• CRIMINAL VIOLENCE: Narcotics and Armed Conflict: Interaction and Implications • HUMAN RIGHTS: Central African Republic: The Victims of International Crimes • DISPLACEMENT: The Role of Returning Displaced Persons in Post-Conflict States • INTERNATIONAL LAW: Situation in Darfur: Application for the Issuance of Summonses • GOVERNANCE: State Failure Revisited: Globalization of Security and Neighborhood Effects • SMALL ARMS: Violence and Victimization in South Sudan: Lakes State in the Post-CPA Period • POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION: The Beginner’s Guide to Nation-Building • RESOURCES: Mining, Dams and Deforestation in Shwegyin Township, Pegu Division, Burma • HUMAN RIGHTS: State Responsibilities to Regulate and Adjudicate Corporate Activities • ARMED CONFLICT: Countering the Insurgency in Afghanistan: Losing Friends and Making Enemies • PEACE OPERATIONS: On Mount Olympus: How the UN Violated Human Rights in Bosnia • DISPLACEMENT: Burma: The Changing Nature of Displacement Crises CRIMINAL VIOLENCE Narcotics and Armed Conflict: Interaction and Implications Studies in Conflict and Terrorism The link between armed conflict and the production and trafficking of illicit drugs has been much noted in the popular literature, and recent research tentatively indicates a link between lootable resources, including narcotics, and conflict duration. Yet the specific dynamics of the linkage between narcotics and conflict remain poorly understood. Evolving theory on the link between organized crime and terrorism enhances and supplements the debate on economic incentives in civil war, proposing mechanisms whereby insurgent groups interact with narcotics production—a crime–rebellion nexus. Studies of nine major narcotics-producing areas indicates strong support for this nexus. Rather than generating or being generated by drug cultivation, armed conflict qualitatively and quantitatively transforms existing drug cultivation. Importantly, armed conflict is itself deeply affected by the narcotics industry, which tends to strengthen the capacity of insurgent movements while weakening that of the state. A momentous aspect of the crime–rebellion nexus is the effect that the drug industry tends to have on the motivational structures of insurgent groups: criminal involvement in some instances creates an economic function of war and vested interests in the continuation of armed conflict. Continue Reading More on Criminal Violence HUMAN RIGHTS Forgotten, Stigmatised: The Double Suffering of Victims of International Crimes International Federation for Human Rights The report presents the current conflict in northern CAR, pitting several rebel groups against President Bozizé, and how this sub-regional conflict relates to the tensions between Chad and Sudan. FIDH gives an account of the rebel attacks, retaliation by the government forces, and the international crimes committed by the warring parties against the civilian population. It also demonstrates that the majority of those allegedly responsible for crimes committed in 2002/2003 during the coup attempt of General Bozize, are behind the resurgence of the conflict; a convincing demonstration of the devastating effects of impunity. Continue reading More on Human Rights CHILDREN Their Future in Our Hands: Children Displaced by Conflicts in Africa's Great Lakes Region World Vision Africa’s Great Lakes Region has suffered recurring armed conflicts, ripping communities apart, uprooting children and their families and throwing them into strange places both within and outside their national borders. The displacement crisis in the region is a formidable humanitarian challenge. This study examines the hopeless, but reversible, horrible circumstances in which displaced children live in Kiyange IDP’s Site (Burundi), IDP’s camps in Oicha and Eringeti areas (DR Congo), Coope and Pagak IDP’s camps (Uganda), Gihembe Refugee Camp (Rwanda) and Lugufu 1 and Lugufu 11 refugee camps (Tanzania). Emphasis, in the course of this study, was placed on understanding key issues surrounding various aspects of life of displaced children, such as health, education, food and nutrition. Issues such as child labour, conscription into armed groups, psychosocial problems and the nature and prevalence of child sexual abuse are also addressed. In addition to examining whether efforts to address the needs of displaced children contribute towards preventing conflict, the study also highlights examples of positive initiatives undertaken in various camps. Lessons and recommendations have been drawn from the findings. Continue reading More on Children and Armed Conflict INTERNATIONAL LAW Situation in Darfur, The Sudan: The Prosecutor's Application for the Issuance of Summonses International Criminal Court Based on evidence collected during the last 20 months, the International Criminal Court has concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe that Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb bear criminal responsibility in relation to 51 counts of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes. The evidence shows they acted together, and with others, with the common purpose of carrying out attacks against the civilian populations. The crimes were allegedly committed during attacks on the villages and towns of Kodoom, Bindisi, Mukjar, and Arawala in West Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004. The attacks carried out on towns