• CONFLICT PREVENTION: UN Arms Embargoes: Their Impact on Arms Flows and Target Behaviour • HEALTH: Public Health, Conflict and Human Rights: Toward a Collaborative Research Agenda • ARMED GROUPS: Towards a Holistic Approach to Armed Non-State Actors? • POST-CONFLICT: Oligopolies of Violence in Post-Conflict Societies • LANDMINES: Landmine Monitor Report 2007: Toward a Mine-Free World • ARMED CONFLICT: Ethnic Defection in Civil Wars • GENDER: Gender Justice and Reconciliation • DISPLACEMENT: Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma • CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Negotiating Peace in Liberia: Preserving the Possibility for Justice • ENVIRONMENT: A Climate of Conflict: The Links Between Climate Change, Peace and War • GOVERNANCE: Security Sector Reform and the Fight Against Terrorism • ARMED GROUPS: Private Security in Africa: Manifestation, Challenges and Regulation CONFLICT PREVENTION United Nations Arms Embargoes: Their Impact on Arms Flows and Target Behaviour Stockholm International Peace Research Institute This report is the first analysis of the 27 United Nations arms embargoes that have been imposed since 1990. UN arms embargoes have been criticized as having a limited impact on reducing arms flows to their targets or improving target behaviour. Against this background the report offers a reassessment of UN arms embargoes, their objectives and their effects. In particular it considers the impact of the Interlaken (1999–2001), Bonn–Berlin (2000–2001) and Stockholm (2001–2003) processes, which offered a range of proposals for developing the focus and implementation of arms embargoes. The report is the first comprehensive assessment of UN arms embargoes implemented since the innovations deriving from these processes were introduced. In an effort to further improve the effectiveness of the targeting of UN arms embargoes, this report offers a typology to be considered when designing and assessing UN arms embargoes. The results indicate that embargoes have different impacts on arms flows and target behaviour in each type of situation. In reaching these conclusions, the researchers have also looked carefully at alternative explanations. Continue Reading More on Conflict Prevention HEALTH Public Health, Conflict and Human Rights: Toward a Collaborative Research Agenda Conflict and Health Although epidemiology is increasingly contributing to policy debates on issues of conflict and human rights, its potential is still underutilized. As a result, this article calls for greater collaboration between public health researchers, conflict analysts and human rights monitors, with special emphasis on retrospective, population-based surveys. The article surveys relevant recent public health research, explains why collaboration is useful, and outlines possible future research scenarios, including those pertaining to the indirect and long-term consequences of conflict; human rights and security in conflict prone areas; and the link between human rights, conflict, and International Humanitarian Law. Although not all public health research is of equal quality, this article argues that closer collaboration is likely to continue to benefit epidemiologists, conflict analysts, and human rights monitors. Until now, public health's specialized methods, logistical complexities, and high costs have hindered multi-disciplinary research, and many non-specialists only dimly perceive opportunities for collaborative efforts. Continue reading More on Health ARMED GROUPS Towards a Holistic Approach to Armed Non-State Actors? Geneva Call Globally, humanitarian and human rights actors are increasingly approaching not only the armed forces of States, but also those of non-State actors (NSAs) to try to reduce the abuses committed during armed conflict. By combining relevant literature with the findings from the analysis of NSA involvement in humanitarian mine action, the report suggests some factors and incentives that might influence the behavior of an NSA and its likelihood of committing itself to respect humanitarian norms, as well as factors that might influence the outcomes of such engagement. This study is the third volume of a project that investigates the involvement of NSAs in the landmine problem, both in its negative (use of landmines) and positive (contribution to mine action) aspects. The report summarizes and analyzes the main findings of the project, and applies these findings to other related issues - child soldiers and small arms – as well as places the issue in the broader context of NSA engagement. In conclusion, the report argues for a holistic view of NSAs, hence considering both their capacity for destruction as parties to a conflict, but also their potential to contribute to the solution of human security problems. Continue reading More on Armed Groups POST-CONFLICT Oligopolies of Violence in Post-Conflict Societies GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies In post-conflict societies, security is provided by a broad range of actors including the state as well as various non-state formations. The paper identifies three types of post-conflict societies and analyses dynamics of the security market in cases where international troops have intervened. A comparison of seven countries shows that intervention forces were able to establish themselves as market leaders when a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) program was successfully conducted in the immediate post-conflict period. Such a program should be embedded in an inclusive peace agreement