	Issue 35	November 2007

	*Human Security Research* is a monthly mailing list service that highlights significant new human security-related research published by university research institutes, think-tanks, IGOs and NGOs.

	What's New in Human Security Research :

• CONFLICT PREVENTION: Conflict Prevention and Development Co-operation in Africa
• ARMED CONFLICT: Report of the Secretary-General on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict
• CONFLICT RESOLUTION: A Guide to Mediation: Enabling Peace Processes in Violent Conflicts
• HEALTH: Conflict and Emerging Infectious Diseases
• HUMAN RIGHTS: Missing People in Casanare, Colombia
• CHILDREN: Ex-combatants in Burundi: Why They Joined, Why They Left, How They Fared
• DEVELOPMENT: Africa's Missing Billions: International Arms Flows and the Cost of Conflict
• GENDER: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Sierra Leone
• DATA SOURCES: The Bosnian Book of the Dead: Assessment of the Database
• GOVERNANCE: Criminal Politics: Violence, "Godfathers" and Corruption in Nigeria
• RESOURCES: Oil and Mining in Violent Places
• POST-CONFLICT: Transforming War Economies

CONFLICT PREVENTION
Conflict Prevention and Development Co-operation in Africa: A Policy Workshop
Wilton Park // United Nations Development Programme // Japan International Cooperation Agency
"How can external engagement reduce risks of violent conflict and improve the stability of fragile states and contribute to conflict prevention? How can aid and non-aid policies be made more risk sensitive? What should constitute the security content of poverty reduction programs in Africa? What aid allocation criteria would best contribute to peace and stability? Should the mitigation of horizontal inequalities figure on the agenda of poverty reduction strategies? How should aid effectiveness be analysed if donors wish to prevent conflict? What aid vehicles are best adapted to peace building? These policy questions are especially relevant to Sub-Saharan Africa, the only region of the world where the share of people living in absolute poverty is rising; where nearly 40% of world conflicts are taking place; where the deadliest confrontations of the last decade and a half have been experienced; and where the incidence of violent conflict is rising. This workshop, hosted by Wilton Park in co-operation with the United Nations Development Programme and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Tokyo, focused on policy research findings at the intersection of security and development."
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More on Conflict Prevention

ARMED CONFLICT
Report of the Secretary-General on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict
United Nations Security Council
"Although there has been a decline in the number of conflicts around the world, large numbers of civilians remain at risk of, or suffer, brutality and degradation. For 35 million people, flight has become the only option. Displacement, therefore, continues to be one of the principal features of contemporary conflict and arguably the most significant humanitarian challenge that we face. The present report provides an update on progress made in implementing resolution 1674 (2006) and strengthening the framework for the protection of civilians elaborated by the Council and other partners in recent years. It takes stock of positive developments and ongoing or new concerns that affect civilians in conflict situations around the world. In doing so, it highlights four challenges of particular importance to us all: the denial of life-saving access to civilians in need; the abhorrent practice of sexual violence in conflicts and its devastating impact on individuals and communities; the critical need to address more consistently the impact of conflict on housing, land and property; and the importance of eliminating the unacceptable humanitarian toll of cluster munitions. The report ends by proposing a set of key actions for the Security Council's consideration, all aimed at further strengthening the protection framework in areas that require more prompt and systematic action."
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More on Armed Conflict

CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND PEACEMAKING
A Guide to Mediation: Enabling Peace Processes in Violent Conflicts
Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue
"The potential role of mediation as a means of ending armed conflict makes it increasingly important that those who engage in peace processes do so in a way that it is ethical, professional and effective. Several recent peace processes have seen a wide range of organisations and interests gathered around them. This has led several observers to talk of the risk of "overcrowding" in certain processes. In such a context, there is a need for consensus on what constitutes good mediation and good support for a peace process. Third party mediation to resolve international and non-international armed conflict is a highly political, fluid and complex role. It involves careful and often long term engagement in situations where widespread human suffering is common and the lives of many thousands of people are at stake. Most armed conflicts are deep and protracted with painful histories of extreme violence, inter-group hatred, oppression, humiliation, profound political suspicion and the active involvement of other states. In such conflicts, mediators and other peace process specialists and supporters have a range of moral obligations. They have personal and professional responsibilities to the political parties to the process, to the people affected by the conflict, to concerned and interested observers and to the wider mediation and peace-building profession."
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HEALTH AND SECURITY
Conflict and Emerging Infectious Diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
"Conflict may lead to the displacement of large populations into temporary settlements or camps with overcrowding and rudimentary shelters, inadequate safe water and sanitation, and increased exposure to disease vectors during the acute phase of the emergency. In protracted and postconflict situations, populations may have high rates of illness and mortality due to breakdown of health systems, flight of trained staff, failure of existing disease control programs, and destroyed infrastructure. These populations may be more vulnerable to infection and disease because of high levels of undernutrition or malnutrition, low vaccine coverage, or long-term stress. Detection and control of emerging infectious diseases in conflict situations are major challenges due to multiple risk factors known to enhance emergence and transmission of infectious diseases, including inadequate surveillance and response systems, destroyed infrastructure, collapsed health systems and disruption of disease control programs, and infection control practices even more inadequate than those in resource-poor settings, as well as ongoing insecurity and poor coordination among humanitarian agencies. This article outlines factors that potentiate emergence and transmission of infectious diseases in conflict situations and highlights several priority actions for their containment and control."
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HUMAN RIGHTS
Missing People in Casanare, Colombia
Human Rights Data Analysis Group
"How many people are missing in the department of Casanare, Colombia? This apparently simple question proves complex when we ask how many missing persons were not reported to any organization, and becomes even more difficult in the context of politically contentious debates about exhumation, identification and reunification of remains. How can we be sure that all the missing are accounted for in some way? How should we approach the problem of searching for victims? Answers to these and other questions will be incorrect if we assume that any list or combination of lists is "comprehensive." Ultimately, correct answers rely on scientific estimation of the number of missing persons. In this initial analysis, the authors estimate that the total number of missing persons in Casanare 1986-2007 is 2,553. Approximately 1,500 persons were reported missing during this period, yielding an undocumented rate of about 40% (of total estimated missing persons). The authors emphasize that the rate of undocumented missing persons found in Casanare does not necessarily represent the rate that could be found in Colombia more generally, if data were available. They recommend that additional data should be gathered and made available for analysis by statisticians and social scientists."
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CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT
Ex-combatants in Burundi: Why They Joined, Why They Left, How They Fared
World Bank
"This report presents some findings about ex-combatants that are derived from a wider study on masculinity and youth, partly sponsored by the World Bank's Multi- Country Demobilization and Reintegration Program (MDRP). Among those interviewed, there were 63 ex-combatants. The author pulled these results out and presents them here separately in an attempt to gain a better understanding of who these people are and how their return to their communities has proceeded. This report will focus mainly on the 'reintegration' part of the DDR program-not the "DD" parts, which had taken place (or not) long before the author arrived. This research took place in three rural communes- Busiga and Ruhororo in the Northern Ngozi province and Nyanza-Lac in the South-and throughout the city of Bujumbura. Evidently, this is a small sample of the entire MDRP target group of more than 20,000 ex-combatants nationwide. As a result, more substantial research is required to test the validity of the research on a larger scale."
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More on Children and Armed Conflict

DEVELOPMENT AND SECURITY
Africa's Missing Billions: International Arms Flows and the Cost of Conflict
International Action Network on Small Arms // Oxfam International // Safeworld
"Africa suffers enormously from conflict and armed violence. As well as the human tragedy, armed conflict costs Africa around $18bn per year, seriously derailing development. The most commonly used weapons in Africa's conflicts are Kalashnikov assault rifles. The vast majority of these weapons and their ammunition - perhaps 95 per cent - come from outside Africa. For the first time, IANSA, Oxfam, and Safeworld have estimated the economic cost of armed conflict to Africa's development. Around $300bn since 1990 has been lost by Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda. This sum is equivalent to international aid from major donors in the same period. If this money was not lost due to armed conflict, it could solve the problems of HIV and AIDS in Africa, or it could address Africa's needs in education, clean water and sanitation, and prevent tuberculosis and malaria."
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More on Development and Security

