NEWSLETTER HUMAN SECURITY CENTRE
June 2006
What's New in Human Security Research:
DEVELOPMENT: Short of the Goal: U.S. Policy and Poorly Performing States
ARMED CONFLICT: Challenges in Fighting a Global Insurgency
CHILDREN: Research with Children Living in Situations of Armed Conflict
DISPLACEMENT: The Path of Somali Refugees into Exile
GOVERNANCE: Security Sector Reform in Fragile States
DISARMAMENT: Disarmament as Humanitarian Action: From Perspective to Practice
HUMAN RIGHTS: Amnesty International Report 2006
RESOURCES: Trans-Boundary Water Cooperation as a Tool for Conflict Prevention
GENDER: Violence Against Girls in Africa During Armed Conflicts and Crises
CONFLICT PREVENTION: Freedom From Fear in Urban Spaces: Discussion Paper
CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Nepal: From People Power to Peace?
INTERNATIONAL LAW: The Failure of the Serious Crimes Trials in East Timor
DEVELOPMENT
Short of the Goal: U.S. Policy and Poorly Performing States
Center for Global Development
Analyzing one of the most troubling, yet poorly understood challenges in the developing world, this report sets an agenda for increased American effectiveness in dealing with failed states to promote economic development and international security. In January 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a speech on transforming U.S. foreign policy, underlining the challenge the U.S. faces in helping to transform poorly performing states into “responsible sovereigns.” The authors here provide in-depth analysis of country case studies, and detail the complexity of that challenge. This report holds many lessons for readers interested in assessing current U.S. efforts at nation-building. The volume begins with a primer for academics, policymakers and students interested in the poorly understood challenge of weak and failed states. The second section consists of case studies written by regional and policy experts covering Central America, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Yemen. Building on these case studies, it proposes recommendations to reform U.S. foreign and development policy to better meet the challenges posed by weak states.
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ARMED CONFLICT
Challenges in Fighting a Global Insurgency
U.S. Army War College
The strategic nature of war has changed, and our [the U.S.] military and government are striving to adapt to fight and win in this new environment. Today we are engaged in a global counterinsurgency, an unprecedented challenge which requires a level of original strategic thought and depth of understanding perhaps comparable only to that of the Cold War. Our ongoing political-military actions to achieve success in Iraq and Afghanistan are simply subordinate efforts of this larger, complex world war. Our enemies today clearly understand the value of asymmetrical approaches when dealing with the overwhelming conventional combat power of the United States military. Unfortunately, our unmatched conventional capability has slowed the US response to the changing, asymmetrical nature of modern war. We as a military are at risk of failing to understand the nature of the war we are fighting—a war which has been characterized as “a war of intelligence and a war of perceptions.” We must confront this dilemma and take our thinking to a new strategic level in this era to understand the tools and strategic approaches required to create victory in this very different 21st-century environment.
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CHILDREN
Research with Children Living In Situations of Armed Conflict: Concepts, Ethics, and Methods
Refugee Studies Centre
The impact of modern armed conflict on the world’s children has been devastating. According to the United Nations, during the last decade 2 million children have been killed, more than 1 million have been orphaned, and over 6 million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled. Approximately 800 children are killed or seriously injured by landmines and unexploded ordinance (UXOs) every month. The United Nations High Commissioner for the Refugees (UNHCR) currently offers support to 7.7 million refugee children, whilst over 1.5 million Palestinian refugee children are registered with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). In addition, around 25 million people are believed to be internally displaced, of whom 40–50 per cent are likely to be under the age of 18 years. Given the considerable obstacles to the collection of data in conflict settings, such figures should be taken as rough guides. Nevertheless, they do point to the massive impact of conflict on children and adolescents.
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DISPLACEMENT
The Path of Somali Refugees into Exile: A Comparative Analysis of Secondary Movements and Policy Responses
Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies
Somalis have been leaving their country for the last fifteen years, fleeing civil war, difficult economic conditions, drought and famine, and now constitute one of the largest diasporas in the world. Organized in the framework of collaboration between UNHCR and different countries, this research focuses on the secondary movements of Somali refugees. It was carried out as a multi-sited project in the following countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland and Yemen. The report provides a detailed insight into the movements of Somali refugees that is, their trajectories, the different stages in their migration history and their underlying motivations. It also gives a comparative overview of different protection regimes and practices.
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GOVERNANCE
Security Sector Reform In Fragile States
Danish Institute for International Studies
Questions of state weakness, fragility and failure have made it to the top of the international agenda in recent years. The absence of state control over the territory and the means of violence is increasingly seen to present a major threat to both human and international security. As part of this new agenda, donor agencies have recently begun focusing on how to rebuild or reform the security structures in fragile states. The paper explores two key policy concepts which are currently being developed within the OECD donor community on how to deal with security challenges in states with very weak governments. The paper argues that these policies may fail to produce the desired improvements in security because the approach remains too state-centric. The paper suggests looking beyond the formal state institutions and applying a more pragmatic, contextual approach that allows for building on informal and non-state security structures.
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DISARMAMENT
Disarmament as Humanitarian Action: From Perspective to Practice
United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research
Success in the multilateral disarmament field in recent years has been patchy. While some processes have encountered deadlock, others, such as the 1997 Mine Ban Convention prohibiting anti-personnel mines and negotiations on a protocol on explosive remnants of war, have been quite successful. If disarmament and arms control are to be effective or considered still relevant to addressing current problems, innovative approaches of this kind in multilateral disarmament and arms control negotiation are needed. In response, UNIDIR has initiated a project entitled “Disarmament as Humanitarian Action: Making Multilateral Negotiations Work." The project aims at reframing multilateral disarmament negotiation processes in humanitarian terms with a view to developing practical proposals to apply humanitarian concepts in ways that could help negotiators. The project adopts a problem-solving approach involving disarmament and humanitarian practitioners and other experts, and emphasizes practical means grounded in the humanitarian dimensions of disarmament.
