• POST-CONFLICT: A Strategy for Peace, Security and Development in Post-Agreement Sudan • SMALL ARMS: Securing Haiti’s Transition: Reviewing Human Insecurity and the Prospects for DDR • DISPLACEMENT: IDPs in Colombia: A Joint Needs Assessment • CHILD SOLDIERS: Youth, Poverty and Blood: The Lethal Legacy of West Africa’s Regional Warriors • CHILDREN: Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in Armed Conflict • INTERNATIONAL LAW: Interim Report on the Special Court for Sierra Leone • PEACE OPERATIONS: The CPA's Experience with Public Security in Iraq: Lessons Learned • TERRORISM: Chronology of Significant International Terrorism 2004 • GOVERNANCE: Afghanistan: Reconstituting a Collapsed State • PEACEMAKING: Shock Therapy for Northern Uganda's Peace Process POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION Designing an Integrated Strategy for Peace, Security and Development in Post-Agreement Sudan Clingendael Conflict Research Unit Fifteen years after the forcible seizure of power by the National Islamic Front, the Sudan is at a crossroads: the 21-year-long conflict in South Sudan has been nominally brought to and end, but unremitting and extreme violence in the western region of Darfur and lingering tensions in the central and eastern parts of the country cast shadows over the misnamed "Comprehensive Peace Agreement" (CPA) signed in Nairobi on January 9, 2005 and also the Naivasha Agreement. This paper was drafted within this highly fluid and uncertain context to synthesize the Sudan's key problems in the fields of governance, security and development; and to outline potential policy interventions to build a genuinely comprehensive and sustainable peace in Africa's largest country. Continue Reading More on Sudan and Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS Securing Haiti’s Transition: Reviewing Human Insecurity and the Prospects for Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Small Arms Survey This report provides a general overview of the human security crisis facing Haiti. Commissioned by the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAE), the findings are illustrative and focus primarily on the consequences of escalating armed violence on civilians, the distribution and dynamics of armed gangs and the arms trade in Haiti, and the comparatively recent experiences of DDR and security sector reform (SSR). By emphasizing the scale and magnitude of arms availability and misuse in the country and the attendant difficulties of undertaking conventional humanitarian and development assistance, this report calls for a concerted focus on DDR and SSR to secure Haiti’s transition. Continue reading More on Haiti and Small Arms, Light Weapons and Landmines DISPLACEMENT IDPs in Colombia: A Joint Needs Assessment by the ICRC and the World Food Programme International Committee of the Red Cross // World Food Programme Forty years of conflict in Colombia and growing economic difficulties have led to a serious deterioration in the basic living conditions of several sectors of the population, in particular those affected by the conflict (internally displaced people and host communities). According to various estimates, between 1.8 and 3 million Colombians have been displaced since 1985, making them the third largest internally displaced population in the world. As the majority of the displaced cannot return to their place of origin, located in conflict-prone areas, they tend to flock to the poverty belts around the major towns and cities. There, they often face considerable difficulties when adapting to urban environments. Exposure to crime, lack of stable income, insecure housing, lack of access to health and education services, and poor sanitation are all factors that make displaced households increasingly vulnerable to food and livelihood insecurity. This joint report by the ICRC and the World Food Programme assesses their situation Continue reading More on Colombia and Refugees and Internally Displaced People CHILD SOLDIERS Youth, Poverty and Blood: The Lethal Legacy of West Africa’s Regional Warriors Human Rights Watch Thousands of young men and boys, many of whom have committed atrocities while fighting in West Africa’s brutal civil wars, face re-recruitment into the region’s emerging conflicts, Human Rights Watch said in this report. International efforts to disarm these fighters must provide them with alternatives to war. Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea, two countries marked by growing political instability, are the current theaters into which these young fighters are being drawn, according to Human Rights Watch. Based on interviews with some 60 former fighters who have crossed borders to fight in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea, the report explores the forces driving the phenomenon of cross-border mercenary activity in West Africa. Continue reading More on West Africa and Children and Armed Conflict CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT Forgotten Casualties of War: Girls in Armed Conflict Save the Children Conflict strikes at the heart of childhood. Not only are children at the epicentre of instability during and after conflict, they are often used as pawns – or even weapons of war. The appalling abuses of children’s rights during conflict demands action. This report highlights an aspect of conflict that has rarely been exposed before. Around the world, there are up to 120,000 girls, some as young as eight, who have been forced to become front-line fighters, or are otherwise supporting armed groups.. Continue reading More on Children and Armed Conflict INTERNATIONAL LAW Interim Report on the Special Court for Sierra Leone War Crimes Studies Center // University of California, Berkeley An international criminal tribunal in Sierra Leone, where trials are underway