This mini-dissertation looks at human trafficking in non-international armed conflicts and evaluates whether or not the law of non-international armed conflicts sufficiently prohibits and deals with human trafficking to bring more attention to the common crime in non-international armed conflicts. From the broad view, it seems as though human trafficking is neglected by the law of non-international armed conflicts in non-international armed conflicts. This mini-dissertation therefore looks closer in to the law of non-international armed conflict to identify, explain and evaluate the relevant provisions of the law of non-international armed conflict in order to draw a conclusion on whether or not human trafficking is indeed neglected by the law regulating non-international armed conflicts or not, offer criticism and make suggestions on improving the laws. In order to be in a position to draw a conclusion, offer criticism and make suggestions, the drafting history of the provisions, the textual interpretation, relevant case law and scholarly opinion will be looked at. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Public Law / LLM / Unrestricted

This thesis investigates how and why various Iraqi and Lebanese politicians and laypeople account for the armed conflicts, which they have been living through, and the involved sides of these conflicts. In both of these countries people have been exposed to major international and civil wars. Both nations are also cosmopolitan societies that contain multiple ethnic, racial, and religious groups, which make the issue of identity of great importance. How wars should be examined is a subject of much debate within psychology. On the one hand, the majority of psychological studies of war rest upon the assumption that war is primarily a destructive experience. Thus, the focus has been traditionally on investigating lasting psychopathological effects of war. A Large number of previous studies have reported that a significant segment of people who were exposed to the experience of war developed psychological problems, especially post traumatic stress disorder. On the other hand, a growing number of psychology researchers contend that most people maintain their psychological equilibrium in the face of almost all types of traumatic experiences, including war-related affairs. These researchers have shifted the focus toward examining and explaining this finding. Within this vigorous debate, limited attention has been paid to the question of how and why people account for their experiences as well as the various aspects of war in their own words. Currently, a limited number of studies indicate that people can and do present the same war in significantly different ways, as a means to attain certain ends. Furthermore, a significant body of research suggests that people’s collective identities play an important role in relation to their understandings, descriptions, preferences and behaviours in relation to war. The war rhetoric is also reported as an important issue that can influence the people’s understanding of war, as well as war’s course of events. Hence, through adopting a discursive psychological approach to analysis, this thesis examines several important issues simultaneously. Accounts of the wars and collective identities are approached as communicative resources that are constructed and deployed as a means to accomplish social actions. This thesis examines, specifically, how different Iraqi laypeople and politicians construct the 2003 American and Allies intervention in Iraq, with focus on collective identity. It also examines how various Lebanese construe the events of the 2006 war and the civil strife that occurred during and afterward this war. The data is taken from three sources. The first one is represented by semi-structured interviews conducted in Lebanon in October 2006. The second source is TV interviews conducted and broadcasted live with Iraqi politicians and decision makers in the period from 2003 to 2008 and with Lebanese politicians from 2006 to 2008. The third source is an open-ended question distributed in Basra City, Iraq in May 2005 as part of an extensive questionnaire. This study has several practical and theoretical implications to psychology in general and in particular to the study of armed conflicts. The first contribution is highlighting the importance of analysing laypeople’s rhetorical accounts of wars, as directly involved people can and do present surprisingly different discourses from the outsiders’. I argue that to gain a realistic and applicable understanding of the discourse of war, its function and its potential implications, it is necessary to study the general public’s versions of such experience in addition to the elite’s discourses. The analysis shows that different participants have constructed different action-oriented accounts of the same war. Within these various accounts the participants invoked and incorporated a number of different stimulating notions, such as dignity, nationalism, religion, resilience and victory as part of the rational of the war. These accounts have important practical and discursive functions, such as establishing, warranting, rejecting, and promoting specific views of the war, the involved sides, and the appropriate course of action. Secondly, this study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the role of rhetorical collective identity during armed conflicts. The analysis shows that collective identities attain their meanings and their functions from, by, and through the accounts they are situated within. Thirdly, the findings of this thesis highlight the complex and consequential role of rhetorical accounts in relation to wars and to violence and the relevance of qualitative analysis. I argue that discourse of war can obscure its destructive effects, which in turn can contribute to maintaining people’s psychological equilibrium but, also, prolong the conflict. Thus, exposing the rhetorical strategies that legitimate war and warrant killing other people can be an important step toward making war unconditionally morally unacceptable.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2006.

Le résumé en français n'a pas été communiqué par l'auteur. / Le résumé en anglais n'a pas été communiqué par l'auteur.

