1,721,028 research outputs found
The Politics of Entitlement and State Failure in Zimbabwe
No full textIn 2008, the meltdown of the post colonial state of Zimbabwe climaxed in violence-ridden presidential elections. The egregious extent of the violence instigated an unprecedented departure from the African diplomatic practice of speaking no evil of fellow leaders, with one or two countries even refusing to recognize Mugabe\u27s presidency. Although the repressive nature of the government earned it international condemnation, for at least twenty years after independence Mugabe received significant electoral endorsement and little public protest. Even when forces massacred segments of the population and violently evicted the poor from the cities, no civil society uprising emerged. This raises the question why the population acquiesced in the rulership of an inept and corrupt government. Utilizing theoretical concepts from Gramsci and Foucault, this paper argues that a hegemonic interplay of consensual and forceful power, based on an ethos of liberation entitlement that was accepted by the public in part due to colonial resentment, enabled ZANU PF to maintain a monopoly on political office under the façade of democratic governance
Chapter 7: Reclaiming Women’s Agency in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies: Women’s Use of Political Space
No full textThe unprecedented United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, established in 2000, radically addressed what we knew about warfare—that civilians and especially women were increasingly targeted—and called for a sea change in the ways women should engage in any rebuilding processes—including conflict management, governance, and peacebuilding efforts. Deconstructing Women, Peace and Security offers a critical review and analysis of many gender-based efforts implemented since 2000, including empowerment policies, strategies, and an in-depth study of four particular cases.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hcas_dcrs_facbooks/1027/thumbnail.jp
Transitional Justice Will Have to Wait (Justice in Zimbabwe)
No full textTalk of transitional justice before political transition in Zimbabwe is premature and possibly pointless. The focus of discussion therefore needs to shift toward the more immediate and pressing imperative of political change. Zimbabwe stands on the brink of a Somalia-type disorder, and regional efforts have thus far concentrated on pressing the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) into joining the Mugabe regime in the hope that this will facilitate an orderly transition of power. For the MDC, that route is fraught with danger, but transition is fast becoming a desperate need rather than a political aspiration. In this essay, I highlight three arguments that militate against the pursuit of transitional justice at this point. First, holding ZANU–PF accountable for its criminal conduct is not feasible while the party still holds the reins of power. The ZANU-PF political elite will resist accountability, the police and senior army personnel are complicit in criminal conduct, and the judiciary has been co-opted by the government. Second, any attempt at truth telling and reconstruction of the ZANU–PF’s political, social and economic narrative is at this point equally unfeasible and will pose serious physical danger to any potential participants. Third, the country is literally on its knees economically and currently has neither the political will nor the resources for embarking on transitional justice processes
Transitional Justice and Political Pre-Transition in Zimbabwe
No full textTransitional justice is a fast-growing concept, both in practice and in its scholarship. Even though the parameters of its practice are not yet precisely defined, transitional justice is being prescribed as an indispensable component of the transition from violence and repression to more just and peaceable dispensations. African examples include Rwanda, South Africa and Sierra Leone. The expectations placed on transitional justice have increased exponentially as victims and victim associations, social justice and human rights advocates, governments, regional and international organisations, as well as donors, have increasingly adopted the language of transitional justice in conflict situations. Academic efforts to understand the concept have similarly witnessed phenomenal growth and, within just a few years, transitional justice has developed into a field of study in its own right. This transitional justice momentum has taken root in Zimbabwe even before there has been a political transition in the country
Chapter 20: Striving for Justice and Peace on Earth, Catholic Peace Initiatives
No full textPeace on Earth: The Role of Religion in Peace and Conflict Studies provides a critical analysis of faith and religious institutions in peacebuilding practice and pedagogy. The work captures the synergistic relationships among faith traditions and how multiple approaches to conflict transformation and peacebuilding result in a creative process that has the potential to achieve a more detailed view of peace on earth, containing breadth as well as depth.Library and bookstore shelves are filled with critiques of the negative impacts of religion in conflict scenarios. Peace on Earth: The Role of Religion in Peace and Conflict Studies offers an alternate view that suggests religious organizations play a more complex role in conflict than a simply negative one. Faith-based organizations, and their workers, are often found on the frontlines of conflict throughout the world, conducting conflict management and resolution activities as well as advancing peacebuilding initiatives.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hcas_dcrs_facbooks/1029/thumbnail.jp
Freedom of Movement: Exploring a Path from Armed Conflict, Persecution, and Forced Migration to Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, and Development
No full textConference on exploring a Path from Armed Conflict, Persecution, and Forced Migration to Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, and Development
Chapter 11: Political Economy and Transitional Justice
No full text[Book Description]
Transitional justice is the way societies that have experienced civil conflict or authoritarian rule and widespread violations of human rights deal with the experience. With its roots in law, transitional justice as an area of study crosses various fields in the social sciences. This book is written with this multi- and inter-disciplinary dynamic of the field in mind.