that is backed up by a credible and robust troop commitment from the international community. This paper presents some of the results of a research project called ‘Legitimate Oligopolies of Violence in Post Conflict Countries’ conducted at the GIGA Institute of African Affairs in Hamburg. The paper begins by explaining the concept of ‘oligopolies of violence’ which serves as the analytical framework for this study. It then scrutinizes the term ‘post-conflict’ and distinguishes between three types of post-conflict societies. Continue reading More on Post-Conflict LANDMINES Landmine Monitor Report 2007: Toward a Mine-Free World International Campaign to Ban Landmines The Mine Ban Treaty entered into force on 1 March 1999. Signed by 122 governments, the Mine Ban Treaty had 155 States Parties as of 15 August 2007. A total of 40 states remain outside the treaty, including two that have signed but not yet ratified. The treaty and the global effort to eradicate antipersonnel mines have yielded impressive results. A new international norm is emerging, as many governments not party to the Mine Ban Treaty are taking steps consistent with the treaty, and an increasing number of non-state armed groups are also embracing a ban. The following pages document both the impressive progress made and the substantial challenges remaining to universalize the Mine Ban Treaty and to fully implement it by clearing mines from the ground, destroying stockpiled antipersonnel mines, educating people about the dangers of mines and assisting mine survivors. The ICBL believes the only real measure of the Mine Ban Treaty’s success will be the concrete impact that it has on the global antipersonnel mine problem. As with the eight previous annual reports, Landmine Monitor Report 2007 provides a means of measuring that impact. Continue reading More on Landmines ARMED CONFLICT Ethnic Defection in Civil Wars Yale University The study of ethnicity is dominated by constructivist approaches, yet empirical studies of civil war have been oblivious to their insights. In this paper, the author examines the relationship between ethnic identity and civil war and points to several empirical instances of fluidity in the behavioral expression of ethnic identities within civil war. The paper identifies two processes that are consistent with constructivist theorizing: identity shift and ethnic defection. The author provides several empirical illustrations along with a micro-level test of the determinants of ethnic defection. At the micro-level, ethnic defection is best predicted by the extent of territorial control exercised by the incumbent political actor and the level of prior insurgent violence. The author also hypothesizes that at the macro-level, ethnic defection is a function of the resources available to incumbent actors and conclude by stressing the need to take seriously the “endogenous” dynamics of civil wars. This paper incorporates constructivist ingishts in the study of civil wars. Theoretically, it links ethnic identity and civil war in a way consistent with a constructivist approaches. Continue reading More on Armed Conflict GENDER Gender Justice and Reconciliation Friedrich Ebert Stiftung This paper examines how women’s experiences of conflict and transition differ to that of men because of inherent gendered power relations and that, as a result, women’s experiences of violence and needs for justice have until recent times largely been ignored. It speaks to gender justice as the protection of human rights based on gender equality and explores two such tenets: the acknowledgement of and seeking justice for women’s experiences of sexual violence in conflict situations; and the securing of increased representation of women in policy- and decision-making bodies on post-conflict issues. The paper then goes beyond these tenets to discuss the specific needs of women within post-conflict systems, and examines the assumptions of the transitional justice field from a gendered perspective. In particular, the article highlights the need to move beyond a focus on individual incidents of sexual violence in conflict to addressing the context of inequality which facilitate these violations as well as the continuum of violence from conflict to post-conflict which becomes visible through a gendered analysis. Continue reading More on Gender DISPLACEMENT Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions Burma today is experiencing a crisis in security of land tenure, which includes the widespread abuse of human, economic, social, cultural, and political rights. This report, Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma focuses on land confiscation by Government forces, responsible for Burma’s most acute Housing, Land and Property (HLP) rights abuses. Among the most vulnerable populations are more than one million internally displaced people in Burma, most from ethnic nationality communities. These include at least 500 000 people in the armed conflict-affected border regions of eastern Burma. This report focuses on the ongoing abuses of HLP rights occurring under military rule today, particularly in areas populated by non-Burman peoples. In recent years, the peoples living in these areas have been the most severely affected by large-scale displacement. These abuses occur during military counter-insurgency operations; for the construction and support of new army battalions; to make way for infrastructure development projects; in the context of natural resource extraction; and to provide vested interests with business opportunities. Continue