how many persons are deprived of their liberty per 100,000 inhabitants in that region or country. See: UNODC, Custodial and non-custodial measures – Criminal Justice Assessment Toolkit, 2010, p. 6.

Sara Gutiérrez Leiva, coordinator of the project “Living Together Without Discrimination: A Human Rights and Gender-Based Approach 

A challenge for the country: the National Strategy for Immigration and Asylum

Morocco receives a steadily increasing number of migrants each year, mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa. This growth has demanded stronger institutional resources to guarantee the rights of newcomers and to improve the integration of Moroccans and people of other nationalities living in its territory.

Despite legal progress, migrants and refugees remain vulnerable to incidents of racial discrimination. Several civil society organizations have documented cases showing barriers to accessing housing, healthcare, employment, and education for migrant children.

Although authorities combat racism in Morocco, it still affects social inclusion and poses a challenge to the country’s social cohesion.
These racist incidents not only harm victims but also threaten coexistence and the overall well-being of society. As the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has pointed out, discrimination erodes trust in institutions and hinders civic participation.

For this reason, in 2014 the Kingdom of Morocco adopted the National Strategy for Immigration and Asylum (ENIA), a pioneering framework that brought migration issues into public policy. Thanks to this strategy, the country has made progress in areas such as education, health, housing, vocational training, and employment.
The “Living Together Without Discrimination” project aligns with ENIA’s goals, particularly those related to fighting discrimination and raising awareness about migration and asylum.

The “Living Together Without Discrimination” project

A plural and diverse society has much to gain: social cohesion and collective determination to ensure that racism and xenophobia have no place within its borders. In this sense, projects like “Living Together Without Discrimination” lay the foundation to improve people’s lives through a human rights-based approach, with special attention to the experiences of women in Morocco—particularly migrant women, who may face discrimination based on both gender and origin.

This initiative, promoted by the European Union, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), FIAP, and the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), incorporates a gender perspective essential to understanding multiple levels of vulnerability. According to UN Women, migrant women face greater risks of exclusion and violence, reinforcing the need for gender-sensitive public policies.

The project’s objective has been to strengthen tools and public policies aimed at preventing racism and xenophobia in Morocco, fostering peaceful coexistence free of discrimination.

How it was implemented

Institutional strengthening: Support for developing the technical capacities of public administrations in key sectors such as education, healthcare, justice, and local governance, as well as civil society organizations that play a crucial role in preventing racism and xenophobia.

International cooperation: Integration of collaborative approaches among Moroccan, North African, and European partners, creating a space for dialogue, reflection, and exchange of experiences.

Awareness and media: Launch of communication campaigns and awareness activities alongside journalists and local media to improve migration coverage and combat stereotypes surrounding the migration phenomenon.

Regulatory reforms: Technical assistance to improve Moroccan legislation, reinforce complaint mechanisms, and ensure more rigorous data collection on racial discrimination cases.

International best practices: Promotion of successful experiences from countries such as Tunisia or Spain, serving as references for strengthening migrant inclusion in Morocco.

Dialogue spaces: Creation of consultation forums between civil society and Moroccan public institutions, opening for the first time institutional debates on racism and xenophobia in the country.

It is said that knowledge is the best capital, which is why we are launching a series of publications that bring together all the work done, achievements, recommendations and lessons learned. A total of 14 publications covering the five components of the project shed light on essential issues to address racism and xenophobia in Morocco.

Knowledge and learning

Knowledge is often said to be the best capital. For that reason, the project has produced a series of publications that compile its work, achievements, recommendations, and lessons learned. In total, 14 documents have been developed, addressing the project’s five components and shedding light on key issues for tackling racism and xenophobia in Morocco and strengthening social cohesion.

• Report on the analysis of international norms and recommendations on combating discrimination, racism, and xenophobia. Identifies international and regional norms (UN, European Union, South America, and Africa) that protect migrants.

• Comparative study of legislation on racial discrimination, racism, and xenophobia in Spain, France, Tunisia, and Morocco, with proposals to strengthen national protection mechanisms.

• Analysis of training programs for public administration personnel, based on European experiences in preventing racism, with specific recommendations for Morocco.

• Study on best practices in communication and awareness in Belgium, Spain, Finland, France, and the Netherlands, to inspire campaigns within the Moroccan context.

• Training manuals for public administrations and local governments, integrating a gender approach in the fight against discrimination.

• Report on the intersectionality of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and gender, analyzing its institutional treatment in Morocco and proposing tools to incorporate this perspective into public policies.

These materials are available in Arabic, French, Spanish, and English, in both full and summarized versions, and can be accessed through the FIAP portal.

Valentina Salvato, project officer of the project Promoting community policing in Lebanon, co-led by the FIIAPP, reflects on the importance of paying attention to mental health in police forces and the action developed by the project through various training courses for this purpose.

Why is this approach necessary?