The book presents the broad scope of transitional justice studies through a focus on the theory, mechanisms and debates in the area, covering such topics as: The origin, context and development of transitional justice Victims, victimology and transitional justice Prosecutions for abuses and gross violations of human rights Truth commissions Transitional justice and local justice Gender, political economy and transitional justice Apology, reconciliation and the politics of memory
Offering a discussion of the impact and outcomes of transitional justice, this approach provides valuable insight for those who seek both an introduction alongside relatively advanced engagement with the subject.
Transitional Justice: Theories, Mechanisms and Debates is an important text for postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students who take courses in transitional justice, human rights and criminal law, as well as a systematic reference text for researchers.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hcas_dcrs_facbooks/1061/thumbnail.jp
Chapter 7: Scholarship of Engagement in Transitional Contexts: An African Focus
No full textThe compelling benefits of an international Scholarship of Engagement in the global arena are discussed in this chapter/ Through the lens of transitional justice in post-conflict situations in Africa, Dr. Muvingi explores the perceptions of community members\u27 needs and challenges as framed by their own experiences to contribute to just understanding and resolution of these conflicts. Two empirical studies are discussed in the context of those differing local perceptions: the first focuses on the Rwandan genocide and the gacaca system in Rwanda, and the second on the Tree of Life initiatives in the ongoing conflicts in Zimbabwe.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hcas_dcrs_facbooks/1028/thumbnail.jp
Actualizing Human Rights Norms in Distanced Spaces; an Analysis of the Campaign to Eliminate Conflict Diamonds and the Capital Market Sanctions (Sudan) Campaigns in the United States
Get PDFIn the late 1990s and early 2000s, social justice activists in the United States initiated two coalition based campaigns aimed at ameliorating the violence associated with extractive industries in Angola, Sierra Leone and Sudan. The ideological diversity and the disparate interests of the coalition participants were an intriguing puzzle and part of this dissertation is an exploration of how it is that these widely diverse actors were able to collaborate and successfully run the campaigns despite their significant differences. I advance the argument that diversity of ideological subscription is no bar to coalition work in campaigns because a strategic basis for operationalization enables collaboration across ideological and interest differences. I utilized a tripartite opportunity structure framework to analyze the campaign. Extant scholarship on social movements is predominantly state centric, but in these cases the violators or human rights were other than states i.e. corporations, rebels and warlords that operated across state boundaries and were enabled by the market. To better encapsulate the range of structural opportunities I therefore delineated institutional structures rather than just state structures. The second leg of the framework emanates from the problem of separating framing from opportunity structures. The efforts of the activists through the framing of their messages as well as their mobilizing efforts were met by the counter frames of the targets and mediated by various opportunity structures that comprised the prevailing context. Rather than simply a unidirectional frame activity from the activists, I wanted to capture the competing nature of the framing processes in the public sphere. Thirdly, although the campaigns took place during the same historical time space and were motivated by the same phenomenon of violence in extractive industries, they had divergent trajectories and different outcomes. From the investigations it was fairly clear that the economic and strategic interests within the U.S. context largely determined the campaign outcomes. I therefore utilized a geopolitical opportunity structure to complete the analytical framework
- …
