Zimbabwe in Ruins: Mediation Prospects in a Conflict Not Yet Ripe for Resolution

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Anstey
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
International Community ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Failed State ◽  
Humanitarian Crisis ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Robust Approach ◽  
The Face

AbstractA confluence of conditions made the Rhodesian civil war ripe for resolution in 1979. However a 'despotic democracy' took early root in the new Zimbabwe, largely accepted by the international community in its first phase, but now condemned by many for its human rights abuses and political repression. Zimbabwe is a failed state with a massive humanitarian crisis. In the face of pressures to adopt a more robust approach, South Africa has stuck to an approach of 'quiet diplomacy' in relations with its neighbor. In March 2007, SADC states appointed South Africa's President Mbeki to mediate between parties to Zimbabwe's conflict. This article analyzes the prospects for this mediation in terms of 'ripeness' theory. It concludes that complex internal conditions and a divided international community do not yet make the crisis ripe for resolution. However, a shift from quiet diplomacy to an approach of principled mediation might assist in inducing the necessary conditions in a manner which limits continuation of the crisis.

The Decay of Consent: International Law in an Age of Global Public Goods

2014 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Krisch
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Community ◽  
Global Public Goods ◽  
Community Values ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
The Face ◽  
Common Policies ◽  
The Cost

The consensual structure of the international legal order, with its strong emphasis on the sovereign equality of states, has always been somewhat precarious. In different waves over the centuries, it has been attacked for its incongruence with the realities of inequality in international politics, for its tension with ideals of democracy and human rights, and for standing in the way of more effective problem solving in the international community. While surprisingly resilient in the face of such challenges, the consensual structure has seen renewed attacks in recent years. In the 1990s, those attacks were mainly “moral” in character. They were related to the liberal turn in international law, and some of them, under the banner of human rights, aimed at weakening principles of nonintervention and immunity. Others, starting from the idea of an emerging “international community,” questioned the prevailing contractual models of international law and emphasized the rise of norms and processes reflecting community values rather than individual state interests. Since the beginning of the new millennium, the focus has shifted, and attacks are more often framed in terms of effectiveness or global public goods. Classical international law is regarded as increasingly incapable of providing much-needed solutions for the challenges of a globalized world; as countries become ever more interdependent and vulnerable to global challenges, an order that safeguards states’ freedoms at the cost of common policies is often seen as anachronistic. According to this view, what is needed—and what we are likely to see—is a turn to nonconsensual lawmaking mechanisms, especially through powerful international institutions with majoritarian voting rules.

THE ROLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS IN PREVENTING HUMAN RIGHTS AND SEXUAL ABUSE IN JAMMU-KASHMIR CONFLICT

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Foday Yarbou
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Community ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Territorial Disputes ◽  
Jammu And Kashmir ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The People ◽  
Human Rights Abuse ◽  
United Nation

AbstractThe conflict between Jammu and Kashmir has acquired a multifaceted character. On one hand, the conflict involves national and territorial contestations between India and Pakistan, and on the other, it entails different kinds of human rights abuses and various political demands by religious, linguistic, regional, and ethnic groups in both parts. This article aims to portrait the images and human rights abuses meted on the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It also urges and pleads to India and Pakistan and all those countries who are taking part directly or indirectly in the territorial disputes or conflict in the region of Jammu and Kashmir to end the conflict. Human rights abuse such as torture, rape, sexual harassment, murder, and unnecessary killings of the people of this region were all condemned by the author of this article. He further requests the international community such as the United Nation to take a bold step in settling the conflict in that region by passing an effective resolution at the international level that will put an end to the conflict. In this article, the author uses a qualitative research method to explore different journals and write up of scholars in finding tangible solutions to the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. The author also uses a theoretical explanation in the article. The result of this article intends to see that all the main concerning points raised in this write-up are fully considered and implemented by the United Nation in bringing peace and stability in the region of Jammu and Kashmir. Conflict in this region has become a worrying issue in the international community and the necessary steps should be taken to bring it to halt.

Decline and Fall

Idi Amin ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 276-309
Author(s):  
Mark Leopold
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Many

This chapter studies Idi Amin's downfall. It begins by detailing how the death of Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum led to wide international condemnation and galvanised the many competing opposition groups among the exiles. Between February 28 and March 3, 1978, a closed session of the UN Commission on Human Rights finally agreed to launch a formal investigation of human rights abuses in Uganda. By the end of 1978, the Tanzanian army, with a considerably smaller number of Ugandan refugee fighters, had massed in force near the border. In January of 1979, they crossed into Uganda. The key factor in the Tanzanians' victory was the overall weakness of the Ugandan troops. The chapter then explains how Amin's regime had destroyed much of the social solidarity and national feeling which had just about held the country together in the face of ethnic rivalries under the first Obote administration. This became evident in the chaos that followed the Tanzanian invasion, and especially under Milton Obote's second regime. Finally, the chapter describes Amin's retirement and analyses how he survived in power for so long.

