Situations Of Violent Conflict Research Articles

Sexual Violence in Conflict Situations as Structural Injustice

Jus post bellum, a relatively new addition to the just war tradition, offers a set of principles to ensure a just peace. The jus post bellum principles establish important guidelines for punitive and transitional justice in the wake of unjust aggression. However, sexual violence during conflict highlights some of the limits of relying solely on a rights-based approach to jus post bellum. Using the jus post bellum principles, I offer some suggestions for what might be required regarding punishment, compensation, and rights vindication for both individuals and communities, highlighting throughout the limits of relying solely on a rights-based approach to jus post bellum. I then argue that post bellum considerations need to account for the structural injustices of sexual violence in conflict situations. Doing so supports important social justice initiatives proposed for a global response to sexual violence in conflict aimed not only at punishment but at prevention.

The Anti-Shibboleth: The Traumatic Character of the Shibboleth as Silence

AbstractThis article discusses the familiar notion of the shibboleth in situations of exclusion, focusing on the non-use, rather than the use, of language, for which I propose the term the anti-shibboleth. The article begins with an introduction to the concept of the shibboleth, giving examples from situations of violent conflict and suppression such as the Holocaust and the Cambodian genocide, and goes on to develop the notion of the anti-shibboleth, using further examples from such contexts. It then considers the situation of Aboriginal Australians in the period up until 1967 in the light of the concept. The article concludes with a discussion of the way in which we may understand the anti-shibboleth theoretically, drawing on insights from poststructuralism.

Conflict period sexual violence against women: Promise of the vulnerability theory

Compared to most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya has, for a long time, enjoyed relative peace. However, this perceived peace has been marked with several incidents of internal clashes exposing women to large-scale gender-based sexual violence. While sexual violence is generally common in peacetime, it is exacerbated in conflict situations such as the post-election violence of 2007–2008 which saw mass incidents of rape and unprecedented killings in Kenya. This happened despite a robust legal framework prohibiting sexual violence. This article shows that the state’s to take cognisance of certain issues uniquely affecting women in Kenya in various aspects and contexts accumulate to disadvantage women, thereby making them more vulnerable. Second, the state’s failure to respond adequately to the unique plight of women during peacetime further exacerbates their suffering during armed conflicts. Thus, in a bid to find a better legal framework to protect women during conflict in Kenya, this article analyses the vulnerability theory of human rights which acknowledges that humans are generally and naturally vulnerable to certain elements. It concludes by stating that only when the vulnerability of women is understood and appreciated, can the law be effectively used to protect women against sexual and gender-based violence in conflict situations, among other hardships that women face, just by virtue of being women. It proposes among others a multidimensional approach including law reform, strict implementation of the existing law, economic inclusion of women and more investment in women as a remedy.

Human Capital, Values, and Attitudes of Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015.

Since its inception in 2010, the Arab Spring has evolved into a situation of violent conflict in many countries, leading to high levels of migration from the affected region. Given the social impact of the large number of individuals applying for asylum across Europe in 2015, it is important to study who these persons are in terms of their skills, motivations, and intentions. DiPAS (Displaced Persons in Austria Survey) aims to uncover the socio-demographic characteristics of the persons seeking refuge who arrived in Austria in 2015, mainly originating from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Particular focus is on human capital, attitudes and values. This survey, the first of its kind in Austria and possibly in Europe, was carried out among adult displaced persons, mostly residing in Vienna, yielding 514 completed interviews. Information gathered on spouses and children allows for the analysis of 972 persons living in Austria, and of further 419 partners and children abroad. Results indicate that the surveyed population comprised mainly young families with children, particularly those coming from Syria and Iraq. Their educational level is high compared with the average level in their country of origin. A vast majority of respondents are Muslims, rating their religiosity at medium levels. Judging from stated attitudes towards gender equity, interviewed men seem to have more liberal attitudes than their compatriots. The majority of respondents do not intend to return to their home countries, mostly because of the perception of permanent threat. DiPAS provides data for political decision-making and the on-going societal dialogue. Its findings can help to inform assessments about the integration potential of the displaced population into the host society. In addition, the applied methodological technique and experiences during the fieldwork provide valuable insights on sampling asylum seekers and refugees in the current European context.

‘A Dark Stone in My Stomach’: Interventions for Survivors of Mass Violence and Building Sustainable Peace

The nature and form of interventions received by survivors of mass violence in conflict situations both directly and indirectly impact on the survivors’ ability to support building sustainable peac...

