Extrajudicial Killings, Political Imprisonment and Disappearances in Failing States

Extrajudicial killings, political imprisonment and disappearances at the hands of the government represent some of the more salient issues in failing and fragile states. In many failed states governments express an unwillingness or inability to protect citizens from violence and exhibit a tendency “to regard themselves as beyond the reach of domestic or international law, and hence free to carry out aggression and violence (Chomsky, 2007:2). This presentation examines the relationship between state fragility and denial of core human rights.