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HUMAN RIGHTS
Amnesty International Report 2006
Amnesty International
During 2005 some of the world’s most powerful governments were successfully challenged, their hypocrisy exposed by the media, their arguments rejected by courts of law, their repressive tactics resisted by human rights activists. After five years of backlash against human rights in the “war on terror”, the tide appeared to be turning. Nevertheless, the lives of millions of people worldwide were devastated by the denial of fundamental rights. Human security was threatened by war and attacks by armed groups as well as by hunger, disease and natural disasters. Freedoms were curtailed by repression, discrimination and social exclusion. This Amnesty International Report documents human rights abuses in 150 countries around the world. It highlights the need for governments, the international community, armed groups and others in positions of power or influence to take responsibility.
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RESOURCES
Trans-Boundary Water Cooperation as a Tool for Conflict Prevention and Broader Benefit Sharing
Swedish Department For International Development Cooperation
Today, more than forty-five percent of the world’s population live in internationally shared river basins. Furthermore, over fifty percent of the world’s available water resources are located in internationally shared basins. The increasing pressure on the limited freshwater resources in places such as the Middle East and Southern Africa makes greater and deeper knowledge of how to manage transboundary waters essential. History shows that shared waters could and would be a source of conflict and even war. More recently it has been demonstrated that they can serve as a factor that draws states into a more co-operative mode. Taking stock of the fact that states tend to co-operate over their shared water sources the present study, commissioned by the Secretariat of the Expert Group on Development Issues (EGDI) at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, analyses whether transboundary water co-operation can be a tool for conflict prevention and also broader benefit sharing.
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GENDER
Violence Against Girls in Africa During Armed Conflicts and Crises
International Committee of the Red Cross
This is a report on a two day conference entitled Violence Against Girls in Africa held in Addis Ababa and hosted by the African Child Policy Forum, a pan-African organization working to promote children's rights. The report addresses the issue of violence against girls in Africa during armed conflicts and crises. Attention is drawn to the many different ways in which girls experience such situations and briefly presents some of the activities carried out by the ICRC to protect and assist them. International Humanitarian Law makes it clear that the physical and psychological integrity and dignity of women and girls must be protected in all circumstances. Yet despite the existing legal framework, sexual violence against girls remains prevalent in wartime. It is therefore essential to raise knowledge of humanitarian law among all those affected by or involved in armed conflict. If girls continue to suffer in wartime, it is not because there is no law to protect them, but because the law is not adequately enforced.
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CONFLICT PREVENTION
Freedom From Fear in Urban Spaces: Discussion Paper
Foreign Affairs Canada
This discussion paper posits that with the phenomenal growth of urban populations in the last century, cities have become powerful actors that can profoundly influence human security. In recognition of this fact, adopting an “urban lens” through which to view human security issues allows for a better understanding of peacebuilding or conflict-generating trends that are unique to cities, so as to strengthen and improve upon human security policy and programming. This paper is divided into four parts. Part I explores how major demographic shifts from rural to urban areas has led to the mushrooming of slums – informal, and often illegal settlements which are home to larger and larger populations of the marginalized poor. Part II discusses how the above trends can give rise to the potentially explosive combination of kids, guns, and gangs in urban areas. Part III examines the notion of “conflict-resilient cities” – cities in which population density and social capital potential can provide valuable conflict prevention opportunities. Part IV proposes that urban governance is one of the key human security tools that can be used to combat conflict and the failure of public security.
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CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Nepal: From People Power to Peace?
Crisis Group
King Gyanendra’s capitulation on 24 April 2006 in the face of a mass movement marked a victory for democracy in Nepal and, with a ceasefire between the new government and the Maoists now in place, the start of a serious peace process. Forced to acknowledge the “spirit of the people’s movement”, Gyanendra accepted popular sovereignty, reinstated parliament and invited the mainstream seven-party alliance to implement its roadmap – including election of a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution in line with the parties’ five-month-old agreement with the Maoists. The international community lost credibility by attempting to pressure the parties into an unworkable compromise with the king and must now work hard to support a difficult transition and peace process while avoiding similar mistakes. The international community will win back respect in Nepal if it helps the government as it tackles these challenges in an environment which remains precarious. The country is not yet back to business as usual. Donors must understand that their role should be to safeguard the difficult transition from people power to peace.
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INTERNATIONAL LAW
'Justice on the Cheap' Revisited: The Failure of the Serious Crimes Trials in East Timor
East-West Center
From 2000 to 2005, a UN-sponsored tribunal in East Timor sought to achieve accountability for violence associated with the 1999 vote for independence from Indonesia. Despite criticism of the tribunal's performance, the UN has maintained that it was a success. In fact, the East Timor tribunal represents a virtual textbook case of how not to create, manage, and administer a "hybrid" justice process. It was handicapped from the beginning by a debilitating lack of resources, an unclear mandate, inadequate recruitment, ineffective management by a peacekeeping mission that had other priorities, and above all a lack of political will both at UN headquarters and at the mission level. Trial practices and jurisprudence were too often deeply flawed, in important respects did not meet international standards, and, in a significant number of cases, undermined the rights of the accused to a fair trial. Because the UN risks repeating some of the same mistakes in Cambodia, it is particularly important now to assess the failings of the East Timor trials.
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Compiled by Robert Hartfiel
Human Security Research is produced by the Human Security Centre at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC. The Human Security Centre produces the annual Human Security Report and is funded by the governments of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. For more information on human security visit the Human Security Gateway, an online research and information database that contains a broad range of human security-related resources.