Collective Protection Networks for Remote Rural Communities: A Case Study of the Role of Social Networks in Protecting Rural Communities in Latin America
In this paper Protection International present research undertaken with several rural communities in Latin America in opposition to extractive projects on, or near to, their land and territories. Applying tools of social network analysis they describe and interpret how the community members of several ad hoc early warning action committees communicate among themselves and with external actors during emergency events.
The dominant paradigm for the protection of human rights defenders at risk is the protection of individuals but this research considers the complexity of the defence of human rights as a lively process within social systems, linked to our human nature as social and relational beings.