State violence is the use of force, intimidation, or oppression by a government against its citizens. State violence can happen through law enforcement or military force, as well as through other branches of government and bureaucracy. State violence is often justified by regimes under the pretext of maintaining law and order.

Forms

State sponsored genocide

Genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

generally involves the direct mass killing of members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Perpetrators of genocide are most often state actors.

State surveillance

Government surveillance is a tool used by government agencies to protect citizens from potential attacks from terrorists, extremists, or dissidents. Surveillance methods can include monitoring phone calls, video surveillance, or tracking internet usage. Although surveillance was designed to protect

national security National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...

, it has the potential to perpetuate state violence. The use of surveilling technology can be used to encroach upon citizens' civil liberties and

right to privacy The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 185 national constitutions mention the right to privacy. Since the globa ...

Examples

Myanmar

After attacks on police and army posts in

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

by Rohingya militias, state security forces carried out a string of mass killings of Rohingya civilians that killed thousands of people and led more than 700,000 to flee the country. Myanmar has officially rejected the U.N's claim that their army participated in the 2017

Rohingya Genocide The Rohingya genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Islam in Myanmar, Muslim Rohingya people by the Tatmadaw (armed forces of Myanmar). The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first was a military crackd ...

, despite evidence released by the U.N. Human Rights Council.

United States

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

signed the Patriot Act; this Act allowed for an expansion of surveillance by the government and law enforcement. In 2008, U.S. Congress passed the FISA Amendment Act that gave government agencies, such as the NSA, unfettered access to private communications of foreigners. Section 702 of the FISA Amendment Act allows for government agencies to collect information from private companies like AT&T, Google, and Facebook to target non- U.S. citizens. In some instances, this permission includes communications between a non-citizen and a U.S. citizen. The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

has been known to use these databases to search for information on U.S. citizens in a process called “backdoor searches”.

References

{{reflist Violence Human rights abuses