Les conflits sont tellement fréquents en Afrique sub-saharienne depuis les indépendances qu'on en a malheureusement pris l'habitude. Cette fréquence semble conforter l'idée que les Africains sont dans l'incapacité congénitale à gérer leurs pays et leurs ressources. Très souvent également, on considère que les conflits africains procèdent de la "culture" africaine qui serait par définition violente et agressive . Si les conflits sont manifestement une entrave au développement, ils sont aussi le résultat de l'absence de développement en Afrique.L'objectif de cette thèse est de comprendre les fondements économiques des conflits armés en Afrique sub-saharienne. c'est-à-dire que nous allons partir à la recherche des causes économiques des conflits. Les principales variables observées sont, le PIB par tête, l'aide internationale, les matières premières exportables, la dette du gouvernement, l'investissement direct étranger, la population, l'alimentation et l'eau. Nous postulons que tout processus permettant d'améliorer le développement économique des pays de l'Afrique noire est un moyen pour éviter un commencement de conflits. / Conflicts are frequent in sub-saharan African countries since their independence and unfortunately people consider such situation to be normal. This frequency seems to reinforce the idea that Africans are naturally unable to manage their resources. African conflicts are also very often considered as a result of African culture, which is termed as a violent and agressuve. If conflicts are obviously an obstacle to development, they are also the consequence of undevelopment in Africa.The objective of the PhD is to understand the ceonomic basis of armed conflicts in sub-saharan Africa. In other words, we seek toidentify economic causes of conflicts. The main variables observed are GDP per capita, international aid, raw materials for export, government debt, foreign direct investment, population, food and water. We confirm that any process that helps improve economic development in sub-saharan African countries is a way to avoid new conflicts.

This research critically examines the international protection of children education during the Syrian armed conflict since 2011. It identifies the reasons behind the failure of the international community in providing the necessary protection and its impacts on the Syrian children education. It analyzes the legal protection available to children education in situations of armed conflict in accordance with the international law. In order to evaluate the reluctance of the international community humanitarian intervention under the principle of Responsibility to Protect, this research used the textual analysis method and the realism and liberalism theories. Altogether, during the eight years of the ongoing Syrian conflict, children right to education have been violated throughout Syria, and millions have been out of schools, and many are at high risk to dropout. The research concludes that the vetoes in the Security Council and political and economic considerations among the superpowers have overcome the legal protection.

Why victimize civilians during civil war? Inspired by my survival of two civil wars in Liberia, I offer a theory of violence against noncombatants during armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa. Civil wars in post-colonial sub-Saharan Africa have a typical pattern that can be distinguished with three distinct stages: the "onset" period at the start of conflicts; the "intervention" period, marked by third-party involvement and negotiations; and the "settlement" stage, marked by an interim government with cabinet positions rationed among belligerents. I argue that the causes and motives for violence against civilians vary across these three stages of civil war. In the first "onset" stage, violence against civilians is mainly perpetuated by foreign recruits who lack ties with local populations. Principle-agent and moral hazard problems emerge as foreign recruits, young of age and disconnected from local populations, want to loot and rape civilian populations. In contrast, commanders responsible for these populations have difficulty monitoring and controlling these recruits. The second stage of "intervention" changes the calculus for combating groups, as the bargaining power of each depends on its control of strategic territory, such as ports and airports. Groups with minor territories and weak capacities are incentivized to attack the soft targets of noncombatants, who are sometimes forced to take sides at this stage. At the third "settlement" stage, the distribution of cabinet positions creates rivalries within groups, with disgruntled factions breaking away and resuming conflict. Civilians are caught in the middle, frequently accused of collaborating with the other side, leading to violence against noncombatants, including hostage-taking, as part of the bargaining process. To examine the stage theory of civilian victimization in sub-Saharan Africa's civil wars, I surveyed Liberia's two civil wars that occurred from 1989 to 1996 and 1999 to 2003. I drew on three sources of data to triangulate the causes and motives of violence against civilians: (a) archives, (b) intensive interviews of combatants and civilian victims of these wars, and (c) witnesses' testimonies from the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings. These data are used to qualitatively study Liberia's two civil wars, which may be generalizable to other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. It is found that foreign recruits, strategic territories, and political positions in a power-sharing government may have contributed to violence against civilians during the onset, intervention, and settlement phases of Liberia's two civil wars. The research contributes to the general literature regarding violence against civilians during armed conflicts. According to popular opinion, violence against noncombatants is a natural outcome, but this research points out that the causes and motives of violence against civilians can vary in identifiable ways. It shows how civil wars in post-colonial sub-Saharan Africa have a unique pattern associated with foreign intervention and settlements, and these phases may account for varying motives for violence against civilians. Knowing the motivating factors for violence against civilians can help protect vulnerable populations during armed conflicts, including refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants, and victims of human trafficking. Intervening governments can make more significant efforts to protect civilian populations during the intervention phases and be more sensitive to the dangers sub-group actors pose in distributing government positions during the settlement phases of these wars.

