In the last two decades of the war between the north and South Sudan, which ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, ethnic identities were manipulated leading to a second tier of wars involving southerners - ‘the south-south wars’. When the wars escalated, they added significantly to the cumulative death toll, with both victims and perpetrators being southerners. Despite the commission of widespread, grave crimes in the wars, justice was excluded in the CPA process through amnesty, with a view to facilitating the transition. This study explores the relevance of customary reconciliation in South Sudan for promoting Transitional Justice (‘TJ’) in the country. The study is premised on the need to achieve a balance between the imperative of TJ for the ‘south-south wars’ and the need for peace in the country. It argues that post-CPA conflicts are, to great extent, by-products of the legacies of the wars and as such, the same communities are the most affected. Based on the conceptual understandings of bottom-up TJ, the study utilizes ethnographical tools to explore the customary reconciliation practices of the Dinka, Nuer and Zande, the three largest groups in the country. The validity of the findings is enhanced by the use of triangulation and grounded theory. The primary finding is that in the absence of formal official interventions, customary reconciliation has the potential to promote bottom-up TJ as a tool for reparation, reintegration, truth telling, healing, etc. The study argues that a combination of modern methods and customary reconciliation could be utilized to mitigate the limitations of customary reconciliation. Towards enhancing TJ intervention, the study argues for an increased focus on cultural perspectives relevant to TJ as this could, among other benefits, mitigate the competing interests of peace and justice.

This study aims to assess the degree to which the Jordanian daily press is concerned with two Peace Agreements between Arab countries and Israel, namely: the Camp David Peace Agreement of 1978 and the Wadi Araba of 1994. This has been done through analysing the content of the press coverage related to these Peace Agreements by the two most widely read newspapers in Jordan, "AI Ra'i" and "Ad Dustour". The study examines the similarity and diversity between the periods of these two agreements in order to explain reasons for the stance of the Jordanian press towards both agreements. It also describes the role of the press and its relations with the state of Jordan, contributing to a general understanding of the relations between politics and the press. With regard to the Jordanian daily press coverage of these Peace Agreements, the research problem stated in the title has been broken down into many questions. The most important of these are: What was the stance of the Jordanian daily press towards Peace Agreements?; How did the Jordanian political parties influence the relevant press coverage?; What were the journalistic forms used to present the press coverage? What differences were there between the two periods? The research employed a combination of two methods, content analysis and interviews, with agenda setting and gate keeping as basic theories underpinning the research. The main conclusions reached by this study are: that the stance of the press was in favour of peace in both periods; that the Jordanian press paid continued attention to peace topics during the periods of the two Peace Agreements; that the two newspapers used journalistic forms (namely Political Caricature) in different ways in the two periods; that the Jordanian political parties did not exert an influential role on the press in its coverage of these Peace Agreements; that there are some similarities in the press coverage, in terms of stance, the use of journalistic forms and journalistic techniques and the sources of news and information; and that there are certain differences in the press coverage between 1978 and 1994 in terms of ownership, censorship and the different types of pressures they were under in the two periods.

La Conférence du Désarmement en tant que « forum unique de négociation multilatéral sur le désarmement » subit une impasse de plus de 15 ans. Elle demeure sans aucun résultat après la dernière négociation du TICE qui s’est terminé en 1996. C’est la raison pour laquelle, tout d’abord nous essayons d’analyser les cadres de négociation et les contenus des traités dans le domaine du désarmement et de la non-prolifération en présentant en deux titres, pour analyser la formation de la normativité et des accords dans ce domaine. En effet, cette thèse couvre tous les types d’armes et ses traités pour la limitation ou l’interdiction de l’arme de destruction massive, y compris les armes nucléaires, biologiques et chimiques, et conventionnelles. La portée de ces instruments varie aussi à partir de traités comme le TNP jusqu’au soft law comme le programme d’action pour les armes légères et de petit calibre. En ce qui concerne la formation de la normativité, le dernier titre essaye d’analyser aussi l’aspect juridique de la négociation et le mécanisme pour renforcer le respect du traité. Ce sont les éléments essentiels pour la naissance de la normativité primordiale des accords en tant que documents juridiquement contraignants, et leur validité. Nous essayons aussi l’analyse du soft law et de la jurisprudence de la Cour internationale de Justice comme source de normativité dans l’ensemble de normes autour du désarmement et de la non-prolifération. C’est ainsi que cette thèse va essayer l’étude minutieuse des problèmes autour de la formation et de la normativité des accords multilatéraux dans le domaine du désarmement et de la non-prolifération. / The Conference on Disarmament as “the single multilateral forum of negotiation on disarmament” suffers from more than 15 years’ stalemate. Its annual session ends without any result every year after the last negotiation of the CTBT until 1996. That is the reason why this doctoral dissertation tries to analyze the framework of negotiation first of all and then the content of the treaties in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation. It also tries to analyze for the normativity of the various instruments in this field. In fact, this dissertation covers every type of weapons and the treaties for their limitation and prohibition starting for weapons of mass destruction to conventional weapons. The coverage of the instruments also varies from the treaties such as NPT to the soft law like the program of action for small arms and light weapons. As for the formation of the normativity, the last part tries to analyze the legal aspect of the negotiation and the mechanism to strengthen the compliance of the treaty. They are the essential elements for the primordial normativity of the treaties as legally binding documents and their validity. The analysis also covers the soft law and legal cases sentenced by the International Court of Justice as a source of normativity in the holistic approach so as to clarify the norms related to disarmament and non-proliferation. In this way this doctoral dissertation tries the in depth study of the process for the formation and the normativity of the multilateral treaties in the field of disarmament and the non-proliferation.