Commissions of inquiry and pathways to accountability in Plateau State, Nigeria

ABSTRACTFor decades, Plateau State in Nigeria's Middle Belt has witnessed repeated ethnoreligious violence. Over this period, both state and federal governments have established formal Commissions of Inquiry (COIs) in response to unrest, tasked with investigating violence, identifying perpetrators, and – ultimately – strengthening accountability. While commissions’ mandates and specific outcomes varied, there is general consensus that inquiries have been largely ineffective at securing justice or establishing accountability for violence. This study seeks to understand the expectations placed on, and role of, COIs in Plateau State as pathways to formal accountability in a context of recurring violence. We argue that COIs are embedded in the complex, multilevel networks and politics of state and non-state institutions. Civil society, in turn, has diverse expectations and demands, and articulates these in fragmented ways. As a result, COIs served primarily as another avenue for interest-based negotiations.

Gaps in Corporate Liability

Fact-finding is a fundamental step in providing documentation that can be used in domestic and international proceedings. The United Nations establishes commissions of inquiry to investigate international law violations, often in contexts of armed conflict, under the mandate of the Human Rights Council or other more political organs of the UN. They vary in mandate, as well as in investigative and geographic scope. However, to this day, fact-finding mechanisms or inquiry commissions have only rarely conducted investigations into corporate crimes, even in cases where the UN has explicitly recognized the part played by economic actors in armed conflicts. Because corporations are not subjects of international law, they are presumed not to have any direct obligations under international law. Moreover, the mandates of fact-finding missions de facto exclude corporations from investigations because such mandates are always designed to investigate international law violations. By voluntarily dismissing any investigation of corporate crimes, the UN is significantly limiting prospects for corporate responsibility and impeding the process of transitional justice.

1846: Canada’s First Inquiries Act

Historical accounts of commissions of inquiry in Canada make only passing reference to the seminal 1846 Inquires Act. None explore the provenance of this legislation beyond a few sentences of the most general conjecture. This paper contends that Canada’s first Inquiries Act was a by-product of a political crisis that grew out of the politics and institutional processes integral to the resolution of claims for rebellion losses in Canada during the 1840s. As the events associated with the passage of the 1849 Rebellion Losses Bill would disclose, this crisis posed an existential threat to the viability of the Union. The passage of the Inquiries Act, precipitated by the immediate contingencies of the rebellion losses crisis, marked for Canada a fundamental shift in constitutional authority dating back to 1688. The Act embraced methods of inquiry denied to the Crown since the late seventeenth century. Though created by a democratic legislature, the Inquiries Act revived a Crown-driven inquisitional approach to public inquires long since inoperative in Great Britain. The Act thus marked a shift in the relationship between state and citizen, and opened a new terrain for the long struggle to protect the individual against the all-powerful state.

Child Sexual Abuse, Integrity Systems and the Anglican Church: Truth, Justice and Love

This article concerns child sexual abuse in the Anglican Church of Australia and the Church of England and, in particular, an integrity system to combat this problem and the ethical problems it gives rise to. The article relies on the findings of various commissions of inquiry to determine the nature and extent of child sexual abuse in the Anglican Church. The two salient ethical problems identified are: (1) design of safety measures in the light of the statistical preponderance of male on male sexuality; (2) justice issues arising from redress schemes established or proposed to provide redress to victims.

Forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces of Ukraine

The purpose of the article is to define the concept and types of forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces. Three aspects are identified in which the forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces can be considered: 1) the activity aspect, according to which the form of control acts as a complex of actions of its subjects; 2) the analytical aspect, according to which the form of control has its integral element of collecting, highlighting information and data on the controlled object, comparing them with each other, de-termining the patterns and trends inherent in the functioning of the controlled object, modeling the state of the controlled object in the future, depending on the applied management decisions; 3) the organizational aspect, according to which the form of control is a way of organizing the activity of the subjects of control and the con-nections between them. Each of these aspects of the form of control is necessary for the effective implementation of control activities. The definitions of the forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces as united by a single goal, carried out in accordance with the powers of the subjects of control defined in the acts of military legislation, are formulated for a complex of organizational and analytical measures aimed at achieving the goal of control.It was found that the forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces should be attributed to the pub-lication of public information, the activities of temporary commissions of inquiry, internal audit, external financial control (audit), judicial control, scientific and applied (for example, sociological) research aimed at determining the actual state of control objects. The validity of classifying official investigations, inquiries and pre-trial investigations forms of democratic civil control raises doubts, taking into account the provisions of paragraph 2 of part 1 of arti-cle 1 of the Law of Ukraine “On National Security of Ukraine”, which defines an exhaustive list of types of control.An analysis of the essence and features of the forms of democratic civilian control over the defense forces allows us to make sure that these forms are inherently connected with the content of this control and are determined by the legal status of its subjects. At the same time, the forms of control can be classified by content, by subjects, by legal consequences for objects of control, as well as by timing.

COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY AS A RESPONSE TO CRISIS: THE ROLE OF THE JALI COMMISSION IN CREATING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF CORRUPTION (PART 2)

When the government of a liberal constitutional democracy is confronted by some or other existential crisis that threatens a major institution of state or the very foundations of the democracy itself, it will often appoint a high-level judicial commission of inquiry as part of its response to the crisis. South Africa is no exception to this tendency, as is evidenced in recent years by the appointment of no fewer than four such commissions in response to a series of crises related to ongoing corruption within state institutions – commonly referred to by ordinary South Africans as “state capture”. This has raised questions as to the alleged benefits of such commissions when viewed in relation to their considerable costs. This article seeks to contribute to this general debate by focusing on one of the purported benefits of such commissions that may be somewhat under appreciated. This is the creation of public awareness, during the life of the commission itself, about the nature and extent of the particular grave threat that confronts the society in question. It is contended that, mediated by a free and vibrant press, the public narrative that emerges during the operation of a commission of inquiry may serve to make a liberal democratic society more resilient in the face of threats to that society’s continued existence. This article seeks to support this contention by focusing on an important precursor to the more recent commissions of inquiry on corruption in South Africa – that is, the Jali Commission of Inquiry into corruption within the South African penal system, which sat in the early years of the new millennium. By analysing the many articles and reports that appeared in a range of South African newspapers during the initial hearings of the Jali Commission, this article documents the emergence of an important public narrative on corruption within South Africa’s prisons, and reflects upon the ultimate significance. This article is divided into two parts: the first part deals with the initial hearings of the Jali Commission in KwaZulu-Natal, and the second part with subsequent hearings in the Free State.

The Yemeni, Mizrahi, and Balkan Children Affair: Lost Infants, Shattered Motherhoods

Between 1948 and 1954, at least 1,500 children between 0-4 years had disappeared from childcare facilities and hospitals in tent camps, transit camps, and hospitals in Israeli towns. About two-thirds were of Yemeni origin. Although these disappearances follow a shared pattern, the Yemeni case stands out due to a directive issued by the cabinet that ordered the forcible removal of Yemeni infants to infants’ homes in the immigrants’ camps. Three commissions of inquiry investigated this ethnically-based child-removal policy, yet its dire consequences were never challenged or reviewed. What remains missing from the accounts is a gendered and intersectional perspective of the involvement of women’s organizations and the mothers’ experiences.

Commissions of Inquiry as a Response to Crisis: The Role of the Jali Commission in Creating Public Awareness of Corruption (Part 1)

When the government of a liberal constitutional democracy is confronted by some or other existential crisis that threatens a major institution of state or the very foundations of the democracy itself, it will often appoint a high-level judicial commission of inquiry as part of its response to the crisis. South Africa is no exception to this tendency, as is evidenced in recent years by the appointment of no fewer than four such commissions in response to a series of crises related to ongoing corruption within state institutions – commonly referred to by ordinary South Africans as “state capture”. This has raised questions as to the alleged benefits of such commissions when viewed in relation to their considerable costs. This article seeks to contribute to this general debate by focusing on one of the purported benefits of such commissions that may be somewhat under-appreciated. This is the creation of public awareness, during the life of the commission itself, about the nature and extent of the particular grave threat that confronts the society in question. It is contended that, mediated by a free and vibrant press, the public narrative that emerges during the operation of a commission of inquiry may serve to make a liberal democratic society more resilient in the face of threats to that society’s continued existence. This article seeks to support this contention by focusing on an important precursor to the more recent commissions of inquiry on corruption in South Africa – that is, the Jali Commission of Inquiry into corruption within the South African penal system, which sat in the early years of the new millennium. By analysing the many articles and reports that appeared in a range of South African newspapers during the initial hearings of the Jali Commission, this article documents the emergence of an important public narrative on corruption within South Africa’s prisons, and reflects upon the ultimate significance of this narrative. This article is divided into two parts: the first part deals with the initial hearings of the Jali Commission in KwaZulu-Natal, and the second part with subsequent hearings in the Free State.