Security wall

United States-Mexico Border Wall

A security wall is known as the division of a geographic space by means of a material construction, exercising some type of control over the things or people that cross that division. The objective that is generally declared is to maintain the security of one of the two new spaces generated. The practice of erecting these walls as control barriers has aroused strong criticism among those affected and detractors, who often call these facilities Wall of Shame.

Walls in history

Great Wall China

Since ancient times, ramparts and walls were built mainly to stop the passage of armed invading groups or armies. Examples of this would be the Great Wall of China or Hadrian's Wall. However, with the evolution of military technology, defensive walls became sophisticated constructions and in some cases offered defense very effectively. The best example is the set of walls that surrounded the city of Constantinople, built in 412 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This fortification had a length of 6.5 kilometers, with a triple line of parapets and would be known as the Theodosian Wall. This set of walls remained impregnable for ten centuries and withstood numerous assaults, until 1453, when the Ottomans finally succeeded. The combination of a small defending force and new advances in military technology (the powder cannons that accompanied the Ottoman army) caused the fall of the city. The last defensive wall that was part of a military confrontation was the Danevirke on the German-Danish border, in the south of the Jutland peninsula, during the War of the Duchies of 1864, but without any success.

The later invention of military airplanes, long-range artillery, and missiles made defensive walls totally useless from a military point of view, as evidenced by the Siegfried and Maginot lines during World War II.

Since then, modern walls have been built to prevent or hinder the passage of civilians and not of armies organized in battle or to consecrate the annexation of territories over borders not recognized by the international community. It is argued^{[citation needed]} that civilians suffer a feeling of shameful powerlessness when they are isolated and segregated from their families and communities mainly for economic, ideological and religious reasons. The builders and their sympathizers never officially accept this qualifier and neither do they cause any kind of psychological damage, much less embarrassment; instead, they often justify them by citing security reasons.

Wall of Shame

Berlin Wall

The term Wall of Shame is the nickname with which its detractors have baptized various border walls built in the 20th and 21st centuries. The term is used variously, with widely varying degrees of acceptance, to shame its builders or to describe the shame suffered by those affected by the erection of the wall.

The name was first used in 1961 after the construction of the wall separating West Berlin from East Berlin by the government of the then German Democratic Republic. Named for this "Anti-Fascist Protection Wall", Berliners called it Schandmauer which literally means Wall of Shame [1] (broken link available at Internet Archive; see history, the first version and the last one).. This wall, commonly known as the Berlin Wall, was also called the Wall of Shame outside of Germany in an article that appeared on the cover of the American Time Magazine in 1962 [2]. Shortly thereafter, US President John F. Kennedy explicitly referred to the wall as the "Wall of Shame" in his annual address to the US Congress on January 14, 1963 [3]. References to this wall as "Wall of Shame" have also been made by other leaders such as Mário Soares [4] (broken link available at Internet Archive; see history, first and last version)., Jacques Chirac [5] or Romano Prodi [6].

The West Bank wall is also called the "Wall of Shame" or "New wall of shame" in analogy to the Berlin Wall for similar implications.

Current barriers

Name	Countries	Built	Length	Type
Border wall Argentina - Paraguay	Argentina Paraguay	2015	1.3 km	Internal Barrier / Anti-Immigration / Contraband
Baghdad Wall	Iraq	Construction	5 km	Civil peace
Peace walls	United Kingdom (North Ireland)	1970	0,500 km (average)	Civil peace
Verja de Gibraltar	United Kingdom (Gibraltar) Spain	1908	1.2 km	Internal bar
Botswana/Zimbabue	Botswana Zimbabwe	2003	500 km	Anti-Immigration
Brunei/Limbag	Brunéi	2005	20 km	Anti-Immigration
Valla de Ceuta	Spain Morocco	2001	8 km	Anti-Immigration
China/Hong Kong	China Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region) (China)	1960	32 km	Internal Barrier / Anti-Immigration
China/Macao	China Macau (Special Administrative Region) (China)		0.340 km	Internal Barrier / Anti-Immigration
China/North Korea	China North Korea	2006	1416 km	Anti-Immigration
Malaysia/Thailand	Thailand Malaysia	Project	650 km	Anti-terrorism
Valla de Melilla	Spain Morocco	1998	11 km	Anti-Immigration
Barrera Indo-Bangladeshí	India Bangladés	Construction	3268 km	Anti-Immigration
Barrera Indo-Birmana	India Burma	Construction	1624 km	Anti-Drug Control/ Anti-Terrorism
Barrera Indo-Kachemir	India	2004	550 km	Anti-terrorism (disputed territory)
Barrera Iran-Pakistan	Iran Pakistan	Construction	700 km	Contrabando Antidrogas
Barrera Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan	Kazakhstan Uzbekistan	2006	45 km	Contrabando Antidrogas
Korean wall	North Korea South Korea	1953	248 km	Zone of conflict
Kruger National Park	South Africa Mozambique	1975	120 km	Anti-Immigration
Barrera Kuwait-Irak	Kuwait Iraq	1991	193 km	Zone of conflict
Pakistan/Afghanistan	Pakistan Afghanistan	Proposal	2400 km	Anti-terrorism
Russia/Chechnya	Russia	Project	700 km	Anti-terrorism (disputed territory)
Barrera Saudi-Yemen	Saudi Arabia Yemen	2004	75 km	Anti-Immigration
Sharm el-Sheij	Egypt	2005	20 km	Anti-terrorism
Barrera Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan	Turkmenistan Uzbekistan	2001	1700 km	Anti-Immigration
Barrera United Arab Emirates-Oman	United Arab Emirates Oman	Construction	410 km	Anti-Immigration
United Nations Security Zone in Cyprus	Cyprus	1974	300 km	Zone of conflict
Border wall United States - Mexico	United States Mexico	Construction	3360 km	Anti-Immigration / Anti-Drug Control
Barrera Uzbekistan-Afghanistan	Uzbekistan Afghanistan	2001	209 km	Anti-Immigration
Barrera Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan	Uzbekistan Kyrgyzstan	1999	870 km	Zone of conflict
Muro Via Anelli	Italy	2006	85 m	Internal bar
Israeli Barrier of the West Bank	Israel Palestine	Construction	703 km	Anti-terrorism (disputed territory)
Security Wall Egypt-Franja Gaza	Egypt Palestine	Construction	700km	Apartheid
Moroccan wall	Western Sahara Morocco	1987	2700 km	Conflict zone (disputed territory)