and villages in Darfur did not target any rebel presence. Rather, they targeted civilian residents based on the rationale that they were supporters of the rebel forces. The evidence shows that on several occasions Ahmad Harun incited the Militia/Janjaweed to carry out such attacks. Ali Kushayb, an “Aqid al Oqada” (“colonel of colonels”) in West Darfur, issued orders to Militia/Janjaweed and armed forces to victimise the civilian populations through mass rape and other sexual offences, killings, torture, inhumane acts, pillaging and looting of residences and marketplaces, the displacement of the resident community and other alleged criminal acts. Continue reading More on International Law, Justice and Accountability GOVERNANCE State Failure Revisited I: Globalization of Security and Neighborhood Effects Institute for Development and Peace After September 11, fragile Statehood has become a crucial topic within the mainstream security discourse. Failing states are presented as “black holes” of global politics. The new INEF Report analyses the problem from a differerent angle. Pinar Bilgin and Adam Morton argue that state failure is not an ‘out there’ phenomenon. In contrast, they lay out the contours of an alternative framework that is attentive to the conditions of uneven development of accumulation patterns and the importation of ‘Western’ models of sovereign territoriality in non Western locales. The regional impact of state failure has so far only received scant attention. Daniel Lambach develops a basic model to understand the transnational interaction between national processes of failure and consolidation in neighbouring states and applies this model to West Africa. In spring, a companion piece to this study – “State Failure Revisited II” – will be published and deal with the role of private actors of violence. Continue reading More on Governance and Security SMALL ARMS Violence and Victimization in South Sudan: Lakes State in the Post-CPA Period Small Army Survey Two years have passed since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ended the second North–South Sudanese civil war, yet no quantitative assessment of safety and security has been undertaken in South Sudan. Understanding of the role played by small arms and light weapons in insecurity is similarly limited. Measuring changes in the security of communities in South Sudan is essential to evaluating the impacts and consequences of the CPA. The Lakes State Homestead Survey on Safety and Security is the largest known household survey ever conducted in South Sudan. It reveals that while there have been real gains since the signing of the CPA, violent victimization remains pervasive. It also shows that small arms and light weapons, which are widely kept by civilians, are the primary vector of injury and insecurity. These findings provide the first baseline information against which future evaluations of human security in South Sudan can be measured. Continue reading More on Small Arms, Light Weapons and Landmines POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION The Beginner’s Guide to Nation-Building RAND Corporation Since the end of the Cold War, the United States, NATO, the United Nations, and a range of other states and nongovernmental organizations have become increasingly involved in nation-building operations. Nation-building involves the use of armed force as part of a broader effort to promote political and economic reforms, with the objective of transforming a society emerging from conflict into one at peace with itself and its neighbors. This guidebook is a practical “how-to” manual on the conduct of effective nation-building. It is organized around the constituent elements that make up any nation-building mission: military, police, rule of law, humanitarian relief, governance, economic stabilization, democratization, and development. The chapters describe how each of these components should be organized and employed, how much of each is likely to be needed, and the likely cost. The lessons are drawn principally from 16 U.S.- and UN-led nation-building operations since World War II and from a forthcoming study on European-led missions. In short, this guidebook presents a comprehensive history of best practices in nation-building and serves as an indispensable reference for the preplanning of future interventions and for contingency planning on the ground. Continue reading More on Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction RESOURCES Turning Treasure into Tears: Mining, Dams and Deforestation in Shwegyin Township, Pegu Division, Burma Earthrights International This report addresses the environmental and human rights situation faced by villagers and migrant workers in Shwegyin township of Nyaunglebin District, Pegu Division, Burma. Specifically, it examines the area around the Shwegyin and Mawtama Rivers where the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and its business partners are engaged in building a dam, mining for gold, and logging the forests. The Burmese Army has heavily militarized the area in order to guarantee security over the land, people, and these lucrative projects. As a result of this militarization, the military has demanded money, labor, and materials from local villagers. The Army has also confiscated civilian land to use for Army camps and commercial farming. These practices violate customary and conventional international law. Continue reading More on Natural Resources and Armed Conflict HUMAN RIGHTS State Responsibilities to Regulate and Adjudicate Corporate Activities under the United Nations’ Core Human Rights Treaties Harvard University This report contains a summary of key findings and examples from a series of detailed studies on each United Nations treaty body, prepared on behalf of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. The research maps States’ obligations to regulate and adjudicate corporate activities under the United Nations’ core human rights treaties. This summary and overview outlines the overall trends appearing from treaty-specific reports, and makes preliminary observations as to how the treaty-based human rights machinery may be applied to further strengthen human rights protection and promotion in the context of corporate activity. Continue reading More on Human Rights ARMED CONFLICT Countering the Insurgency in Afghanistan: Losing Friends and Making Enemies Senlis Council With a rapid rise in violent insurgency, southern Afghanistan is at tipping point, and the international community’s counter-insurgency strategy is in urgent need of reassessment. The general Afghan population is feeling increasingly alienated from and hostile to the international community. The practice of counter-insurgency in Afghanistan has so far predominantly focused on military instruments to fight against the insurgency. By doing this, it has wrongfully left out all the non-military elements that form part of counter-insurgency strategy – for example, humanitarian aid, economic development, establishing health care and developing the education system. What Afghans in the south see instead in their daily lives are the military bombing campaigns, where bombs do not distinguish between innocent civilians and insurgents. What is required is a frank reassessment of the realities of the current insurgency dynamic, the declining credibility of the international community and an acknowledgement of the legitimate grievances of the Afghan people. If properly applied, the non-military elements of classic counter-insurgency practice would immediately improve security and create more support for the Karzai government. Continue reading More on Armed Conflict PEACE OPERATIONS On Mount Olympus: How the UN Violated Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Why Nothing Has Been Done to Correct It European Stability Initiative Between 1996 and 2002, UNMIBH ran a large police mission in Bosnia, the International Police Task Force (IPTF). One of the tasks it set itself was to rid the Bosnian police forces of inappropriate personnel through an exhaustive vetting procedure. Altogether, the UN assessed some 18,000 police officers and declared 793 unfit to exercise police powers. These individuals were banned from serving as police for life – a very severe sanction. Yet the UN failed to offer the most basic procedural safeguards, which the UN Secretary-General himself has noted is the difference between legitimate vetting and “wholesale purges”. That mistakes were made in completing such a complex task is hardly a scandal. What is alarming, however, is that once the flaws in the process had become apparent, the UN and other international institutions in Bosnia refused either to remedy them, or to allow Bosnians institutions to do so. The entrenchment of the Balkan protectorates revives a question: to whom are international missions accountable and what happens when they make mistakes and violate rights of citizens in the territories they govern? International administrations charged with promoting democracy, human rights and the rule of law in postconflict societies cannot operate by lesser standards. If they disregard basic legal principles, they undermine their own legitimacy, undercutting the very goals they set out to achieve. Continue reading More on Peace Operations and Post-Conflict Reconstruction DISPLACEMENT Burma: The Changing Nature of Displacement Crises Refugee Studies Centre In 2007, only two significant insurgent organizations remain at war with the regime in Yangon (Rangoon). However, more than half a million people remain internally displaced within Burma, and more than two million people of Burmese origin are displaced outside the country's borders. The shifting nature of conflict in Burma over the past fifteen years has structured a range of inter-linked displacement crises. In this paper, three main types of forced migration in – and from – the country are identified: Type 1 – armed-conflict-induced displacement; Type 2 – State/society-induced displacement; and Type 3 – livelihood/vulnerability-induced displacement. Each is addressed in a case study, with material drawn from different geographic areas, illustrating different aspects and impacts of (armed and state-society) conflict in Burma. This paper shows that internal displacement in Burma is not only caused by armed conflict in the insurgent-prone eastern borderlands. While the most acutely vulnerable internally displaced persons (IDPs) do live in those few areas of the country still affected by significant levels of armed conflict, the phenomenon of forced migration is more complex and widespread – the product of decades of mis-governance by the militarized state. Continue reading More on Refugees and Internally Displaced People 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. 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