Guatemala-Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca: Agreement on a Firm and Lasting Peace, and the 10 Integral Agreements Covering Human Rights, Resettlement, Human Rights Violations, Indigenous Peoples, Social and Economic Issues, Civilian Power and the Armed Forces, Definitive Ceasefire, Constitutional and Electoral Reforms, the Legal Integration of Urng, and Implementation, Compliance and Verification

1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Arnson

On December 29, 1996, the Guatemalan government and guerrillas of the Unidad Revoludonaria Nadonal Guatemalteca (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity) (URNG) signed an “Accord for a Firm and Lasting Peace,” formally ending Central America's longest and bloodiest internal armed conflict. According to estimates by Guatemalan human rights groups, brutal counterinsurgency campaigns by the army and civil defense groups took over 100,000 lives, resulted in the “disappearance” of some 40,000 others, and produced hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons.

Author(s):  
Pascha Bueno-Hansen

This chapter examines the struggles and gaps between the protagonism of rural Andean women, or campesinas, and the priorities of the human rights and feminist movements in Peru as they try to address the ever-growing number of victims and survivors of the internal armed conflict. The armed conflict pitted the armed forces versus the Shining Path; both sides demanded allegiance from rural communities. From the beginning, campesinas were at the forefront of local efforts to denounce human rights violations and address the needs of affected people with the help of church groups and human rights advocates. Peruvian human rights and feminist movements presented the strongest potential for taking on the defense of campesinas' rights. This chapter considers how social exclusions marginalized campesina voices in the transitional justice process and how and why, despite campesina protagonism and human rights and feminist movements' best intentions, the gender-based violence directed at campesinas during the armed conflict slipped through the cracks. It also looks at the founding of the Women for Democracy, or Mujeres por la Democracia (MUDE), in 1997.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-36
Author(s):  
Agbo Friday Ojonugwa

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are usually forced to flee or leave their homes, particularly in situations of armed conflict. They are displaced within their national territories and are generally subject to heightened suffering and vulnerability in many cases. It is also essential to state that the issue of internal displacement has become prominent because of the realisation that peace and reconstruction in conflict-ridden societies depend on the effective settlement and reintegration of displaced persons. Nigeria is a country that has a history of conflicts and displaced people. There has been a challenge in finding lasting peace through the employment of conflict resolution techniques and also the challenge of catering for the welfare of internally displaced persons in the country. However, peace and development without taking into account the settlement, return, and reintegration of IDPs. These desirous objectives are proving quite difficult in Nigeria as many challenges confront the government, policymakers, and humanitarian NGOs in providing the IDPs with their rights and needs. Some of the challenges can easily be overcome while some are more tasking requiring concerted efforts and massive resources to overcome. The aim of this article is to highlights the significant challenges confronting IDPs and provides some solutions to these challenges. In adopting the doctrinal method in discussions, the article finds that enormous challenges abound that confront IDPs in Nigeria, and it finds that there is the need for the government to find urgent solutions to the challenges of IDPs for the wellbeing of IDPs  


TheHandbookconsists of 32 Chapters in seven parts. Part I provides the historical background and sets out some of the contemporary challenges. Part II considers the relevant sources of international law. Part III describes the different legal regimes: land warfare, air warfare, maritime warfare, the law of occupation, the law applicable to peace operations, and the law of neutrality. Part IV introduces key concepts in international humanitarian law: weapons and the notion of superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering, the principle of distinction, proportionality, genocide and crimes against humanity, grave breaches and war crimes, internal armed conflict. Part V looks at key rights: the right to life, the prohibition on torture, the right to fair trial, economic, social and cultural rights, the protection of the environment, the protection of cultural property, and the human rights of the members of the armed forces. Part VI covers key issues such as: the use of force, terrorism, unlawful combatants, the application of human rights in times of armed conflict, forced migration, and issues of gender. Part VII deals with accountability issues including those related to private security companies, the need to focus on armed groups, as well as questions of state responsibility brought before national courts, and finally, the book addresses issues related to transitional justice.


Author(s):  
Pascha Bueno-Hansen

This book examines how social inequality functions within Peru's transitional justice process by focusing on the gender-based violence that occurred during the internal armed conflict of 1980–2000. It considers how Peruvian human rights and feminist movements, the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Committee (PTRC), and a feminist nongovernmental organization—the Estudio por la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer, or Study and Defense of Women's Rights (DEMUS)—negotiated between implementing international human rights law and holistically addressing gender-based violence. It also explores how gender norms influence what violations the Peruvian human rights movement, and later the PTRC, prioritize; how gender norms influence dominant representations of women in the PTRC public hearings and sexual violence legal cases; and how the temporally bound nature of transitional justice exists in tension with the continuum of violence. Finally, the book discusses the influence of other social factors, such as ethnicity, language, class, and culture, on gender-based violence during the internal armed conflict.


2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHALOKA BEYANI

The aim of this article is to draw on contemporary developments relating to the elaboration of a binding legal framework for the treatment of internally displaced persons in Africa. By definition, internally displaced persons are “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of, or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border”.