GENDER AND SECURITY
Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Sierra Leone: Mapping Challenges, Responses and Future Entry Points
International Alert
"From July 4th-14th 2006, International Alert conducted a mapping of the incidence of gender-based violence (GBV) and the programmes that are being implemented to address it in Sierra Leone on behalf of Irish Aid. Historically, women have been discriminated against and are heavily under-represented in the traditionally male-dominated political and socio-economic decision-making structures of Sierra Leone. Gender inequalities are prevalent throughout society, with women being more likely to be illiterate and suffer extreme poverty; their rights are frequently violated, and they have little access to resources and opportunities. GBV in its physical and structural forms is endemic in Sierra Leone. It is a security concern that also has broader economic and political consequences. Therefore, failing to engage with the causes and effects of GBV will inevitably have long-term consequences for peacebuilding and development in Sierra Leone. This briefing paper explores the issue, and identifies strategies to enhance prevention and response to gender-based violence in Sierra Leone."
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DATA SOURCES
The Bosnian Book of the Dead: Assessment of the Database
Households in Conflict Network
"The Bosnian Book of Dead is the outcome of the project "Population Losses, 1992-95", conducted by the Research and Documentation Centre (RDC) in Sarajevo. The objective of this project is establishing a country-wide database covering the victims of the Bosnian war. Sources used for the BBD include witness statements, existing electronic lists, lists from books, reports, and press articles, names from grave tombs, newspaper memorials, other newspapers records (single or lists), government sources, microfilms etc. More than 7,000 witnesses testified so far and in total thousands of different sources were used (personal communication of the consultants with Mirsad Tokaca, Sarajevo, 1 July 2006). All these sources are summarized in the document "List of Sources" which the authors studied as part of their assessment. The intended coverage of the BBD database is the entire country and the entire conflict period 1992-95. The current version of the database is almost complete, meaning that marginal numbers of cases can be probably still found and added resulting in a diminishing improvement. It is the largest existing database on war-related deaths of both civilians and soldiers for Bosnia."
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GOVERNANCE AND SECURITY
Criminal Politics: Violence, "Godfathers" and Corruption in Nigeria
Human Rights Watch
"Nigeria is mired in a crisis of governance. Eight years since the end of military rule, the country's longest-ever stretch of uninterrupted civilian government, the conduct of many public officials and government institutions is so pervasively marked by violence and corruption as to more resemble criminal activity than democratic governance. This report documents what Human Rights Watch considers to be the most important human rights dimensions of this crisis: first, systemic violence openly fomented by politicians and other political elites that undermines the rights of Nigerians to freely choose their leaders and enjoy basic security; second, the corruption that both fuels and rewards Nigeria's violent brand of politics at the expense of the general populace; and third, the impunity enjoyed by those responsible for these abuses that both denies justice to its victims and obstructs reform. The report is based largely on two four-week Human Rights Watch research missions to Nigeria in early 2007 before, during, and after the April 2007 elections. This included field research in Anambra, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Katsina, Lagos, Oyo, and Rivers States and interviews in the capital Abuja."
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NATURAL RESOURCES AND ARMED CONFLICT
Oil and Mining in Violent Places: Why Voluntary Codes for Companies Don't Guarantee Human Rights
Global Witness
"In many countries, companies operate in regions of violent conflict where government security forces or other armed groups may carry out killings of civilians and other serious abuses of human rights. How does a company which operates in a conflict zone ensure that its activities do not contribute to human rights abuses? This question can apply to companies in various economic sectors, but the focus of this briefing paper is the oil, gas and mining industries, which frequently make large and long-lasting capital investments in unstable regions and have often been accused of complicity in human rights abuses carried out by armed groups. One response by oil and mining companies has been to join voluntary frameworks on human rights, which typically consist of a set of principles or guidelines for companies to apply in their day-to-day operations. Do such frameworks actually ensure that companies which adopt them have taken all reasonable steps to avoid contributing to human rights abuses in conflict zones? To answer this question, Global Witness looked at four frameworks - the UN Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the Global Reporting Initiative and, most relevantly, the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights."
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More on Natural Resources and Armed Conflict

PEACE OPERATIONS AND POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION
Transforming War Economies
Swiss Peace Foundation
"Although economic factors have proven to be crucial factors influencing the conflict proneness of a country, both military cease fires and peace agreements tend to neglect the economic and socioeconomic aspects of war, while emphasizing mainly political and military issues. However, peacebuilding and conflict prevention measures applied by the international community cannot limit themselves to ending open violence and cutting conflict profiteers from their power and income. In addition, alternative social, economic and political structures must be fostered to allow the population to meet their basic needs outside the structures of violent conflict. The establishment of relevant economic structures and the creation of an attractive investment climate for foreign investments are crucial for breaking and transforming the destructive structures of economies of violence. Sustainable development and durable peace are built on solid economic, socio-cultural and political institutions. International cooperation must strive for long-term peacebuilding, thus recognizing the roots of violent conflict and investing in structures and processes that support the peaceful management of social and resource conflicts."
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More on Peace Operations and Post-conflict Reconstruction

Compiled by Robert Hartfiel

Human Security Research is produced by the Human Security Report Project at the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University. The Human Security Report Project 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.

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