The project team of “Exploring Community Perceptions and Coping Strategies on Violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar” has published two Policy Briefs, on perceptions of violence and of nonviolent civilian protection in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Policy Brief No. 1, “Perceptions of Everyday Violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar“, examines years of civilian-targeted violence that occurred in central and northern Rakhine. At its core, the Rakhine conflict is an asymmetric conflict involving the national military (Sit-Tat) and factions of several local ethnic insurgency groups, prominently the Arakan Army. Contestation to assert local control across Rakhine has exposed the population of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds to different facets of violence. This ranges from direct violence attributable to armed clashes to subversive forms of violence rooted in systemic discrimination and a culture of hostilities targeted at certain ethnic groups. Discussion with respondents reveals a population in distress, losing hope and feeling isolated.

Policy Brief No. 2, “Perceptions of Nonviolent Civilian Protection in Rakhine State, Myanmar“, presents the project team’s findings on local conceptions of nonviolent protection in Rakhine State. Participants’ responses suggest that locals primarily need to invest in their capital as individuals (e.g., wealth, ethnicity, social standing, knowledge, and others) to gain access to different self-protection strategies. Yet access to such capital is largely driven by ethno-religious privilege, which puts the ethnic minority groups at the struggling end. Alternatively, there are chances of local protection efforts being provided by other stakeholders such as sangha (Buddhist monks), prominent local figures (i.e., village elders and local administrators), and locally operating humanitarian groups, but such efforts are currently limited and are highly context-specific. The policy brief concludes with some key recommendations on how to better expand access to civilian personal capitals for all Rakhine ethnic communities and what sort of support unarmed third parties may need in order to better prepare their interventions.

Beatriz Arias López and Laura Jiménez Ospina, of the project “Art That Protects“, have published a new open-access article under the title “Art that protects: Contributions to expanded self-protection in the urban socio-political conflict in Medellín, Colombia” (in Spanish) in the journal Revista Virtual Universidad Católica del Norte.

Summary: Previous experiences and studies agree that art is a powerful mediator in contexts of socio-political violence. The aim of the study was to explore how artistic and cultural initiatives developed by community-based organisations in Medellín generate and facilitate self-protection strategies, especially for women and young people in the context of urban conflict. From 2022 to 2024, our team conducted an in-depth case study including document analysis, participant observation, territorial walking tours, semi-structured interviews, and discussion groups, with the participation of 15 organisations. It shows that art becomes self-protective through its impact on strengthening collective processes, mutual recognition, the ownership of safe territories, and the possibility of an affirmative stance by artists and communities towards armed actors, making art a protective umbrella that enables other types of relationships and agency in the neighbourhood, in addition to the legitimacy built by organisations over the years. The authors conclude that art allows for expanded self-protection that encompasses both a physical and emotional dimension, considering the bonds that are formed between individual and collective bodies, with actions of care that strive to maintain and strengthen solidarity and spaces for the common good.

The article can be downloaded here.