From Shame to New Name: How Naming and Shaming Creates Pro-Government Militias

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 906-918
Author(s):  
Lora DiBlasi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Community ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Amnesty International ◽  
New Name ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Naming And Shaming

Abstract Researchers have identified naming and shaming as a strategy used by the international community to reprimand state leaders for their repressive actions. Previous research indicates that there is variation in the success of this tactic. One reason for the heterogeneity in success is that leaders with an interest in repressing opposition but avoiding international condemnation have adapted their behavior, at least partially, to avoid naming and shaming. For instance, some states choose to create and utilize alternative security apparatuses, such as pro-government militias (PGMs), to carry out these repressive acts. Creating or aligning with PGMs allows leaders to distance themselves from the execution of violence while reaping the rewards of repression. This analysis explores this dynamic. In particular, I examine how naming and shaming by Amnesty International and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights influences the creation of PGMs to skirt future international condemnation by the offending state for all states from 1986 to 2000. I find that countries are more likely to create PGMs, especially informal PGMs, after their human rights abuses have been put in the spotlight by the international community.

scholarly journals Building a South African Human Rights Culture in the Face of Cultural Diversity: Context and Conflict

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Cantius Mubangizi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Female Circumcision ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Face ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Virginity Testing

Abstract South Africa has faced enormous challenges since the advent of democracy in 1994. One of the difficulties in the post-apartheid era has been the building of a human rights culture in the context of substantial cultural diversity. In this paper, the constitutional, judicial and institutional contexts – which have consolidated and supported the expression of human rights in the face of cultural diversity – are reviewed. The focus on cultural rights in the constitution is discussed, and the relevance of several constitutional institutions in terms of ensuring human rights, is mentioned. With a clear understanding of the constitutional, judicial and institutional contexts in place, the paper discusses the potentially inherent conflict between human rights and cultural rights, using gender-related issues as a proxy. Several examples of this potential conflict are discussed, including female circumcision, virginity testing and polygamy. The importance of human rights education for informing the debate about cultural and human rights in South Africa is emphasized. The answers to the challenges associated with the clash between cultural rights and human rights are not simple, although pragmatically – in addition to the role of the available constitutional, judicial and institutional structures – they could reside in a cross-cultural debate.

scholarly journals Embodying human rights in #FeesMustFall? Contributions from an indecent theology

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Grassow ◽  
Clint Le Bruyns
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
The University

This article focuses on the #FeesMustFall (FMF) movement and the question of a human rights culture. It provides evidence from the specific context of FMF at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, which exposes human rights abuses and violence to the dignity of protesting students. To advance a human rights culture within the higher education sector in the context of FMF, the article highlights the role of theology – ‘indecent theology’ (as espoused by Marcella Althaus-Reid) – in revealing the problem and promise of higher education institutions in the quest for a more liberating and responsible society. It is only through interrogating the narratives that sustain the current university structures – and continue to oppress the poor and the marginalised – that South Africa will be able to begin to construct a society that is respective of the rights of all.

Cyber Rebellion: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Struggle to Break the Power of Secrecy in the Global War on Terror

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 69-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yamuna Sangarasivam
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Justice Department ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The Us ◽  
Espionage Act ◽  
The Face ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Global War

AbstractFollowing the release of thousands of diplomatic cables which revealed the human rights abuses and networks of corruption that sustain the US-sponsored global war on terror, the US Justice Department has invoked the 1917 Espionage Act to indict both Bradley Manning, the US soldier who released the classified documents to WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange, the editor and publisher of WikiLeaks. While censorship serves as an economic signal, as Assange asserts, how does the torture and prosecution of Pvt. Bradley Manning serve as a cultural signal which reveals the ­lessons of a patriotism that promotes a dystopic democracy? This article examines the spatio-temporal predicament of secrecy, surveillance, and censorship in the face of cyber rebellion.

Muslim states will turn a blind eye to China's abuses

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Economic Sanctions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Public Pressure ◽  
The Face ◽  
International Activism ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
The Impact

Subject The impact of repression in Xinjiang on China's relations with Muslim-majority countries. Significance The silence of Muslim-majority countries in the face of human rights abuses in Xinjiang contrasts with their international activism on behalf of Palestine, Kashmir and the Rohingya minority in Myanmar. Impacts Governments in the more repressive Muslim-majority countries, especially in the Middle East, will censor discussion of the Xinjiang issue. Where public pressure forces the governments of Muslim-majority countries to act, responses are unlikely to go beyond rhetoric. Beijing would not hesitate to use limited economic sanctions to punish Muslim-majority countries that criticise its internal policies.

The Politics of Humanitarian Morality

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasuki Nesiah
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Community ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Humanitarian Crisis ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Export Product

Coady speaks compellingly of the hazards of humanitarian moralism. Coady’s corrective to those hazards calls for attending to the immediate political context but neglects how human rights (HR) not only engages with a political context external to it, but is itself deploying and negotiating power. Thus his discussion of the HR/humanitarianism merger renders this confluence as background to, rather than constitutive of, those hazards. From the 1990s the international community paid less attention to routine HR, and focused increasingly on HR in the context of humanitarian crisis. This shift’s impacts include: inflecting HR in those contexts with a depoliticizing humanitarian morality; treating HR engagements as episodic injections in moments of disaster with politics displaced by the moral urgency of catastrophe, rather than as engagements with the routine and structural; translating HR into an export product with engagements activated not by our rights but “theirs” — thus intervening in, even disregarding, local populations in name of their HR. If we don’t take into account these larger stakes re. the politics of HR and humanitarianism, the prudence that modifies moralism functions to complement rather than counter, with ethics and expertise travelling hand in hand to couple moralism and prudence to rescue “better”.

Preface: Democratic Transition in Africa

1993 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 6-7
Author(s):  
Guy Martin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
International System ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
New Era ◽  
Supportive Environment

Since 1989, the “winds of change” have swept throughout Africa, signaling the dawn of a new era, variously referred to as the “second independence,” or the “Springtime of Africa.” After three decades of authoritarian one- (or no) party rule characterized by political repression, human rights abuses, economic mismanagement, nepotism and corruption, democracy is spreading like bushfire throughout Africa. In 1992 an evaluation of the Carter Center’s African Governance Program, noted that 9 African countries may be described as “democratic,” 4 are under a “directed democracy” regime, and 31 are in transition to democracy, with various degrees of commitment. Popular struggles for democracy in Africa are not new, they have been here since independence. But recent changes in the structure of the international system (notably successful popular struggles for democracy in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union) have created a generally favorable and supportive environment for their development and maturation.

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