Civil War and Democracy in West Africa: Conflict Resolution Elections and Justice in Sierra Leone and Liberia by David Harris

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mudassar Javaid
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Civil War ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Local Actors

In the book titled Civil War and Democracy in West Africa: Conflict Resolution Elections and Justice in Sierra Leone and Liberia, author David Harris comprehensively exemplifies how in the twenty-first century, elections are viewed and used as determinants in post-conflict settings. The author builds on the aforementioned argument while generally tracing the development of conflict resolution in Africa during the post-Cold War era, but while dedicating distinct attention to such developments in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Through the case studies of the two West African states i.e. Sierra Leone and Liberia, the author critically analyzes the emphasize accorded to the role of elections as the core of conflict termination and how the failure to participate in elections leaves states consequences which are completely uncalled for. The author lays substantial stress on questioning the role of the international community in strengthening the significance of post-conflict elections and conceptions of transitional justice, especially the emergence of the International Criminal Court (ICC) generally, alongside the emergence of ad hoc hybrid systems such as the Sierra Leone Special Court (SLSC) particularly. The author does not just illustrate a vivid picture of the literature on contemporary conflict resolution more broadly but does so specifically in relation to the African continent and the emergence of the new war notion in respect of Africa's various intra-state conflicts. Harris, in this account also provides a detailed portrayal of thematic considerations and developments in relation to the conflict in Africa, exploring the ideas of ethnicity and motivation such as greed vs grievance debate. Although the main focus of this book is conflict resolution and democratization, the study of elections as the converging point which serves as the intersection of local actors, international bodies and post-conflict elections constitutes the central thematic underpinning of the book.

Nigeria and Conflict Resolution in the Sub-regional West Africa: The Quest for a Regional Hegemon?

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-53
Author(s):  
Victor Ojakorotu ◽  
Adewole Ayodeji Adeleke
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
West African ◽  
The World ◽  
Monitoring Group ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
The Military

The role of Nigeria in conflict resolution and peacekeeping efforts in Africa and other parts of the world cannot be overemphasised. The country has contributed more than 200,000 soldiers to peacekeeping missions around the world since independence. These efforts have earned it much respect in the council of nations and the recognition as being the ‘giant of Africa’. Also, Nigeria has been regarded as a ‘regional hegemon’ by some scholars because of its population size, comparatively large economic and human resources, and a bigger and well-equipped armed forces, equal in numerical strength to the armed forces of all the other countries in West Africa combined. The country played a very important role at spearheading the formation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in the 1990s. It has contributed the highest fund in defraying the costs of ECOMOG deployment to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali. This study analyses the hegemonic tendencies of Nigeria in the sub-region of West Africa. It argues that although the country is the most populous and the biggest economy in the sub-region but it does not possess the military, economic and the international support to function as a hegemonic power in West Africa.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights under the 2010 Constitutional Dispensation

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-226
Author(s):  
Bonolo Ramadi Dinokopila ◽  
Rhoda Igweta Murangiri
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
National Commission ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
National Human ◽  
The Status ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights

This article examines the transformation of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and discusses the implications of such transformation on the promotion and protection of human rights in Kenya. The article is an exposition of the powers of the Commission and their importance to the realisation of the Bill of Rights under the 2010 Kenyan Constitution. This is done from a normative and institutional perspective with particular emphasis on the extent to which the UN Principles Relating to the Status of National Institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles, 1993) have been complied with. The article highlights the role of national human rights commissions in transformative and/or transitional justice in post-conflict Kenya. It also explores the possible complementary relationship(s) between the KNCHR and other Article 59 Commissions for the better enforcement of the bill of rights.

