The Ripe Moment for Civil Society

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Aljets ◽  
Betsie Chacko ◽  
Maria Jessop
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Peace Negotiations

AbstractThis article explores whether and how civil society engagement in a peace process can 'ripen' the conditions and facilitate the success of a peace process. The activities and methods of the Inter-religious Council of Sierra Leone are examined for their impact on each stage of the peace process with a view to shedding light on how civil society can help create the ripe conditions for formal peace negotiations, be an effective participant in negotiations, as well as improve the sustainability of a peace agreement.

Managing the Tension between Inclusionary and Exclusionary Processes: Building Peace in Burundi

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth McClintock ◽  
Térence Nahimana
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Peace Accords ◽  
Exclusive Processes

AbstractThe tension between inclusive and exclusive approaches is present throughout peace processes. The challenge of facilitators, mediators, and parties alike is to determine how to manage these tensions, how to integrate various processes into a comprehensive whole and ensure that those required to implement the peace agreement have access to the process that creates the peace agreement. In particular, how can civil society, an actor of ever-increasing importance in the implementation of peace agreements, be effectively included in the design of the accords? This article examines the tension between inclusive and exclusive processes within the context of the Burundi peace process and the development of the Arusha Peace Accords.

“Spoiling” in the Public Sphere: Political Opposition to Peace Negotiations and the Referendum Campaign in Colombia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Joana Amaral
Keyword(s):  
Peace Process ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Peace referendums can be exploited by political actors who may gain politically from opposing a peace process. This article explores how political opposition affects peace negotiations, particularly when a referendum is used to ratify an agreement, through the study of the Colombian peace negotiations between the government of President Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). It finds that the exclusive character of the negotiations, coupled with their confidentiality, contributed to the political opposition’s capacity to influence public opinion against the peace process and to reject the peace agreement in the 2016 referendum. This qualitative study is based on the content analysis of reports, memoirs and interviews with key negotiation delegates, journalists and representatives of the referendum campaigns. It argues that political inclusion in peace negotiations can help prevent referendum spoiling, while public information and education during the negotiations can reduce the impact of disinformation and manipulation campaigns.

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
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
The State ◽  
Peace Studies ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Liberal Peace

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.

Civil Society and Peace Negotiations: Confronting Exclusion

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren Kew ◽  
Anthony Wanis-St. John
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Strong Correlation ◽  
International Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Civil Society Participation

AbstractThe fact that civil society groups play important roles in post-conflict peacebuilding has entered the mainstream of international conflict resolution dogma. Rarely do local civil society groups get a seat at the negotiation table for peace accords. Although the exclusion of civil society from peace negotiations may streamline the process, the absence of civil society voices and interests at the negotiating table can negatively impact the sustainability of a peace agreement during peacebuilding. Surveying a wide variety of different peace processes, a strong correlation was found between active civil society participation in peace negotiations and the durability of peace during the peacebuilding phase. Cases in which civil society groups actively engaged in peace negotiations seemed to enjoy more sustained peace in the peacebuilding phase. This holds true also for cases in which civil society groups did not have a direct seat at the table, but did exercise significant influence with the negotiators because they were democratic actors. War resumed in many cases not characterized by direct or indirect civil society involvement in the peace negotiations. No claim of causality is made; the sustainability of peace surely rests on causes as complex and dynamic as the initiation of war does. However, these findings do call attention to the need for further research to understand the special impact that civil society inclusion at the peace table may have.

scholarly journals Peace is on the Ballot: The Politicization of the Colombian Peace Talks

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
News Media ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Special Interest Groups ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
Political Groups

On October 2nd 2016, Colombian voters rejected a referendum on the peace agreement between the federal government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Contrary to most advance polling and preliminary estimates in national and international news media, the “No” vote won by a tight margin, thus rejecting a peace deal that would have brought an end to the longest civil war in the Western hemisphere. This paper examines the intersections of civil society and the political groups most actively involved in the peace process in Colombia, beginning in the 1980s and leading to the 2016 referendum. The findings are two-fold: first, civil society has played an integral role in both the endurance and the hindrance of the peace process from its beginnings in 1980s up to the present day, through electoral support of independent candidates and by mobilization of special interest groups. Second, the 2016 referendum results share exceptional demographic and geographic correlations with the results of the 2014 presidential election. This suggests the peace referendum was highly politicized and split along the lines of partisanship at the highest echelons of Colombian democracy.  