Being a police officer means being exposed on a daily basis to traumatic events that can endanger their own life: accidents, violence, critical situations and emergencies, natural disasters… All of these entail risks that can affect the mental health of any person. Moreover, we must take into account the current context of Lebanon, a country affected by an unprecedented severe political, economic and financial crisis and a series of traumatic events – the demonstrations of October 2019, the Beirut port explosion in August 2020 and the consequent worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic – which have had a direct impact on the lives of citizens, their behaviour, their psychological stability and their mental health. 

How do we address mental health within the security forces?

From the project Support to community policing in Lebanon, we seek to shed light on the issue of mental health in the security forces: a problem that is often ignored, unknown or even rejected. However, the truth is that police officers can develop mental and physical health problems due to the traumas they face during their career. Understanding and learning to manage stress helps to prevent, recognise or avoid misbehaviour that undermines public confidence in law enforcement. As the chief inspector of the Spanish National Police and director of the project, Joaquín Plasencia García, points out, “if a police officer loses the trust of citizens, he loses everything”.  

For this reason, we support the Lebanese police in order to implement a preventive and psycho-educational strategy with psychological tools and methodologies to prevent, protect and resolve possible stress situations. 

Thanks to the trainings we have offered in Lebanon, such as the last one at the Internal Security Forces Academy (Aramoun), 63 police officers have received tools to prevent and deal with stress situations, conflict resolution, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anger management or emotion control. This mental health training is also an excellent form of primary prevention, as it increases the knowledge, awareness and resilience of all officers, achieving a direct impact on citizen care, as it reduces and prevents episodes of misconduct in the security forces.  

By caring for the well-being of those who care for us, citizens receive better care and service. 

I am French and have been living in Spain for almost two decades. I am a migrant, a foreigner, but I have been extremely lucky to have the support of a legal framework that has allowed me to settle, to study, to work, to access the same rights and public services as any Spanish citizen.

Before me, my maternal grandparents also migrated, from impoverished rural Portugal in the 1950s, to a France in full economic expansion after World War II. As did my paternal great-grandparents, who fled fascist Italy in the 1920s. They did not have as many opportunities, neither in their migratory route, nor in their reception, nor in their integration. I am constantly reminded of the importance of institutionality and public policies that, from the territorial space, need to be built and shared with others to improve systems.  

Migration is an opportunity and cooperation is an axis for articulating societies and institutions in countries of origin, destination and transit. This decentralised cooperation is a privileged space to contribute to the construction of operational responses to the challenges of human mobility. 

There are three elements that seem to me to be particularly important when analysing the reality of migration. These are the multidimensionality of the phenomenon; the need to move away from linear analytical frameworks that associate, for example, economic development in countries of origin with the reduction of migratory movements; and, finally, the importance of policy coherence. 

In addition, there is another perspective that I would like to raise: the importance of public technical cooperation, based on the experience of public management, particularly at the territorial level. 

I believe that it is particularly relevant to address responses to the challenges of mobility from the territorial level because it is the space of proximity, where attention to migrants, their protection, their inclusion, where diasporas working with countries of origin meet, where public services are connected, where education and training for employment are developed.

In this sense, the role of decentralised cooperation makes a lot of sense, as it can weave around its territorial added value. In other words, local and regional authorities can focus their cooperation on those areas of public management where they have the greatest expertise or experience.

Peggy Martinello. Director of Public Administration and Social Affairs at FIIAPP

In a country affected by multiple problems and continuous crises – financial, political and social – violence against women continues to receive neither the attention nor the necessary political reaction. The social context, deeply centered on family and patriarchal clans, hinders the visibility of this problem, while domestic abuse continues to grow.

In the last 12 months, the number of domestic violence incidents increased from 747 to 1,468, according to statistics collected by the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF).  This increase, attributed to the country’s economic and financial crisis and the United Nations’ so-called “shadow pandemic”, in reference to the coronavirus, is an entrenched scourge in Lebanese society.

In recent years, the demands of numerous social groups have achieved significant, but still insufficient, progress. In December, Lebanon amended its domestic violence law to criminalize abuse “resulting” from marriage. Despite this, the updated legislation does not clearly cover violence against divorced women, nor does it criminalize marital rape, nor does it prevent discrimination against women in divorce and child custody disputes.

Most of these crimes remain silenced within the family, while the cases that do make it into the public eye suffer from the perpetuated culture of victim-blaming.

Through our Community Policing project and thanks to the support provided by the Family and Women’s Care Unit (UFAM) of the CNP, we are helping to improve police investigation and care for victims of domestic violence in Lebanon.

We are promoting the creation of the Domestic Violence Unit within the ISF and the assignment of at least two police officers trained in victim care and investigation of these types of crimes in the 12 territorial police stations in the country. We want to ensure that there are female police officers to attend to victims, as currently there are only men, and we aspire to provide more comprehensive care to all victims, institutionalizing the provision of social, health, psychological and legal services to all victims.

With the strong commitment of our entire Community Policing team and the support of the Lebanese police, we will continue to fight domestic violence and train police officers to improve care and service to all victims.