The African Union and Universal Jurisdiction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Mennecke
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Universal Jurisdiction ◽  
African Union ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
African Government ◽  
Double Standards ◽  
Legal Principle ◽  
The Status

Universal jurisdiction permits states to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of certain widely condemned offences, irrespective of whether they possess any of the traditional territorial, nationality, or other jurisdictional links to the offence. As a legal principle, African states accept the principle of universal jurisdiction, but in the past decade they have pushed back against it due to the perception that the courts of various European states have unfairly targeted African government officials that they perceive as enemies. Against this background, the chapter examines the status of the universal jurisdiction debate and how it relates to the role of the International Criminal Court and that of the African Union and its member states, in addition to evaluating the proposals made by African states within the framework of the United Nations to address the African government concerns about double standards in the application of universal jurisdiction through a special ad hoc committee of the General Assembly.

scholarly journals Ending Impunity: The Case for War Crimes Trials in Liberia

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alhagi Marong ◽  
Chernor Jalloh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Sierra Leonean ◽  
Post Conflict

AbstractThis article argues that Liberia owes a duty under both international humanitarian and human rights law to investigate and prosecute the heinous crimes, including torture, rape and extra-judicial killings of innocent civilians, committed in that country by the warring parties in the course of fourteen years of brutal conflict. Assuming that Liberia owes a duty to punish the grave crimes committed on its territory, the article then evaluates the options for prosecution, starting with the possible use of Liberian courts. The authors argue that Liberian courts are unable, even if willing, to render credible justice that protects the due process rights of the accused given the collapse of legal institutions and the paucity of financial, human and material resources in post-conflict Liberia. The authors then examine the possibility of using international accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court, an ad hoc international criminal tribunal as well as a hybrid court for Liberia. For various legal and political reasons, the authors conclude that all of these options are not viable. As an alternative, they suggest that because the Special Court for Sierra Leone has already started the accountability process for Liberia with the indictment of Charles Taylor in 2003, and given the close links between the Liberian and Sierra Leonean conflicts, the Special Court would be a more appropriate forum for international prosecutions of those who perpetrated gross humanitarian and human rights law violations in Liberia.

The Role of Local Actors in Peacekeeping: The Cases of Liberia and Sierra Leone

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Sempijja ◽  
Ekeminiabasi Eyita-Okon
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Policy Work

With the advent of multidimensional peacekeeping, in considering the changing nature of conflicts in the post–Cold War period, the role of local actors has become crucial to the execution of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mandate. Just as peacekeeping does not have space in the UN charter, local actors do not have a clearly defined space in the UN-led conflict resolution process. However, they have gained recognition, especially in policy work, and slowly in the academic discourse, as academics and practitioners have begun to find ways of making peacekeeping and peacebuilding more effective in the 21st century. Therefore the construction and perception of local actors by international arbitrators play an important and strategic role in creating and shaping space for the former to actively establish peace where violent conflict is imminent. Local actors have independently occupied spaces during and after the conflict, and although they bring a comparative advantage, especially as gatekeepers to local communities, they have largely been kept on the periphery.

scholarly journals Spatial spread of the West Africa Ebola epidemic

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 160294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Kramer ◽  
J. Tomlin Pulliam ◽  
Laura W. Alexander ◽  
Andrew W. Park ◽  
Pejman Rohani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Relative Probability ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Spatial Spread ◽  
Force Of Infection ◽  
International Border

Controlling Ebola outbreaks and planning an effective response to future emerging diseases are enhanced by understanding the role of geography in transmission. Here we show how epidemic expansion may be predicted by evaluating the relative probability of alternative epidemic paths. We compared multiple candidate models to characterize the spatial network over which the 2013–2015 West Africa epidemic of Ebola virus spread and estimate the effects of geographical covariates on transmission during peak spread. The best model was a generalized gravity model where the probability of transmission between locations depended on distance, population density and international border closures between Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and neighbouring countries. This model out-performed alternative models based on diffusive spread, the force of infection, mobility estimated from cell phone records and other hypothesized patterns of spread. These findings highlight the importance of integrated geography to epidemic expansion and may contribute to identifying both the most vulnerable unaffected areas and locations of maximum intervention value.

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