NEITHER WAR NOR PEACE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Between November 2001 and August 2002 Viva Rio and ISER carried out research on the working functions of children and adolescents in the favela-based drug factions of Rio de Janeiro. This research led to the publication of Children of the Drug Trade: a case study of children in organised armed violence in Rio de Janeiro.

The case study of Rio de Janeiro has been important for a number of reasons: although not at war, there are currently more people (and specifically children) dying from small arms fire in Rio de Janeiro than in many low-level armed conflicts elsewhere; although they are not politically oriented armed groups like those found in many civil wars, Rio’s drug factions are a territorial and openly armed paramilitary presence in most of the city’s favelas; and the types of small arms and light weapons used by all sides in the daily conflicts between rival factions and the police, are those also encountered in any civil conflict.

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