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Begin New Search Political Geography Rwanda

71. Introduction

Author:
Alexandra Gheciu and Jennifer Welsh
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This collection of articles focuses on the ethical assumptions that underpin views of postwar reconstruction, in particular on the question of whether (and under what circumstances) outsiders can legitimately take over the reins of government.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Liberia and Rwanda

72. Transitional Justice – Does It Help Or Does It Harm?

Author:
Dorota Gierycz
Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Transitional justice refers to a range of approaches that may be used to address past massive human rights violations. Transitional justice mechanisms include international tribunals, reconciliation commissions and truth-seeking measures. In recent years their importance and visibility increased due to gross human rights violations associated with armed conflicts in different parts of the world. While the crimes committed in Srebranica and Rwanda shocked the public opinion and paved the way for establishment of international judicial bodies, the peaceful transition in South Africa drew attention to its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as a possible model for seeking peace and justice through non-judicial means. So what is the added value of Transitional Justice for coming to terms with the past and building just and peaceful societies? The author reviews some past experiences and models of Transitional Justice and points to their weaknesses and strengths. As the main achievements she cites the international tribunals' contribution to the development of jurisprudence in some areas of international criminal law and the delivery of justice in a manner impossible for local courts in post - war countries; as their weaknesses, the perception of delivering the “winners` justice” and rather limited involvement of populations from the affected countries. She also provides sets of recommendations as to how to improve the effectiveness of reconciliation commissions established in post-conflict countries, in the context of the United Nations peace operations.
Topic:
Civil Society, International Law, and International Organization
Political Geography:
South Africa and Rwanda

73. The Crime of Genocide in Internatioanal Law and Underlying Social Structures of the Crime: Rwanda Case

Author:
Ebru Çoban
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Genocide is a crime which is defined under internatioanal law in the twentieth century and could not come about without the ideological, bureaucratic power of a modern state with is sanctions and modern discources on identities and modern classifications. With a non-modern Picture but with modern techniques of governing Rwanda was a place that genocidal killings occured and is a place of a breaking case for modern theories. Rwanda has modern state characteristics in terms of monopoly of use of violence, giving orders and providing obidience of its people, surveillance, classification and registration of its people, and keeping discourses. Morever, Rwandan culture that gives great importance to obidence and Rwandan geography that is so suitable to surveillance become additional factors. In that sense, Rwandan government could influence to daily life of the people even to the smallest details of anyone. All factors provided a suitable bas efor the crime of genocide.
Topic:
Genocide, Government, and International Law
Political Geography:
Africa and Rwanda

74. Africa's missing billions: International arms flows and the cost of conflict

Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
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, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Crime, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Ghana

75. Crafting Political Institutions in Africa. Electoral Systems and Systems of Government in Rwanda and Zambia Compared

Author:
Alexander Stroh
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Scholars of institutional design attribute large importance to the choice of new institutions. The comparative analysis of how Rwanda and Zambia crafted their new electoral systems and the systems of government regards procedural, structural and rational choice variables which may influence the option for particular solutions. External influences and the type of transition are determinants that can decide which actors make their interests prevail. The degree of innovation or conservatism of new institutions is mainly a result of the speed of the process and the kind of actors involved. However, rational reflections on how to produce legitimacy and minimize personal risks which take into consideration the state of conflict in the country decide on the speed and on innovative outcomes. The structured analysis of only two cases uncovers already that it is rather difficult to realise the transfer of design recommendations into reality.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa, Rwanda, and Holland

76. US Policy on Small Arms Transfers: A Human Rights Perspective

Author:
Susan Waltz
Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
Abstract:
From Somalia and Afghanistan to Bosnia, Haiti, Colombia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Congo, small arms and light weapons were a common feature of the human rights calamities of the 1990's. More than a hundred low-intensity conflicts flared across the globe in that final decade of the bloodiest century, and virtually all of them were fought with small arms and light weaponry. Hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and bazookas, mortars, machine guns, and shoulder-fired missiles were the common weapons of warfare, along with the ubiquitous AK- 47--as readily slung over the shoulder of a 14 year old boy as a 40 year old man. Human rights and humanitarian organizations pondered the evidence: there was an inescapable linkage between the abuses they sought to curb, and the prevalence of these easy to handle, durable, and imminently portable weapons. In many instances the weapons were used as direct instruments of repression and devastation. In others, armed groups and government-sponsored militia used them to facilitate assaults with cruder weapons, spread fear, and create insecurity that effectively deprived people of their livelihood. Ironically, none of the countries in turmoil produced their own small arms. Behind the plethora of weapons lurked shadowy arms dealers looking for a profit, indifferent to the public's moral outrage and UN-imposed arms embargoes.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Bosnia, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Somalia

77. Ending Wars and Building Peace

Author:
Charles Call and Elizabeth Cousens
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute (IPI)
Abstract:
Ending armed conflict has long been a concern of practitioners and scholars of international relations. Recent years have seen new attention to questions of “building peace” beyond the immediate termination of war, primarily driven by the experience of civil wars in the 1990s and the very mixed record of international involvement—from relative successes like Namibia, Mozambique, and El Salvador through partial successes like Cambodia, Bosnia, and East Timor to abysmal failures like Angola and Rwanda.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Peace Studies, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Cambodia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Angola, and Namibia

78. A Tale of Two Genocides: The Failed U.S. Response to Rwanda and Darfur

Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:
In 1994, an estimated 800,000 people died in Rwanda, as the U.S. and the international community failed to mount an intervention to stop genocide. Senior U.S. officials later expressed regret, and acknowledged that this crime against humanity should have invoked a more urgent and active response. It is reported that President Bush reviewed a memo on the Rwandan genocide early in his presidency and wrote “Not on my Watch” in the margin of that document.
Topic:
International Relations and Genocide
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and Rwanda

79. L'humanitaire comme norme du discours au Conseil de sécurité : une pratique légitimatrice socialement sanctionnée

Author:
David Ambrosetti
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
L'article examine les logiques pratiques qui ont favorisé la « normalisation » de l'invocation de l'idée humanitaire à l'ONU, à partir du cas des pratiques discursives de la délégation française au sein du Conseil de sécurité, à propos du conflit au Rwanda. L'analyse constructiviste des normes inspirée par A. Giddens et N. Onuf éclaire les enjeux de sanction sociale quotidienne qui se greffent à de telles pratiques discursives et les fondements de leur valeur proprement légitimatrice, qui tient en l'espèce à l'implication d'un espace social plus vaste que le seul espace diplomatique international, comprenant également des journalistes, des leaders d'opinion et des porte-parole légitimes de l'idée humanitaire très médiatisés.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Rwanda

80. The Use and Perception of Weapons Before and After Conflict: Evidence from Rwanda

Author:
Philip Verwimp and Cécelle Meijer
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Small Arms Survey
Abstract:
The majority of Rwanda's population considers itself Hutu (more than 80 per cent), whereas a smaller group is referred to as Tutsi (about 15 percent). The Twa are the smallest minority. In 1994, after four years of civil war, Rwanda descended into genocide. The Tutsi minority was the main target, but Hutu and Twa who were not willing to participate in the killings were also murdered. In fewer than three months, more than 500,000 people were brutally slaughtered.
Topic:
International Relations, Arms Control and Proliferation, and War
Political Geography:
Africa and Rwanda