Risk of Sexual Violence: Perspectives and Experiences of Women in a Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sexual violence in conflict situations is gaining worldwide recognition as a human rights issue. There is growing awareness and concern about the risks associated with sexual violence against women. This study was conducted in order to explore the perceptions and experiences of the risk of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The study draws on qualitative, in-depth interviews with women at a hospital in Bukavu. The findings show that women suffered humiliation, torture and beatings during their rape. Most women were raped by a number of men and others were forced to have sex with close family members. The rapist often used extreme brutality against the women which had major long-term consequences for women including unwanted pregnancies and/or HIV/AIDS. Many of the women experienced great uncertainty about their future and that of their children.

Al Gore and the Climate Reality Project Down Under: The Up Market of the Climate Movement

In terms of applied work, anthropologists have been working on climate change issues at two broad and quite distinct levels, namely in the formulation of climate policies and by becoming involved in climate action groups and the climate movement that supports social, economic, and technological changes in the interest of mitigating climate change, a phenomenon that an increasing number of observers view as the most profound environmental problem ever faced by humanity and one that will continue to play itself out during the present century. In her list of issues that engaged anthropologists examine, Warren (2006:213) includes "social justice, inequality, subaltern challenges to the status quo, globalization's impacts, and ethical position of our field research in situations of violent conflict." Ironically, many of these issues are related in one way or another to anthropogenic climate change. I maintain that more anthropologists need to become involved as observers and engaged scholars in applied initiatives seeking to respond to climate change on the local, regional, national, and global levels.

Théorie et construction des rapports de genre dans la guérilla kurde de Turquie

Situations of violent conflict are often propitious to the reconfiguration of social relations and, in particular, the renegotiation of masculine and feminine roles. Yet the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) is seen as having gone farther than any other movement in feminizing its recruitment, supplying a complex theoretical foundation for male/female relations and genuinely attempting to apply the resulting principles at the organizational level. But are these quantitative transformations and organizational developments accompanied by distinctive gender relations within the PKK army? Have they dispensed with the sexual division of activist and warrior labor? In fact, the construction of gender relations within guerilla warfare is first and foremost a response to the questions raised by feminine involvement and is ultimately associated with a rationalization of “traditional” practices. Beyond this, it seems necessary to rethink the feminine question in terms of domination within the PKK: from this perspective, the liberation of women appears to be nothing more than the feminine version of the desexualization and submission of activists. ?

Bounded by Violence: Institutionalizing Local Territories in the North of Ireland

This article analyzes the relationship between territoriality and organized violence through an examination of two relatively understudied aspects of the production and reproduction of informal territorial boundaries in situations of violent conflict. It looks first at the role of the state in the establishment, maintenance, and institutionalization of substate territories associated with challengers, outlining how these bounding processes are generated through interaction between the state and challengers, rather than primarily through the actions of challengers. Secondly, it explores the shaping force of geopolitical contexts on the everyday maintenance of informal boundaries in conflict situations. The argument is illustrated with examples from the most recent period of violent conflict in the north of Ireland, drawing on a range of primary sources, including official and private papers. The article argues that an analysis that gives due recognition to the central role of the state and the importance of the geopolitical context in the delineation and institutionalization of substate territories associated with armed challengers can help us to better understand the dynamics of organized violence.

Assessing Conflict and Exchange: The Defensive and Access Layout of La Alumbrera (c. AD 1000–1480, North-west Argentina)

The Regional Development Period (c. ad 1000–1480) in north-west Argentina is characterized, among other important features, by the coexistence of two phenomena seemingly opposed: a constant situation of violent conflict between communities and the maintenance or even intensification of interregional goods exchange networks. Although recent studies recognize the simultaneity of these processes, only a few scholars asked how communities dealt with the necessity of protecting themselves as well as obtaining distant resources. In this paper we present the analysis of the defensive and access layout of La Alumbrera archeological site which has the peculiarity of condensing features that may illustrate an example of how conflict and exchange coexisted at a local scale.

“A crime in another language?” revisited

In 1995, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman was convicted for his role in the 1993 plot to bomb the World Trade Center. In 2002, Abdel-Rahman’s attorney Lynne Stewart and his interpreter Mohammed Yousry were arrested and charged with aiding terrorism. The crux of the evidence against them came from their jail visits with Abdel-Rahman. This article examines the roles of Abdel-Rahman, Stewart, and Yousry during those visits. It argues that due to factors such as ethnicity, gender, and religious background, the Arabic language and its related cultural discourse became the central context of interaction. The article focuses on three main facets of this interaction: Arabic-English vis-à-vis English-Arabic translations, Yousry’s mediation of relations through Arabic-centered cultural phenomena, and Stewart’s acceptance of — and to a certain extent participation in — an Arabic-centered discourse through her use of Arabic phrases (particularly religious ones). Twelve segments have been selected from the transcripts to illustrate these phenomena in this situation of violent conflict, which is highly relevant in today’s politically charged climate.