Women’s Participation in Informal Peace Processes

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-98
Author(s):  
Anjali Kaushlesh Dayal ◽  
Agathe Christien
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Systematic Study ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Rights Issues

Abstract Women’s greater presence in informal peace processes is often noted in works on peace processes, but there has been little systematic evidence about this involvement. This article is the first systematic study of women’s participation in informal peace processes. We find that women are a significant presence in civil society efforts to forge peace outside formal negotiation rooms: nearly three-fourths of identifiable informal peace processes have clear evidence of involvement from women’s groups. This research indicates that women advocate to be included in formal peace processes, work to legitimate formal negotiations and organize for peace, advocate for the inclusion of women’s rights issues in the final peace agreement, provide information on human rights violations to participants in the formal peace process, engage in local conflict resolution, and advocate as partisans for one or another side in the conflict.

Ethnic Minority Women, Diversity, and Informal Participation in Peacebuilding in Myanmar

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mollie Pepper
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Minority Women ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
Ethnic Minority Women ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Key Players

Myanmar is in the midst of a complex peace process following nearly 70 years of civil conflict that has left the country severely underdeveloped. Despite the presence of influential women's organisations that attend to everyday needs as well as larger political projects, women are not well represented in the peace process. This article uses qualitative data to examine the influence that women do have on the peace process, albeit informally. Findings show that although women are not making it into peace negotiations in Myanmar, nevertheless they are key players in peacebuilding because of their civil society activism, organised through ethnic women's organisations, which places them around the table, if not at the table. The paper concludes that women's activism does have an effect on peacebuilding and that a shift in perspective is required to recognise their contributions.

Frozen Negotiations: The Peace Process in Chiapas

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raúúl Beníítez Manaut ◽  
Andrew Selee ◽  
Cynthia J. Arnson
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Government ◽  
Better Than

Mexico's democratic transition has helped reduce, if not eliminate, the threat of renewed armed conflict in Chiapas. However, absent more active measures from the government and the Ejéército Zapatista de Liberacióón Nacional (EZLN) to seek a permanent peace agreement and come to terms with the legacies of the past, the conflict will linger on in an unstable déétente, which we term ““armed peace.”” While this situation is far better than the open hostilities of the past, it also belies the promise of a fully democratic society in which all citizens are equally included in the political process. La transicióón democráática en Mééxico ha contribuido a reducir, si no eliminar, la posibilidad de que el conflicto armado en Chiapas se reanude. Sin embargo, sin esfuerzos mas activos por parte del gobierno y del Ejéército Zapatista de Liberacióón Nacional (EZLN) para buscar un acuerdo de paz permanente y saldar cuentas con el pasado, el conflicto permaneceráá en un estado inestable que llamamos ““paz armada””. Aunque esta situacióón es mucho mejor que las tensiones y agresiones del pasado, no cumple los requisitos de una sociedad plenamente democráática en que todos los ciudadanos participan en condiciones de igualdad en el proceso políítico.

Palestine

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emile Badarin
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Al Jazeera ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Embedded Security ◽  
Liberal Thought

This article explores the theoretical bases of the Israel-Palestine peace process to see how that impacts peacebuilding and everyday life in Palestine. It begins by examining the lens through which classical and contemporary realist and liberal thought approaches peace, nonpeace, war, and peacebuilding. Second, it examines how knowledge production on peacebuilding has been applied in the Israel-Palestine peace process based on selected confidential documents from the negotiations’ record that was made available in the so-called Palestine Papers published by the Al Jazeera Transparency Unit in 2011. My analysis of this source reveals how an embedded security and market metaphor regulated the Israel-Palestine peace negotiations. I argue that in an ambiguous context of decades-long negotiations, the results are in effect a “buyout” in which security is understood in exclusionary terms by the powerful side.

Cut short for taking short cuts: The Lomé peace agreement on Sierra Leone

Civil Wars ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abiodun Alao ◽  
Comfort Ero
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Peace Agreement
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