for atrocities committed there during the 1991-2000 civil war, is successfully engaging Sierra Leoneans in the process, but the court must make greater efforts to expedite the trials and make use of the court's novel Defense Office, according to a report issued today (May 5) by the War Crimes Studies Center at the University of California, Berkeley. The Special Court for Sierra Leone is being closely watched by non-government organizations (NGOs), including human rights groups, because it is both structured differently from the war crimes courts for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia and housed in the West African country where the conflict occurred. The 41-page report from the UC Berkeley center is the first to substantially assess the court's progress to date. Continue reading More on Sierra Leone and International Law, Justice and Accountability PEACE OPERATIONS The Coalition Provisional Authority's Experience with Public Security in Iraq: Lessons Learned United States Insitute of Peace Important lessons for future U.S. peace and stability operations can be found in the civil upheaval that occurred in Iraq following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. These include lessons pertaining to public order, street crime, border control, and police recruitment, training, and combat. Large-scale breakdowns in public order should be anticipated in the aftermath of international interventions, particularly in societies emerging from brutal oppression. However, U.S. military forces are neither trained nor equipped to control civil disorder or perform police functions, and local police and security forces are generally either unavailable or unable to deal with civilian violence and lawlessness. Therefore, without adequate planning, personnel, and procedures, critical law enforcement needs will not be met, endangering the success of the mission. Continue reading More on Iraq and Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction TERRORISM Chronology of Significant International Terrorism 2004 National Counterterrorism Center The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) orignially compiled this chronology of significant, international terrorist incidents in support of the Department of State's publication "Patterns of Global Terrorism." The Department has decided to submit a new report, "Country Reports on Terrorism," in fulfillment of its reporting mandate. As the newly created "knowledge bank" of the U.S. Government on international terrorism, the NCTC is providing this original chronology for the American public. An incident was included if it was premeditated; perpetrated by a subnational or clandestine agent; politically motivated, potentially including religious, philosophical, or culturally symbolic motivations; violent; and perpetrated against a noncombatant target. Ordinary criminal activity, genocidal events, and tribal violence were excluded to the greatest extent that they could be distinguished from terrorist attacks, were also excluded. Continue reading More on Terrorism GOVERNANCE Afghanistan: Reconstituting a Collapsed State Strategic Studies Institute // U.S. Army War College Lieutenant Colonel Raymond A. Millen examines warlordism as the principal impediment to Afghanistan’s revival and offers a shift in strategy that addresses the war of ideas, the counternarcotics initiative, and the incorporation of the Afghan National Army into the provincial reconstruction teams. As Millen observes, all the resources are in place; they simply need a shift in focus. Millen takes into account the historical, cultural, and economic factors that impede central authority and the eforms needed for modern states. His problem-solving approach is insightful, pragmatic, and innovative. Continue reading More on Afghanistan and Governance and Security CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND PEACEMAKING Shock Therapy for Northern Uganda's Peace Process Crisis Group The peace process aimed at ending the eighteen-year old conflict in Northern Uganda is in critical condition, with neither the Ugandan government nor the insurgent Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) appearing fully committed to a negotiated solution. The LRA leadership is reorganising for intensified conflict and has launched an aggressive campaign of abductions and mutilations of civilians. Kampala appears to be losing patience with mediation efforts, refocusing instead on a military solution. If the process is to be rescued, Ugandan government mediator Betty Bigombe needs to replace the government's ceasefire-first approach with a deal that includes appropriate security guarantees for LRA leader Joseph Kony and his commanders, and a peace dividend to help rebuild war-ravaged communities. If such a proposal is to be credible, however, it will require increased support from the European troika of Norway, the UK and the Netherlands and a more engaged United States. Continue reading More on Uganda and Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking Compiled by Robert Hartfiel Human Security Research is produced by the Human Security Centre at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC. The Human Security Centre produces the annual Human Security Report and is funded by the governments of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. For more information on human security visit the Human Security Gateway, an online research and information database that contains a broad range of human security-related resources. To subscribe to Human Security Research , send an email to hsc.list@ubc.ca with 'subscribe HS Research' in the subject field or click here. To unsubscribe, please reply to this message with 'unsubscribe HS Research' in the subject heading. |
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