Violence Experiences in Care: Some Methodological Remarks based on the Finnish Child Victim Survey

The article examines violence experienced by children in substitute care and at home based on the survey results of the Finnish Child Victim Survey carried out in schools in 2008. The focus is on physical and psychological violence in conflict situations. Of the 13 459 respondents, pupils between 12 and 16 years of age, 233 children reported living in care or having lived in care. Children living in care were asked the same questions as children living at home about violence experienced by their care‐taking adults. The analysis compares the answers between those two groups and examines them in relation to information about children's psychosocial problems and measures of emotional wellbeing.‘The focus is on physical and psychological violence in conflict situations’According to the study, children report more physical and psychological violence by adults in their homes than children do in residential homes or foster homes. Substitute care is not, however, free of violence. Children with psychosocial problems experienced more violence at home than in substitute care. The article suggests a more thorough conceptual and methodological analysis of abuse in care. The conceptual and methodological tools employed should be sensitive to the particular nature of abuse in care and the studies should pay attention to a variety of forms and practices of violence. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Relationships of Learning between Military Personnel and Interpreters in Situations of Violent Conflict

This article explores the nature of the learning and learning relationships that emerge between civilian interpreters (most of them recruited locally) and military personnel in situations of violent conflict, with specific reference to the conflict in Iraq. The decision to focus on civilian linguists stems from particular ethical, cultural and professional issues raised by their involvement in such situations and the fact that those issues have yet to be fully explored by the academy. The discussion is premised on the notion of ‘horizontal learning’ according to which learners do not acquire a body of facts about the world, but instead develop understandings of how to ‘be’ in a world in flux. Under such a premise, the concept of ‘teacher’ does not exist and the potential for ‘dual pedagogies’ therefore emerges. The article considers the potential for the development of identifiable inter- and intra-professional communities of practice as a way to foster informed approaches to interpreter-mediated activities and also to serve as a framework for the evaluation and sense-making of interpreter-mediated activities in the field, against the backdrop of the increasing professionalization of conflict in the modern world.

Education for Human Rights in Times of Peace and Conflict

Fernando M. Reimers and Connie K. Chung discuss how violent conflict relates to education. They argue that the relationship between education and conflict need to be understood through a developmental perspective. Such a perspective would lead to appropriate programming during the evolution of the conflict. A key focus would be on teaching human rights as a way to educate for peace and thus restore peace and governance. They review some current practices in education in situations of violent conflict in order to illustrate how human rights education is an essential component of educating children and youth to resolve conflicts in non-violent ways and to accept a civil order ruled by law.

Shoot The Transtraitor!

This essay applies the concept homo sacer, as put forth by Giorgio Agamben, to the social perception of translators and interpreters when they intervene in situations of violent conflict. Examples are drawn from history, from contemporary events (including the investigation of Guantánamo ‘linguists’), from nonfictional writing (such as Daoud Hari’s The Translator), and from fiction (for example, Mia Couto’s Last Flight of the Flamingo). Real and fictional ‘case studies’ agree on the parlous status of the translator. The homo sacer is a literal out-law, that is, someone who is neither punished nor protected by the law. The concept owes much to that of the pharmakos as analyzed by Jacques Derrida, and both philosophers (Agamben and Derrida) claim to be reviving concepts from the classical world, among them the necessity of logos to the polis as posited by Aristotle. The article argues that by the nature of their profession, translators and interpreters in situations of conflict do not belong fully to any of the languages they are translating into and out of; to the non-bilinguals who hired them they seem to be speaking with a forked tongue and in cipher, abandoning logos in favour of mere phoné (voice) and hence moving outside the law of the polis.

