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82. The United Nations, the Cold War, and After: A Lost Opportunity?
- Author:
- Christopher D. O'Sullivan
- Publication Date:
- 05-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Columbia International Affairs Online
- Abstract:
- The conclusion of the Cold War between 1989-1991 opened new horizons for the United Nations and created expectations that the UN would emerge from the margins of world events to the focus of world politics. But many events since then -- in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Iraq -- have undermined confidence in international institutions. A history of the UN's activities since the end of the East-West conflict conjures up names of recent infamy, such as Sarajevo, Mogadishu, Kigali, and Srebrenica, and revisits images of failure and impotence in the face of violence. These crises undermined much of the optimism that greeted the end of the Cold War at the United Nations. The founding dream in 1945 of a community of nations defending human rights and promoting collective security still seems as far from being realized as it did during the height of the Cold War.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Cold War, Politics, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Somalia
83. Capacity Building in Post-Conflict Countries in Africa: A Summary of Lessons of Experience from Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Uganda
- Author:
- The African Capacity Building Foundation
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF)
- Abstract:
- The paper presents a Summary of a Report of a Study on Reconstruction and Capacity Building efforts in four Post-Conflict African Countries, namely, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Uganda. The main objective of the study is to draw lessons that could provide a guide to policies, strategies and instruments for post-conflict capacity-building initiatives by the Foundation. The four country studies highlighted the fact that the root causes of conflicts are different in different countries at different times and that they require context-specific approaches to bring countries back onto the path of peace and development.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, Reconstruction, Peace, Post-Conflict, and Capacity Building
- Political Geography:
- Uganda, Africa, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda
84. Rwanda at the End of the Transition: A Necessary Political Liberalisation
- Publication Date:
- 11-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Nine years after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has reached another crossroads. The transition period defined by the Arusha Accords will be concluded in less than a year by a constitutional referendum and by multi-party elections which should symbolize the successful democratisation of the country. Today, however, there are multiple restrictions on political and civil liberty and no sign of any guarantee, or even indication, in the outline of the constitutional plan that the political opposition will be able to participate in these elections on an equal footing with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), in power since 1994.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, Ethnic Conflict, Politics, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Rwanda
85. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: The Countdown
- Publication Date:
- 08-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Il reste officiellement un peu plus de cinq ans au Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda (TPIR) pour achever le mandat qui lui a été confié, en novembre 1994, par le Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies. Le TPIR se trouve donc exactement à mi-parcours de son mandat. Depuis un an et demi, plusieurs nouveaux procès ont été initiés. Toutefois malgré cette amélioration significative marquée par un fort regain d'activité, le Tribunal d'Arusha n'a pas établi, les priorités judiciaires qui lui permettraient de remplir son mandat avant 2008. En mai 2001, ICG publiait un premier rapport bilan des activités du TPIR intitulé: "L'urgence de juger". Cette urgence reste, malheureusement, toujours d'actualité.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Ethnic Conflict, Genocide, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Rwanda
