scholarly journals The Role of Civil Society Actors in Peacemaking: The Case of Guatemala

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
Roddy Brett

This article builds upon recent scholarship in critical peace studies that focuses on the role of civil society actors in formal peacemaking processes, in short, peace talks, and post-conflict peacebuilding. The article specifically explores the role of civil society actors in the Guatemalan peace process. The research addresses the possible tensions and potential complementarities in processes where civil society enjoys a mandated role in centralised, formal peace negotiations carried out between the state and armed actors in talks levied within the liberal peace framework. In the case of Guatemala, non-state actors participated to an unprecedented extent in the peace negotiations, and Guatemala has not relapsed into armed conflict. However, post-conflict Guatemala is a violent and unstable country. Consequently, the study challenges the assumption that peacemaking is necessarily more successful in those instances where provisions have been established to guarantee the participation of civil society.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar V. Bautista-Cespedes ◽  
Louise Willemen ◽  
Augusto Castro-Nunez ◽  
Thomas A. Groen

AbstractThe Amazon rainforest covers roughly 40% of Colombia’s territory and has important global ecological functions. For more than 50 years, an internal war in the country has shaped this region. Peace negotiations between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) initiated in 2012 resulted in a progressive de-escalation of violence and a complete ceasefire in 2016. This study explores the role of different deforestation drivers including armed conflict variables, in explaining deforestation for three periods between 2001 and 2015. Iterative regression analyses were carried out for two spatial extents: the entire Colombian Amazon and a subset area which was most affected by deforestation. The results show that conflict variables have positive relationships with deforestation; yet, they are not among the main variables explaining deforestation. Accessibility and biophysical variables explain more variation. Nevertheless, conflict variables show divergent influence on deforestation depending on the period and scale of analysis. Based on these results, we develop deforestation risk maps to inform the design of forest conservation efforts in the post-conflict period.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dylan Page

<p>The potential role of women in conflict and post-conflict environments has been the subject of much debate in the field of peace and conflict studies. In 2000 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325, which called for a greater involvement of women and acknowledgement of gender issues in conflict and post-conflict environments, and this has led to further discussion about what this might mean and how it might be implemented. Despite this women are continually under-represented in nearly all peace processes and there is no universally agreed upon way to ensure this situation does not come about. The barriers women face range from cultural to logistical and economic, and surmounting them can be hard to achieve.  One case where women have been involved at all levels in the peace process with substantial success is the Pacific island of Bougainville, where a conflict over mining issues and secession from Papua New Guinea was waged from 1988-1997. Women were active in attempts to bring all parties to negotiations during the conflict and have also been heavily involved in the continuing reconciliation and healing processes. For cultural reasons Bougainvillean women were well placed to perform the role of peace-builders but that is not to say that they did not face challenges and barriers to their involvement. This thesis examines the involvement of women in both the immediate peace negotiations and the longer-term aspects of the peace process in Bougainville in order explain how and why they enjoyed these successes and what lessons can be learnt from this case in regards to the potential roles of women in other post-conflict environments. Four factors will be identified as key to women's involvement in the peace process: the history of Bougainville up to and including the conflict; the grassroots mobilisation and organisation of women; the traditional cultural roles of women in Bougainville; and the identification of women with motherhood and its associated traits.  These factors indicate that the involvement of women in peace processes is highly context-specific and although there are policies which can be pursued to encourage their participation the potential barriers to this are imposing.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dylan Page

<p>The potential role of women in conflict and post-conflict environments has been the subject of much debate in the field of peace and conflict studies. In 2000 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325, which called for a greater involvement of women and acknowledgement of gender issues in conflict and post-conflict environments, and this has led to further discussion about what this might mean and how it might be implemented. Despite this women are continually under-represented in nearly all peace processes and there is no universally agreed upon way to ensure this situation does not come about. The barriers women face range from cultural to logistical and economic, and surmounting them can be hard to achieve.  One case where women have been involved at all levels in the peace process with substantial success is the Pacific island of Bougainville, where a conflict over mining issues and secession from Papua New Guinea was waged from 1988-1997. Women were active in attempts to bring all parties to negotiations during the conflict and have also been heavily involved in the continuing reconciliation and healing processes. For cultural reasons Bougainvillean women were well placed to perform the role of peace-builders but that is not to say that they did not face challenges and barriers to their involvement. This thesis examines the involvement of women in both the immediate peace negotiations and the longer-term aspects of the peace process in Bougainville in order explain how and why they enjoyed these successes and what lessons can be learnt from this case in regards to the potential roles of women in other post-conflict environments. Four factors will be identified as key to women's involvement in the peace process: the history of Bougainville up to and including the conflict; the grassroots mobilisation and organisation of women; the traditional cultural roles of women in Bougainville; and the identification of women with motherhood and its associated traits.  These factors indicate that the involvement of women in peace processes is highly context-specific and although there are policies which can be pursued to encourage their participation the potential barriers to this are imposing.</p>


