• RESOURCES:From Resource War to "Violent Peace": Transition in the DRC • INT'L LAW: Out of Bounds? Considering the Reach of International Human Rights Law • DEVELOPMENT: Economic Equality and Victory in War: An Empirical Investigation • PEACE OPERATIONS: The UN Operation in Burundi: Political and Strategic Lessons Learned • DISPLACEMENT: Forced Displacement in Africa: Dimensions, Difficulties and Policy Directions • POST-CONFLICT: Bridging the Gap Between State and Society: New Directions • CONFLICT PREVENTION: Iraq and the Kurds: The Brewing Battle over Kirkuk • HUMAN RIGHTS: Unrestrained Powers: Torture by Algeria’s Military Security • GOVERNANCE: Violent Dissent and Rebellion in Africa • TERRORISM: Harmony and Disharmony: Exploiting Al-Qa'ida's Organizational Vulnerabilities • HEALTH: Establishing Human Resource Systems for Health during Postconflict Reconstruction • CONFLICT RESOLUTION: The United Nations and Western Sahara: A Never-ending Affair RESOURCES AND CONFLICT From Resource War to "Violent Peace": Transition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Bonn International Center for Conversion The war in the DRC that raged from 1998 until 2002 has been decisively influenced by its war economy. Based on the exploitation of the abundant natural resources of the country, the war economy provided huge spoils to war elites and also resulted in a deep restructuring of Congolese society. Ever since the formal end of the war in December 2002, the situation in the DRC remains fragile: political transition is threatened by endemic violence in the eastern provinces and instability across the country, economic recovery is hampered by large-scale corruption, and the living conditions of the Congolese people are disastrous in vast parts of the country. Although war economies have attracted significant attention in the last decade, their impact on complex and fragile post-conflict situations is still not sufficiently researched. This also applies to the DRC. Accordingly, questions and controversies over the 'right remedies' for promoting political, economic and social recovery in the DRC persist among political practitioners and experts. Continue Reading More on Natural Resources and Armed Conflict INTERNATIONAL LAW, JUSTICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY Out of Bounds? Considering the Reach of International Human Rights Law New York University School of Law // Center for Human Rights and Global Justice The notion that international law took cognizance of and regulated a state’s conduct on the territory of other states and toward foreign nationals was established long before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. It is therefore somewhat ironic that a great controversy has erupted in recent years as to whether the norms of human rights law may be applied to a state’s extraterritorial conduct. This article critically examines existing jurisprudence on the extraterritorial application of human rights law, indicates obstacles to the development of a coherent jurisprudence, and proposes a framework for understanding the issue that would enable the development of such a jurisprudence. The analysis will be structured around three parameters, corresponding to three dimensions of the scope of human rights obligations: the scope of beneficiaries, the range of rights applicable, and the level of obligation. Employing this framework brings a degree of order to existing jurisprudence and makes it easier to see how the piecemeal approach of human rights bodies has led to inconsistent standards. The analysis ultimately demonstrates that international jurisprudence has yet to produce clear criteria for establishing when extraterritorial application is triggered or clear parameters for determining the scope of a state’s human rights obligations when it acts abroad. Continue reading More on International Law, Justice and Accountability DEVELOPMENT Economic Equality and Victory in War: An Empirical Investigation University of Texas at Austin // Inequality Project This paper tests a simple hypothesis: that given the occurrence of war between two countries, the country that is more egalitarian at the moment of military decision is likely to emerge the victor. First, we examine cases where comparative economic inequality can be measured directly, using the nearly comprehensive global data-sets of the University of Texas Inequality Project for the years 1963-1999. Second, we examine cases where reasonable inferences about comparative economic inequality may be drawn by analogy to UTIP measurements or from other political and economic evidence, including both bi-national wars and larger wars where there existed clear pair-wise fronts. Third, we discuss selected cases where inferences may be drawn from literary or historical sources. We find, all in all, that the evidence for an egalitarian victory proposition is remarkably strong. Continue reading More on Development and Security PEACE OPERATIONS The United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB) - Political and Strategic Lessons Learned United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations // Peacekeeping Best Practices Unit Following more than a decade of war, Burundi’s tentative return to peace and democracy, with elections in 2005, is the outcome of a sustained process in which domestic, regional and international/multilateral actors were called upon to interact in complex and complementary ways. This paper extracts lessons from the ONUB’s (the UN Operation in Burundi) experience during the peace process and transition in engaging with domestic and regional actors at the political and strategic level. Since in more and more contexts of peace operations and peacebuilding the UN is unlikely to find itself the sole, or even the lead actor, the paper’s hypothesis is that the system must thus learn better to identify what role it can most productively assume alongside other powerful players. The paper begins with a discussion of the dynamics of Burundi’s crisis and peace process. It continues with a discussion of ONUB’s impact at the political and strategic level, assessed through: