Situations Of Violent Conflict Research Articles

The Nairobi Declaration: Redefining Reparation for Women Victims of Sexual Violence

This paper explores the contribution of the Nairobi Declaration on the Right of Women and Girls to a Remedy and Reparation to the problem of delivering justice through reparation programmes for women victims of sexual violence in conflict situations. It highlights that this civil society initiative is particularly significant because it gives voice to women and girls who are survivors of sexual violence. Placed in the context of the recent adoption by the United Nations' General Assembly of the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, the Nairobi Declaration redefines reparation and guides policy-making to implement the right to reparation specifically for victims of sexual violence. The concept of reparation as a transformative and participative process put forward in the Nairobi Declaration constitutes its most innovative and inspiring contribution.

Aid Suspensions as Coercive Tools? The European Union’s Experience in the AfricanCaribbean-Pacific (ACP) Context

Since the signing of the Cotonou Agreement in 2000, the European Union (EU) has suspended development aid towards a number of African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries in response to breaches of Human Rights and democratic principles by activating the so-called Human Rights clause (article 96). The present article analyses the use by the EU of aid suspensions as political tools and their efficacy in achieving the desired policy goals, in an attempt to identify and explain the determinants leading to the success of these measures. The investigation finds that the use of development aid suspensions is frequently effective. Classical sanctions theory appears to account largely for their success, given that most targets display a significant degree of dependence on the EU as a donor or a trading partner. However, and without refuting the explanatory power of that approach, a closer look at this practice unveils a number of factors that contribute to facilitate success. One of them is the selective use of the tool: suspensions are applied predominantly in cases of interruptions of the democratic process, while they are rarely used in situations of violent conflict. The specificities of the consultations mechanism, and especially the attitude of ACP neighbouring countries- often openly supportive-, largely determine the final outcome.

Aid Suspensions as Coercive Tools? The European Union’s Experience in the AfricanCaribbean-Pacific (ACP) Context

Since the signing of the Cotonou Agreement in 2000, the European Union (EU) has suspended development aid towards a number of African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries in response to breaches of Human Rights and democratic principles by activating the so-called Human Rights clause (article 96). The present article analyses the use by the EU of aid suspensions as political tools and their efficacy in achieving the desired policy goals, in an attempt to identify and explain the determinants leading to the success of these measures. The investigation finds that the use of development aid suspensions is frequently effective. Classical sanctions theory appears to account largely for their success, given that most targets display a significant degree of dependence on the EU as a donor or a trading partner. However, and without refuting the explanatory power of that approach, a closer look at this practice unveils a number of factors that contribute to facilitate success. One of them is the selective use of the tool: suspensions are applied predominantly in cases of interruptions of the democratic process, while they are rarely used in situations of violent conflict. The specificities of the consultations mechanism, and especially the attitude of ACP neighbouring countries- often openly supportive-, largely determine the final outcome.
 
 Full textavailable at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v3i2.155

Peacebuilding and Development: Integrated Approaches to Evaluation

Awareness is growing in both the peacebuilding and development communities about the need to better understand the influence and impact of their programmes and policies in a more systematic way, particularly in situations of violent conflict or post-conflict environments. The increasing recognition among international agencies, scholars and practitioners of the need to treat peacebuilding and development in an integrated way is, however, not sufficiently matched when it comes to evaluation. There is a lack of research and publications, and the few developed frameworks and research results are often not well known. At the same time there is a demand for integrated frameworks and approaches by practitioner organisations and, more generally, by many others interested in understanding and evaluating the effects their development work has on peacebuilding, and vice versa. This issue of JPD aims to motivate researchers and practitioners to invest in advancing evaluation of themes that link peacebuilding and development applications, and to share new frameworks, reflections and analysis of different experiences.

Participatory development and violent conflict—An antagonism?

This article challenges conventional wisdom that in a situation of violent conflict, participatory development is not possible. It argues that the specific scope for participatory development is defined by the political economy of war and the political field in which development takes place.Therefore, one cannot assume a priori whether or not participation is feasible. This article reviews two case studies from Sri Lanka, where aid agencies have implemented a participatory development approach in the midst of ongoing violent conflict. The case studies illuminate the difficulties in implementing and the merits deriving from participation. Initiating participatory processes has the potential to undermine the basic logic of civil wars and political violence because it offers people, within a protected space, to rebuild their social networks, confidence and some positive view into the future. This article concludes that while aid agencies may find some opportunities to negotiate space for development, the leverage power upon the conflict dynamics will always be very limited.

How Is Education Possible When There’s a Body in the Middle of the Room?

