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Mural "Procesos Viciados"
por Rafael Cauduro
(en la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación, Ciudad de México)

VICTIMS' RIGHTS

The Use and Impact of Private Prosecution

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Most of my academic career has focused on studying the right to private prosecution and Public Prosecutor's Offices in Latin America.

​My work on this topic is best summarized in my first book Prosecutorial Accountability and Victims’ Rights in Latin America (published in 2018 by Cambridge University Press). In this book I look into how private prosecution works as an accountability mechanism in Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico. Overall this book speaks to issues of legal mobilization, cause lawyering, the interactions between domestic and international law, state capacity, and rule of law.

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In 2020 my book won the Outstanding Book Award from the International Section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Recent reviews of my book can be found here (in English, written by Dr. Diana Kapiszewski) and here (in Spanish, written by Prof. Mauricio Duce). 

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Other articles where I have explained the impact of private prosecution on human rights cases are:​​

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The emergence and diffusion of victims' rights

My most ambitious work in progress remains a study on the history of private prosecution rights across time.

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Private Prosecution and Femicide

I have also explained the impact that changing a legal opportunity structure can have on the litigation of femicide cases, by introducing private prosecution rights. To learn about private prosecution and the litigation of femicide cases in Mexico, read:

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NGOs mobilization and the protection of victims' rights

With my colleague Dr. Shannon D. Walsh, I am working on a couple of articles that evaluate the different ways in which NGOs in Central America have changed over time in their quest to protect the rights of women that are victims of gender violence.

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These are still work in progress, and we hope to be able to share these soon as publications.

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