Author(s):  
Ronald Edward Villamil Carvajal

El artículo aborda el análisis de una modalidad particular del fenómeno paramilitar en Colombia como son las prácticas paramilitares, comprendidas como la constitución de redes o alianzas criminales funcionales, cambiantes y coyunturales en la planeación, coordinación y perpetración de graves violaciones a los DDHH y al DIH. Se toma como epicentro del análisis el proceso de violencia política ocurrido entre los años 1982-1997 en el Alto Nordeste Antioqueño (conformado por los municipios de Remedios y Segovia), paradigmático de esta trayectoria particular del fenómeno paramilitar. La caracterización y análisis de las prácticas paramilitares amplían la comprensión acerca del proceso de conformación, expansión y consolidación de las estructuras paramilitares que se agruparon en la confederación de las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC).Palabras Clave: Conflicto armado interno, Violencia política, Memoria histórica, Remedios y Segovia, Paramilitarismo ABSTRACTPARAMILITARY PRACTICES IN THE ALTO NORDESTE ANTIOQUEÑOThe article deals with the analysis of a particular modality of the paramilitary phenomenon in Colombia, such as paramilitary practices, including the constitution of functional, changing and conjunctural criminal networks or alliances in the planning, coordination and perpetration of serious violations of human rights and IHL . The epicenter of the analysis is the political violence that occurred between 1982 and 1997 in the Alto Nordeste Antioquioqueño (made up of the municipalities of Remedios and Segovia), paradigmatic of this particular trajectory of the paramilitary phenomenon. The characterization and analysis of paramilitary practices broaden the understanding of the process of conformation, expansion and consolidation of the paramilitary structures that were grouped in the confederation of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).Key Words: Internal armed conflict, Political violence, Historical memory, Remedios and Segovia, Paramilitarism


2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kretzmer ◽  
Aviad Ben-Yehuda ◽  
Meirav Furth

The assumption of this article is that when a state is involved in an international armed conflict it may employ lethal force against combatants of the enemy unless they arehors de combat. Hence, even when it would be feasible to do so, it has no duty to apprehend enemy combatants rather than use force against them. Does this same norm apply in non-international armed conflicts occurring in the territory of a single state (internal conflicts)? The writers argue that the answer is in the negative. Despite the attempt in recent years to narrow the differences between the norms that apply in non-international armed conflicts (NIACs) and international armed conflicts (IACs), there are still significant differences between the two types of armed conflict, which justify the application of different norms in this context. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions refers only to humanitarian norms and does not imply that the norms relating to the conduct of hostilities in IACs apply also in NIACs. While customary international law may allow states to use lethal force in a NIAC in the actual conduct of hostilities, there is no basis for assuming that the norm that ostensibly applies in IACs relating to use of such force outside the context of hostilities applies in NIACs too. The jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which is the main source for the arguments on closing the gap between IACs and NIACs, relates only to humanitarian norms and has never addressed extending the permissive IAC norms of the law of armed conflict (LOAC) to NIACs. Finally, in an internal armed conflict the state has a dual capacity: it must respect and ensure the human rights of all persons subject to its jurisdiction, and it is a party in an armed conflict with some of those persons. In such a situation, the only context in which the state may deviate from regular norms of law enforcement is the actual context of hostilities, in which application of such norms is not feasible. In other contexts, its human rights obligations prevail.


2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew G Reiter

The use of amnesty for human rights violations has been heavily criticised on legal, ethical and political grounds. Yet amnesties have been the most popular transitional justice mechanisms over the past four decades, particularly in the context of internal armed conflict. States justify these amnesties by claiming they are important tools to secure peace. But how successful is amnesty in accomplishing these goals? This article seeks to answer this question by analysing the use and effectiveness of 236 amnesties used in internal armed conflicts worldwide since 1970. The article first creates a typology of the use of amnesty in the context of internal armed conflict. It then qualitatively examines the impact on peace of each type of amnesty. The article finds that most amnesties granted in the context of internal armed conflict have no demonstrable impact on peace and security. Yet amnesties granted as carrots to entice the surrender of armed actors occasionally succeed in bringing about the demobilisation of individual combatants or even entire armed groups. More importantly, amnesties extended as part of a peace process are effective in initiating negotiations, securing agreements, and building the foundation for long-lasting peace.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. e1559
Author(s):  
Martha-Cecilia Dietrich

Eudosia is still searching for her husband’s remains in the highlands of Ayacucho, Lucero has been in prison for 25 years now for the crime of terrorism against the Peruvian state, and since 2009 the commandos of the counterinsurgency unit Chavin de Huantar recreate and commemorate their heroic military actions to save a nation from the threat of terrorism. Twelve years after the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission published its final report about the atrocities committed during the internal armed conflict (1980-2000), memories of this period seem more contested than ever. This film explores the complex legacies of twenty years of violence and war in Peru through practices of remembering. In three audio-visual pieces made in collaboration with relatives of the disappeared, insurgents of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) and members of the Armed Forces, this documentary aims for creating an on-screen dialogue between memories, which in practice remains elusive.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document