reading More on Displacement CONFLICT RESOLUTION Negotiating Peace in Liberia: Preserving the Possibility for Justice Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue Liberia has been at peace since 18 August 2003, when a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in Accra, Ghana. After a brutal war in the early-to-mid- 1990s, a repressive government headed by Charles Taylor was in power from 1997. By the time the rebel movement Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy started encroaching on the capital in 2003, there was considerable pressure for a firm and lasting peace agreement. But Liberia had seen over a dozen peace agreements in the previous dozen years, and all suffered from questionable political commitment of the signatories actually to keep the peace and build a truly democratic society. This article is based on extensive interviews with many of those who took part in the 2003 talks. It aims to record the dynamics, actors and elements that determined how and why many of the key decisions were taken that resulted in the 2003 peace agreement, with a particular focus on questions of justice, accountability and the rule of law. It also tracks developments in the four years after the accord was signed, and provides insights that may be useful in future mediation contexts. Continue reading More on Conflict Resolution ENVIRONMENT A Climate of Conflict: The Links Between Climate Change, Peace and War International Alert Climate change is upon us and its physical effects have started to unfold. That is the broad scientific consensus expressed in the Fourth Assessment Review of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. This report takes this finding as its starting point and looks at the social and human consequences that are likely to ensue – particularly the risks of conflict and instability. To understand how the effects of climate change will interact with socio-economic and political problems in poorer countries means tracing the consequences of consequences. This process highlights four key elements of risk – political instability, economic weakness, food insecurity and large-scale migration. Many of the world’s poorest countries and communities thus face a double-headed problem: that of climate change and violent conflict. There is a real risk that climate change will compound the propensity for violent conflict, which in turn will leave communities poorer, less resilient and less able to cope with the consequences of climate change. There are 46 countries in which the effects of climate change interacting with economic, social and political problems will create a high risk of violent conflict. Continue reading More on Environment GOVERNANCE Security Sector Reform and the Fight Against Terrorism Danish Institute for International Studies In the following report, the notion of security sector reform will be explored with a particular focus on its application to countries in the Third World. Even though any country might at any time decide to embark on a reform of its security sector, the concept has mainly been applied as an integral component of the process of transition from dictatorship to democracy, or from war to peace. This is where the present report also focuses. The main emphasis is on the armed forces, even though the security sector is much broader than this, including also the police, judiciary and the penal system. It further narrows its focus by only including the statutory components (i.e. those belonging to the state and regulated by law) and largely disregarding the non-statutory elements of what might be called the security sector. It is further explored whether, or to what extent, security sector reform may help prevent, contain, or defeat terrorism. In order to ascertain this, however, it first looks at various possible approaches to counterterrorism, distinguishing between prevention, active, and passive defence. Continue reading More on Governance ARMED GROUPS Private Security in Africa: Manifestation, Challenges and Regulation Institute for Security Studies This monograph is a premier collection of scholarly contributions interrogating the private security industry phenomenon in Africa. The topics addressed in the various chapters provide a wealth of African perspectives on the private security industry. The monograph focuses on four broad aspects of the private security sector. First, it sets the scene by looking at the industry’s growth in Africa. Second, it underscores the need for addressing this growth through a variety of regulatory frameworks and an examination of the interplay between international humanitarian law (IHL) and the private security industry with specific reference to Africa. Third, it presents perspectives on the private security industry from South Africa and Swaziland. Finally, the monograph presents the Swiss Initiative on PMCs and PSCs. The private security phenomenon evokes divergent opinions on the topics of its rapid growth and the approach needed for its containment and regulation. Contributors offer various interesting perspectives on the question of how Africa must cope with the private security industry, which has become part and parcel of the global security architecture. Continue reading More on Armed Groups Compiled by Robert Hartfiel and Christopher Rusko 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. To subscribe to Human Security Research, send an email to hsilist@sfu.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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