This article explores the possibility of education for multiculturalism and diversity in a situation of violent conflict. It tells the story of my attempt to figure out what might be learned from the situation of living with violence, threats to personal safety, and death as part of the everyday. I draw on recent experiences of dialogue between Jewish and Arab/Palestinian Israelis in preservice and in-service settings at the University of Haifa to suggest that attention to feelings, to the expression of fear, vulnerability, and anger, and to the body that carries these feelings and experiences, are needed in order to make such dialogue possible.

Risk factors for domestic violence: findings from a South African cross-sectional study

In 1998 a cross-sectional study of violence against women was undertaken in three provinces of South Africa. The objectives were to measure the prevalence of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of women, to identify risk factors and associated health problems and health service use. A multi-stage sampling design was used with clusters sampled with probability proportional to number of households and households were randomly selected from within clusters. One randomly selected woman aged 18–49 years was interviewed in each selected home. Interviews were held with a total 1306 women, the response rate was 90.3% of eligible women. For the risk factor analysis, multiple logistic regression models were fitted from a large pool of candidate explanatory variables, while allowing for sampling design and interviewer effects. The lifetime prevalence of experiencing physical violence from a current or ex-husband or boyfriend was 24.6%, and 9.5% had been assaulted in the previous year. Domestic violence was significantly positively associated with violence in her childhood, her having no further education, liberal ideas on women's roles, drinking alcohol, having another partner in the year, having a confidant(e), his boy child preference, conflict over his drinking, either partner financially supporting the home, frequent conflict generally, and living outside the Northern Province. No significant associations were found with partners’ ages, employment, migrant status, financial disparity, cohabitation, household possessions, urbanisation, marital status, crowding, communication, his having other partners, his education, her attitudes towards violence or her perceptions of cultural norms on women's role. The findings suggest that domestic violence is most strongly related to the status of women in a society and to the normative use of violence in conflict situations or as part of the exercise of power. We conclude by discussing implications for developing theory on causal factors in domestic violence.

La violencia en la pareja

This article describes variables related to different forms of violence in couples. These variables have been organized in a theoretical model that takes into account cultural factors, sociodemographic and family characteristics, attitudes, and other variables defined as inhibitors and facilitators of violence in conflict situations. For the ACTIVA project, a representative sample consisting of 10,821 people was interviewed in eight cities. For this research on couples, 6,184 of those responses were taken into consideration, from persons who were in a marriage or an unmarried relationship during the year before the interview. The data were obtained from verbal responses to a questionnaire completed in the interviewees' residences. The variables that were clearly associated with couples violence were: socioeconomic level (the fewer the economic resources, the greater the violence), gender (women reported both using and receiving more violence than men did, although the actual level of violence was similar), age (there was more violence between younger people), marital status (there was more violence between unmarried persons), childhood abuse (those most abused in childhood), excessive alcohol consumption (those who have gotten drunk), holding attitudes justifying violence, and having fewer skills to deal with conflicts. Acts of violence, which both men and women commit in relationships, originate in the socialization process, both through the practice of abuse as well as the transmission of values that lead to attitudes justifying violence. A number of things could help markedly reduce the levels of couples violence, including a balance of power between the two persons in the relationship, a modification of attitudes, an improvement in conflict-resolution skills, and a reduction in stress-producing factors.

Gross Violations of Human Rights: Invoking the European Convention on Human Rights in the Case of Turkey

Situations of gross violation of human rights require a larger response than is possible through the invocation of complaints mechanisms in international human rights treaties. Nevertheless such international legal procedures can have an influence through the impartial establishment of disputed facts and international accountability. The European Convention on Human Rights has been invoked against Turkey by a large number of citizens of Kurdish origin claiming to be victims of practices of violation by the security forces in the emergency region of the South East. The experience of these cases before the Commission and Court to date demonstrates the hurdles that an individual complainant faces in seeking to prove alleged patterns of gross violation. These cases which have involved a major role for the Commission in fact-finding have also produced a new emphasis on the importance of the right to a domestic remedy as part of a State's commitments under the Convention. Alter the coming into force of Protocol 11 the new Court may well be faced with new situations of violent conflict or of minority tensions which may necessitate radical changes to its powers, procedures and practice.

A Cognition (Attribution)-Emotion Model of Violence in Conflict Situations

The present research was designed to examine the relationships between attribution processes and interpersonal emotions (anger and empathic emotions) as determinants of violent reactions in conflict situations. A model including the mediating role of attribution processes and emotions as well as all theoretically meaningful relationships among the variables was proposed and tested using Bentler's structural equations program (EQS). Results show that the model fits the data well and the mediating role of anger and empathic emotions is supported In addition, the role of attributional thinking (e.g., perceived intentionality of an instigation and controllability of its cause) as a determinant of anger and empathic emotions is confirmed. Results are discussed in terms of potential extensions and applications of attribution theory and the role of interpersonal emotions in antisocial behavior and interpersonal relations in general