The Evolution of Security Council Innovations in Sanctions

The attitude of security council members toward sanctions has been fraught with contradictions mixed, at times, with a strong dose of reluctance. Looking at the employment of UN sanctions over the years and across cases, however, one is struck by how much has been achieved, both in terms of their impact and in terms ofthe development of council working methods despite the undercurrent of political uneasiness and discord that has almost always accompanied this issue within the council. This article outlines the significant changes made to the design of sanctions regimes by the council over the years and the processes and methods associated with the regimes in order to present a clearer and more accurate assessment ofthe council's efforts to improve its working methods and procedures vis-a-vis sanctions.EVOLUTION IN SANCTIONS REGIMES DESIGNThe security council has changed, fundamentally, its construction of sanctions regimes since the early 1990s. After years of Cold War paralysis the council became much more interventionist, resorting to chapter VII tools more often. Sanctions were the council's tool of choice to address threats to and breaches of international peace and security. The council applied sanctions to address a varied list of crises and conflicts, especially intrastate conflicts and, most recently, to target nonstate actors who support international terrorism. In addition, the objectives towards which the security council applies sanctions have expanded from, in most cases, stopping or slowing hostilities to include a variety of goals, such as improving state governance; restoring democratically elected governments; and addressing a range of global security issues from nuclear proliferation and terrorism to the use of child soldiers, and most recently, sexual violence in conflict situations. Finally, the security council has become more selective about the types of targets chosen and the types of measures applied.In the early 1990s, the council was less inventive in the types of sanctions it applied. Sanctions applied in some cases were comprehensive (e.g., in the case of Iraq, Haiti, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) while in other cases, only an arms embargo was applied (e.g., in the case of the former Yugoslavia, Ethiopia/ Eritrea, Liberia I, Rwanda, and Kosovo). In this period, sanctions were applied against the states in question rather than particular actors. However, the council began to differentiate between the measures and the particular actors ofthe conflicts. In the case of Angola, for example, in 1993, the council chose to apply sanctions against only a nonstate actor - the rebel group Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola (UNITA) - rather than the state. Determining that as a result of UNITA's military actions, the situation in Angola constituted a threat to international peace and security, the council invoked chapter VII.1 The security council imposed a mandatory arms embargo (including related materiel) and a ban on petroleum and petroleum products to Angola in September 1993,2 with the objective of inducing UNITA to accept the terms ofthe peace accord signed in 19 9 1.3 When UNITA and its leader, Jonas Savimbi, refused to comply with the council's demands, the council choose to target UNITAs main source of funding - diamonds. Diamonds, however, were also an important legitimate source of funds for the Angolan government. Therefore, the council made the decision to target only diamonds not certified by the Angola government, further differentiating the target UNITA and the particular commodity of concern - the conflict diamonds sold by UNITA.Following the UNITA example, the council continued to focus on commodities as a way of pressuring conflict groups by tailoring the types of commodities sanctioned to the state in conflict. Timber sanctions, for example, were applied against Liberia, as timber represented a major source of the country's wealth, whereas in Cote d'Ivoire, the security council considered the possibility of targeting cocoa and cotton in addition to diamonds in order to maximize the impact of the sanctions on those responsible for the continuation of the conflict, while limiting the consequences to the general population. …

Characteristic Features of Severe Child Physical Abuse—A Multi-informant Approach

Minor child physical abuse has decreased in Sweden since 1979, when a law banning corporal punishment of children was passed, but more serious forms have not decreased. The aim of this study was to examine risk and background factors in cases of severe child abuse reported to the police. Files from different agencies (e.g., Social services, Adult and Child psychiatry and Pediatric clinic) for 20 children and 34 caretakers were studied. An accumulation of risk factors was found. It is concluded that when the following four factors are present, there is a risk for severe child abuse: 1) a person with a tendency to use violence in conflict situations; 2) a strong level of stress on the perpetrator and the family; 3) an insufficient social network that does not manage to protect the child; 4) a child that does not manage to protect him or herself. Thus, multiple sources of information must be used when investigating child abuse.

Flexibility in return, reconstruction and livelihoods in displaced villages in Casamance, Senegal

The paper argues that livelihoods research in situations of violent conflict and its aftermath can contribute to geographical understandings of flexibility. Such settings paradoxically demand greater flexibility from economic actors while imposing new and sometimes severe constraints on them to exercise it. These constraints often have spatial aspects. The paper explores these issues through research on return of the displaced in Casamance, Senegal. It analyses the dynamics of reoccupation and exploitation by villagers of their former habitable and agricultural spaces amid improving but still problematic security conditions. Flexibility is most visible in the new settlement forms adopted in villages undergoing reconstruction, mainly reflecting security issues. It is also evident in shifting patterns of economic activity and the reconfiguration of local political space. However, such flexibility transcends the situation under study and has long been described in livelihoods research across the developing world, albeit in other terms.

The European Union, Civil Society and Conflict Transformation

The European Union considers conflict resolution as a cardinal objective of its foreign policy. It makes use of a number of policy instruments to promote conflict transformation through 'constructive engagement', which cover a range of sectors affecting conditions and incentives at the micro level. The EU has recognised the importance of engaging with civil society in situations of violent conflict, but needs to engage more with local civil society to make its policies more effective. This paper provides a conceptual framework and discussion to analyse which local civil society actors play a role in conflict and conflict transformation, through which activities they impact on conflicts and how, what determines their effectiveness, and finally how EU neighbourhood policies can enhance their constructive impact in peacefully transforming conflicts in its near abroad by engaging with civil society.

The European Union, Civil Society and Conflict Transformation

The European Union considers conflict resolution as a cardinal objective of its foreign policy. It makes use of a number of policy instruments to promote conflict transformation through ‘constructive engagement’, which cover a range of sectors affecting conditions and incentives at the micro level. The EU has recognised the importance of engaging with civil society in situations of violent conflict, but needs to engage more with local civil society to make its policies more effective. This briefing aims to aid the understanding of the role of civil society organisations in situations of violent conflict, and the potential role of EU policies in enhancing CSOs’ conflict transformation efforts.