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn L. Rothe ◽  
Scott Maggard

This article provides an overview of post-conflict justice (PCJ) as well as a detailed analysis of factors that impede or facilitate the implementation of mechanisms to address the atrocities of a conflict. Grounded in an extensive new dataset, developed over the past three years, covering all conflicts in Africa between 1946 and 2009, we extend previous research by including empirical testing of previously untested assumptions and variables impacting PCJ, most notably, the role of power, politics, economics, and geo-strategic interests at the state and international political levels as well as combining previously tested variables amongst and between each other. Further, the aspects of PCJ, including conflicts where mechanisms were not deployed are included in the analysis along with those coded as symbolic in nature. We conclude by discussing the pragmatic issues associated with testing the concept of realpolitik and policy implications based on our analysis.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustinus Sumaryono ◽  
Sugiyono Sugiyono

This research investigates how curriculum has contributed to society, especially in the context of maintaining peace in Indonesia. Unlike former studies that have paid the most attention to the fundamental role of the state actors or civil society, this study emphasizes the importance of school to build peace. This research pays attention to the case of catholic senior high school in Bali. The finding suggests that school can be agent of peace through implement the peace curriculum in school. This study demonstrates that the peace curriculum should be implemented in school to prevent the violence action. Hence, providing space for further discussion about the content of peace curriculum that can be implemented in Indonesia.


Author(s):  
Serhii O. Komnatnyi ◽  
Oleg S. Sheremet ◽  
Viacheslav E. Suslykov ◽  
Kateryna S. Lisova ◽  
Stepan D. Svorak

The article deals with the mechanism of impact of sociopsychological phenomena such as the national character and the political mentality in the construction and functioning of civil society. It aims to show the impact of climate, religion, and the perception of happiness on the state of civil society through details of a national nature. The main research method is to compare data from global research on the state of civil society with data from climatic conditions, dominant religions, and happiness indices. The article proves coincidently that these factors are reflected in such essential characteristics of civil society as "openness" and "closed-mindedness". The interaction between the national character and the construction of civil society has two stages. It is concluded that the results obtained are important to evaluate the prospects for the construction and development of civil society in different countries and regions of the world. Further research in this direction involves the study of other aspects of the impact of national character and political mindset on the functioning of civil society.


Author(s):  
Nataliia Onishchenko

The article is devoted to the value-communicative potential of modern legal science in building a mature, active civil society. In particular, the role of legal science in establishing the general discussion between man, civil society and the state is emphasized. A separate vector of consideration is the coverage of the role of legal science in modern law-making processes: increasing the role of legal culture, legal consciousness, overcoming the phenomena of legal nihilism and legal pessimism, as well as the importance of civic education in modern democratic processes.


Author(s):  
Jennifer N. Fish

This chapter looks at the role of NGOs, global and national unions, and feminist government leaders in the movement to support domestic workers’ global rights. Here, the merger of civil society activism, labor struggles, and government influence reveals how a cross-sectional range of players served in pivotal roles as allies in the determination of policy protections. Relations between domestic workers and the state are analyzed to show the potential for opening up new spaces of worker activism. The discussion of feminist government leaders, or femocrats, reveals how the unexpected alliance of women in positions of power and women in some of the world’s most marginalized positions resulted in a synergy that shook a staid, bureaucratic institution to its core, and enabled its reorientation to more effectively address issues of global human rights.


Author(s):  
Olga Demetriou ◽  
Maria Hadjipavlou

This chapter discusses the role of women in forging paths into post-liberal peace formations. The adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 could be said to have marked the incorporation of key tenets of gender rights discourse in the global liberal peace agenda. The resolution is based on liberal principles of representation and participation of women in all levels of peacebuilding and on democratisation in setting up new institutions and norms of gender equality in the post-conflict processes; it also recognises the specific protection needs of women and girls in conflict situations as well as the underutilised contribution women make to conflict prevention, peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and peacekeeping. Ultimately, the chapter asks whether gender discourse can uphold the promise of peace formation by holding peacebuilders accountable to just, democratic, and equal societies.


Author(s):  
Liv Tørres

This chapter discusses the role of civil society in helping Palestinians challenge Israeli occupation. Palestinian organizations have developed despite the absence of the state, independence, sovereignty, and citizenship. Organizational capacity and activism are an efficient tool and building block for unity and power here as elsewhere, which in turn will help Palestinians challenge their circumstances. The Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) has been active in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 1987. Its goal is to help build the organizational and collective muscles of Palestinians to challenge occupation, oppression, and internal division. It is against this background that the NPA works in partnership with local Palestinian organizations. It is on this basis that they believe it is important to work with local forces rather than simply provide services. And it is from this perspective that they have watched the development of Palestinian civil society and the tensions, changes, and challenges that followed the Oslo Accords.


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