Why would someone committed to stopping torture ever work with perpetrators, or with organizations that perpetrate torture? Doing so is fraught with moral hazards, the most serious of which is being coopted, contributing to the myth of reform and failing to challenge the constellations of power that perpetuate abuse. And yet, judgments about when collaboration becomes cooptation and when it is smart strategy are too easily made in the abstract, and on the basis of our moral tastes rather than our empirically informed judgements. Ultimately, the choice to “work from the inside” needs to be based on sound reasoning and empirical evidence.
One form of reasoning justifying this strategy is the following: preventing pathological acts like torture requires transforming the institutional contexts that authorize, permit and create opportunities for them; and, in turn, authentic and sustainable institutional transformation requires working from the inside as a necessary, though by no means sufficient condition.
Studies on the effectiveness of human rights interventions show very mixed results.