86. Burundi After Six Months Of Transition: Continuing The War Or Winning Peace?
- Publication Date:
- 05-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Fourteen months after the signing of the Arusha framework agreement, the Burundi transition government was sworn in on November 1, 2001, in the presence of the leaders of Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia, Nelson Mandela and a host of other African and international delegations. The new government comprised twenty-six ministers representing majority Hutu (G7) and majority Tutsi (G10) political parties, all signatories to the Arusha accords of August 2000 in Tanzania. A few days before the swearing-in ceremony, several political leaders, including Jean Minani, president of the FRODEBU party, returned from exile to join the government, after guarantees for their protection were provided by the presence of seven hundred South African soldiers. The deal struck between Minani's FRODEBU and Pierre Buyoya's UPRONA, which was formalised by the accord on the transition government of 23 July 2001, made the two parties by far the biggest beneficiaries of power-sharing. The transition phase was slated to last 36 months, with a mid-term transfer of power in May 2003, when the current vice-president, Domitien Ndayizeye of FRODEBU, will replace the president of UPRONA PIERRE Buyoya.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Ethnic Conflict, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, and Malawi
87. Analyser le massacre. Réflexions comparatives
- Author:
- Jacques Sémelin
- Publication Date:
- 09-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
- Abstract:
- This text aims to examine a particularly difficult phenomenon to study—slaughter—although it is at the center of many wars today and yesterday. Slaughter is defined as a generally collective form of action that aims to destroy non-combatants, usually civilians. Slaughter is viewed as an extremely violent, both rational and irrational practice growing out of an imaginary construct pertaining to someone to be destroyed, whom the torturer perceives as a complete enemy. The aspiration of this text is to show the relevance of exploring slaughter from a comparative standpoint. It will go beyond the mere case study, or rather it will put the best of these studies (on ex-Yugoslavia, Rwanda, etc.) into perspective. To better understand the process by which the slaughter is put into action, two main directions guide the analysis: historic depth: it is in fact difficult to attempt to understand the slaughters that took place in 1990 without taking into account occurrences in the 20th century, including those termed "genocides." transdisciplinary overture: slaughter as a phenomenon is so complex in itself that it requires the eye of the sociologist, anthropologist and psychologist, as can be seen in the following pages.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Third World
- Political Geography:
- Yugoslavia and Rwanda
88. Seeking Justice on the Cheap: Is the East Timor Tribunal Really a Model for the Future?
- Author:
- David Cohen
- Publication Date:
- 08-2002
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- Over the past eight years the UN Security Council has paid some $1.6 billion dollars to operate International Criminal Tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Successfully pressured to establish a tribunal in East Timor, the Council sought to cut its costs by creating a new form of tribunal—a "hybrid" tribunal with both international and domestic judges and partially funded and staffed by the national government. Today, though the hybrid tribunal is lauded by the United Nations as a model, the East Timor Tribunal is anything but. Of its meager $6.3 million budget for 2002, $6 million went to the prosecution, which nevertheless has failed to take any high-level perpetrators into custody. The balance was almost all for international judges' salaries, who sorely lack adequate administrative and clerical support. Though some steps have now been taken to improve the training of defense counsel, the Public Defender's unit is so under-funded and inexperienced that it did not call a single witness in any of its first 14 trials. Whether a minimally credible tribunal is better than none at all is the real issue the United Nations has not openly addressed.
- Topic:
- International Law and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Southeast Asia
89. The Aid and Reconstruction Agenda for Afghanistan
- Author:
- Michael E. O'Hanlon
- Publication Date:
- 12-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- With the Taliban and al Qaeda largely defeated, a temporary coalition government taking power in Afghanistan, the Freedom Bridge near Uzbekistan finally open to relief efforts, and foreign donors promising significant aid more generally, the future looks increasingly promising for the Afghan people. But many challenges remain, even beyond the immediate priority of completing the military operation. Without rapid delivery of sufficient food, shelter, and medical supplies, Afghanistan could still experience a humanitarian catastrophe this winter. Without great care to shore up the coalition government, it could fail, just as state-building efforts have failed with disastrous consequences in places such as Angola, Rwanda, and Somalia in recent years. Without sufficient delivery of reconstruction aid, Afghanistan could remain mired in the same poverty and chaos that gave rise to the Taliban in the first place.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, Uzbekistan, Rwanda, Somalia, and Angola
90. The Effectiveness of the Exercise of Jurisdiction by the International Criminal Court: The Issue of Complementarity
- Author:
- Sammy Smooha and Susan Hannah Farbstein
- Publication Date:
- 10-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
- Abstract:
- The prevalence of collective violence and the agony of mass atrocity may prove to be the twentieth century's most distressing and enduring legacies. From Germany to Uganda, from Cambodia to Sierra Leone, from the Former Yugoslavia to Rwanda, the past hundred years are replete with examples of terrifying violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed against diverse groups of people. Limited attempts to unveil the truth about past horrors, to hold individuals responsible, and to deter future offenses have repeatedly proven inadequate. A dearth of satisfactory moral and legal responses to these crimes often left victims suffering without any sense of reconciliation, while perpetrators routinely enjoyed impunity rather than facing justice.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, Ethnic Conflict, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Aid
- Political Geography:
- Uganda, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Germany, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda