Number of results to display per page
Search Results
42. Introduction
- Author:
- Alexandra Gheciu and Jennifer Welsh
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Carnegie Council
- 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
43. Pulling the Stops on Genocide: The State or the Individual?
- Author:
- Amabelle C. Asuncion
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- The International Court of Justice's decision on the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro) has exposed the unforeseen irony in the international consensus on the singular distinction of genocide as the crime of crimes. Defying expectations, this classification coupled with the conception of a 'civil genocide' has magically transformed into a legal shield which protects states from responsibility even as individual convictions are being handed down. Yet, the history of the Genocide Convention easily recalls the objective of preventing the commission of genocide by states and individuals alike. This article thus ponders on the virtue of seeking recourse under the Genocide Convention – whether against the state or the individual. In traversing this inquiry, it embarks on a comparative analysis of selected case law from the International Criminal Tribunal of Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, and the International Court of Justice. As it uncovers a counterintuitive clash of jurisprudential outcome and a widening gap between the ideal and the real, the article identifies the legal bolts which need to be adjusted so that the genocide stops can be pulled in the right direction.
- Topic:
- History
- Political Geography:
- Yugoslavia and Rwanda
44. 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
45. 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
- Journal:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- 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
46. 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
47. 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
48. 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
49. Ending Wars and Building Peace
- Author:
- Charles Call and Elizabeth Cousens
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- 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
50. 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