ONUB’s mandate; the role ONUB played with regard to Burundian political parties and armed groups in the closing stages of the transition; and its performance in electoral organisation, the security sector, conduct of UN staff and troops, the mission’s internal capacity for strategic analysis, and in mission integration. It concludes with some brief lessons for future peace operations. Continue reading More on Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction DISPLACEMENT Forced Displacement in Africa: Dimensions, Difficulties and Policy Directions United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The large-scale displacement of people has become a defining characteristic of sub- Saharan Africa. During the past four decades, millions of people throughout the continent have been obliged to abandon their homes and to seek safety elsewhere, often losing the few assets they possessed and suffering great hardship in the process. Even in their places where they have taken refuge, the continent’s displaced people have often been confronted with serious threats to their welfare and restrictions on their rights. For many, moreover, displacement has proven to be a protracted experience, lasting for years and even decades on end. The first part of this paper examines the changing scope, scale and dynamics of the problem of human displacement in Africa, drawing on statistical data gathered by UNHCR and other organizations. The article then goes on to analyze a number of policy challenges related to this issue: the principle and practice of asylum; insecurity in refugee-populated areas; protracted refugee situations; the return and reintegration of displaced people; and the protection of people who have been displaced within their own country. The paper focuses on mass displacement and does not examine the movement of individual refugees, asylum seekers and migrants towards the Mahgreb states and South Africa. Continue reading More on Refugees and Internally Displaced People POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION Bridging the Gap Between State and Society: New Directions for the Solomon Islands Oxfam New Zealand // Oxfam Australia In April 2006, Solomon Islanders went to the polls to elect a new government. But the riots that rocked the capital Honiara after the selection of a new Prime Minister are a sharp reminder of the challenges still facing the country. Overseas donors have made a significant commitment to rebuilding Solomon Islands after years of conflict between 1998 and 2003. The first phase of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), a deployment of police and military forces in July 2003, saw a welcome and rapid improvement in law and order on the streets of Honiara, and the removal of many guns from the community. As the third anniversary of the RAMSI intervention approaches, Solomon Islanders within and outside the public service and political establishment need greater engagement with, and ownership of, the process of redeveloping the Solomon Islands. The report includes four sections: Part 1 presents community perspectives on the many ways that state building is failing to address the immediate concerns of people. Part 2 looks at the central focus of RAMSI’s activity as a state building exercise. Part 3 outlines opportunities, arising from the recent national elections, for a review of relationships between outside donors, the Solomon Islands Government, and church, community and customary authorities engaged in development activities. Part 4 outlines recommendations for debate and action. Continue reading More on Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction CONFLICT PREVENTION Iraq and the Kurds: The Brewing Battle over Kirkuk Crisis Group As all eyes are turned toward efforts to stabilise Iraq, the conflict that has been percolating in Kirkuk remains dangerous and dangerously neglected. That struggle is equal parts street brawl over oil riches, ethnic competition over identity between Kurdish, Turkoman, Arab and Assyrian-Chaldean communities, and titanic clash between two nations, Arab and Kurd. The Kurds’ rising power has allowed them to create institutional faits accomplis that now threaten to bring the Kirkuk conflict to a vigorous boil. Their prominent role in drafting the constitution in 2005 enabled them to insert a paragraph that ordains a government-led de-Arabisation program in Kirkuk, to be followed by a census and local referendum by the end of 2007. However, while the constitution puts them formally in the right, neither any of Kirkuk’s other communities, significant parts of the central government nor any neighbouring state supports these procedures. Turkey, in particular, has indicated it will not tolerate Kirkuk’s formal absorption into the Kurdish region, and it has various means of coercive diplomacy at its disposal, including last-resort military intervention, to block the Kurds’ ambitions. Within a year, therefore, Kurds will face a basic choice: to press ahead with the constitutional mechanisms over everyone’s resistance and risk violent conflict, or take a step back and seek a negotiated solution. Given the high stakes, the international community cannot afford to stand by, allowing the situation to slip into chaos by default. It needs to step in and propose a solution that addresses all sides’ core concerns without crossing their existential red lines. Continue reading More on Conflict Prevention HUMAN RIGHTS Unrestrained Powers: Torture by Algeria’s Military Security Amnesty International The Algerian authorities have been engaged in counter-terrorism measures for well over a decade and during the 1990s were widely criticized for human rights violations committed in the name of counter-terrorism. Recently, however, Algeria has become a prime ally of the USA and other governments involved in the "war on terror". Although the level of serious human rights abuses in Algeria has decreased compared to the 1990s, it is precisely in the context of counter-terrorism measures that serious human rights violations continue to be reported. Over the past few years, Amnesty International has looked in detail at the issue of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. While there has been a decrease in reports of torture and other ill-treatment in the custody of police and gendarmerie, torture and other ill-treatment continue to be used systematically by the "Military Security" (or DRS), an intelligence agency which specializes in interrogating individuals who are believed to have information about terrorist activities. This report describes Amnesty International’s findings concerning persistent torture and other ill-treatment by the DRS in terrorism-related cases. Continue reading More on Human Rights GOVERNANCE Violent Dissent and Rebellion in Africa University of Nottingham This article analyzes how the selection process for the executive affects the risk of rebellion and insurgencies in sub-Saharan Africa between 1971 and 1995. Four executive recruitment processes are distinguished, which are characteristic for the African context: (1) a process without elections, (2) single candidate elections, (3) single party, multiple candidate elections, and (4) multiparty executive elections. The results suggest that single candidate elections and multiparty elections substantially reduce the risk of insurgencies compared to systems without any kind of executive elections. They further show that during times of political instability the risk of large-scale violent dissent increases substantially. The article supports findings of the civil war literature that higher levels of income are associated with a lower risk of intrastate violence, while oil-exporting countries are at a higher risk of rebellion. In short, this article further strengthens the need to use more specific measures of elements of political regimes, which also take into account regional particularities, in order to paint a more informative picture of how political structures influence the risk of internal violence. Continue reading More on Governance and Security TERRORISM Harmony and Disharmony: Exploiting Al-Qa'ida's Organizational Vulnerabilities West Point Military Academy // Combating Terrorism Center The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point is pleased to present this report, “Harmony and Disharmony: Exploiting Al-Qa’ida’s Organizational Vulnerabilities.” Based on a collection of al-Qa’ida documents that have recently been released from the Department of Defense’s Harmony Database, this report provides an analysis of al-Qa’ida’s organizational vulnerabilities. These documents, captured in the course of operations supporting the GWOT, have never before been made available to the academic and policy community. “Harmony and Disharmony” includes a theoretically informed analysis of potential opportunities to exploit al-Qa’ida’s network vulnerabilities, a case study of jihadi operational failure, and specific recommendations for effectively addressing the evolving al-Qa’ida threat. We have provided brief summaries of each of the released documents, and the full texts of the released documents can be accessed via hyperlinks within the report, both in their original Arabic and in English. We hope that this report will provide a useful resource in our collective efforts to better understand and combat al-Qa’ida and its affiliated movements. Continue reading More on Terrorism HEALTH Establishing Human Resource Systems for Health during Postconflict Reconstruction Management Sciences for Health Restoring health services is an essential component of any major nation rebuilding that follows prolonged periods of conflict. Providing appropriate and good quality health services to the population reduces morbidity and mortality. This is an important goal in itself, but the delivery of health services also provides an important entry point for engagement between the government and civil society. Efforts to rebuild health services take place during periods of complex emergency, since conflict generally continues in pockets after any officially declared end to hostilities. Postconflict countries generally take a development approach to reforming their health sector. With this approach, the future role of the ministry of health (MOH) is one of the most important early policy decisions. Newly formed ministries of health are faced with a major decision. Will they revert to their former, preconflict service delivery model, maintaining their role as a service provider? Or will they adopt a new role, as a steward of the whole health system that contracts out service delivery, taking on the role that has evolved internationally and one that the donor agencies strongly support? Continue reading More on Health and Security CONFLICT RESOLUTION The United Nations and Western Sahara: A Never-ending Affair United States Institute of Peace This study examines the efforts of the United Nations (UN) to resolve the dispute over Western Sahara from August 1988, when Secretary-general Perez de Cuellar submitted the settlement proposals to the two parties—the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario—until June 2004, when James A. Baker III, the secretary-general's personal envoy on Western Sahara, resigned. Over the past 15 years both the Security Council and the Secretariat have oscillated between implementation of the settlement plan with its two stark choices -- integration with Morocco or independence -- or finding a political solution asking for compromises from both sides. This has not only hindered the efforts of the mediator, it also sent conflicting signals to the parties as to what the UN was trying to achieve. The Security Council and the Secretariat should have clear expectations as to the outcome of a dispute and should not send conflicting messages to the parties. The parties will only exploit such situations and play the Security Council and the Secretariat off against each other. The Security Council must support the efforts of a mediator without equivocation. It should not expect the mediator to achieve miracles when given vague and ill-defined mandates. Continue reading More on 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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