ERC Project: “Repression and the Escalation of Violence” (RATE)

Sabine Carey has been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant over 1.48 million Euros for the project “Repression and the Escalation of Violence” (RATE). The aim of this five-year project is to explain the escalation and non-escalation of repression and intra-state armed conflict by analysing how characteristics of the government and its formal and informal security apparatus shape the dynamics of such violence, paying particular attention to the role of monitoring and accountability.

The research agenda can be summarised in the following three questions:

1. Under what conditions do different types of human rights violations inhibit or fuel the escalation of repression and armed conflict?

2. What role do the security apparatus and pro-government militias play in preventing or accelerating the escalation of violence and armed conflict?

3. How do domestic and international mechanisms of monitoring and accountability influence the dynamics between human rights violations and armed conflict?

To answer these questions, RATE will produce a new global human rights dataset that provides disaggregated information on perpetrator, type, time and location of violation, as well as an online encyclopaedia on pro-government militias.

As the project gets under way, more information will be available on this website.

For statistics about the ERC Starting Grant results 2013, see this ERC summary.

Upcoming workshop on “The Dynamics of Violence and the Role of the Security Sector”.