This thesis seeks to analyse military and civilian loss from violence during contemporary armed conflict in order to facilitate understanding of the evolution of war and its impact on human behaviour. It comprises four chapters; the first two concentrate on the 2033 Iraq War whilst the last two are focused upon global armed conflict during the recent past. Chapter 1 explores how and to what extent military deaths during the Iraq war affect US domestic opinion, proxied by various poll questions concerning war-related issues. Having addressed irregular frequencies of poll data that restrict time series application, this chapter renders a fresh perspective on casualty-opinion research, suggesting that cumulative military casualties prior to the poll did not have an immediate effect on the poll respondents' opinion regarding the continuation of military actions in Iraq, Instead, respondents are influenced by marginal casualty information from the previous time period, implying a slow adjustment in forming opinion through the Error Correction Mechanism (ECM). Chapter 2 presents a comparative analysis to gauge any different standards between the US department of Defense and the media in counting violent civilian deaths during the Iraq war. In spite of substantial discrepancies during the initial period of the war, non-parametric tests corroborate that the US military authority and media reports had a non-differential approach towards counting violent civilian deaths during the war period across the spatial and spatiotemporal dimensions. However, the conspicuously conservative count by the US military authority during the initial stage of the war may have hindered the US forces' ability to predict and prepare for the subsequent escalation of violence that brought about large-scale human loss as well as the prolongation of the war which lasted more than 7 years. Chapter 3 analyses to what extent warring actors intentionally used lethal force against civilians, through the employment of a Civilian Targeting Index (CTI), a newly invented measure to indicate the intensity of civilian targeting for each actor. Building upon Chapter 3, Chapter 4 further examines factors that lead to warring actors targeting civilians as opposed to engaging in battle with war combatants. A dynamic panel approach shows that an increase in the degree of civilian targeting in the previous year further intensified civilian targeting in the current year for the actors involved in prolonged armed conflict.

Between 2002 and 2006 the Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe counted with great international support to hand a demobilization process of right-wing paramilitary groups, along with the implementation of transitional justice policies such as penal prosecutions and the creation of a National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (NCRR) to address justice, truth and reparation for victims of paramilitary violence. The demobilization process began when in 2002 the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC) agreed to participate in a government-sponsored demobilization process. Paramilitary groups were responsible for the vast majority of human rights violations for a period of over 30 years. The government designed a special legal framework that envisaged great leniency for paramilitaries who committed serious crimes and reparations for victims of paramilitary violence. More than 30,000 paramilitaries have demobilized under this process between January 2003 and August 2006. Law 975, also known as the “Justice and Peace Law”, and Decree 128 have served as the legal framework for the demobilization and prosecutions of paramilitaries. It has offered the prospect of reduced sentences to demobilized paramilitaries who committed crimes against humanity in exchange for full confessions of crimes, restitution for illegally obtained assets, the release of child soldiers, the release of kidnapped victims and has also provided reparations for victims of paramilitary violence. The Colombian demobilization process presents an atypical case of transitional justice. Many observers have even questioned whether Colombia can be considered a case of transitional justice. Transitional justice measures are often taken up after the change of an authoritarian regime or at a post-conflict stage. However, the particularity of the Colombian case is that transitional justice policies were introduced while the conflict still raged. In this sense, the Colombian case expresses one of the key elements to be addressed which is the tension between offering incentives to perpetrators to disarm and demobilize to prevent future crimes and providing an adequate response to the human rights violations perpetrated throughout the course of an internal conflict. In particular, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes require a fine balance between the immunity guarantees offered to ex-combatants and the sought of accountability for their crimes. International law provides the legal framework defining the rights to justice, truth and reparations for victims and the corresponding obligations of the State, but the peace negotiations and conflicted political structures do not always allow for the fulfillment of those rights. Thus, the aim of this article is to analyze what kind of transition may be occurring in Colombia by focusing on the role that transitional justice mechanisms may play in political negotiations between the Colombian government and paramilitary groups. In particular, it seeks to address to what extent such processes contribute to or hinder the achievement of the balance between peacebuilding and accountability, and thus facilitate a real transitional process. / Zwischen 2002 und 2006 hat die kolumbianische Regierung von Álvaro Uribe einen Demobilisierungsprozess von paramilitärischen Gruppen und der Implementierung von Transitional Justice-Mechanismen durchgeführt als einem politischen Versuch, Frieden in Kolumbien durchzusetzen. Der Demobilisierungsprozess wurde durch einen sondergesetzlichen Rahmen geregelt: durch das Gesetz 782, das Dekret 128 und das Gesetz 975. Insbesondere das Gesetz 975 aus dem Jahr 2005, auch bekannt als das „Gesetz für Gerechtigkeit und Frieden“ (Ley de Justicia y Paz), bietet Strafmilderung für angeklagte Mitglieder illegaler Gruppen, die Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit und Mord begangen haben. Um diese Strafmilderung in Anspruch nehmen zu können, sind die angeklagten Ex-Kombattanten im Gegenzug aufgefordert, Informationen über ihre ehemalige Gruppe zu erteilen und illegal angeeignete Güter auszuhändigen. Um den Demobilisierungsprozess im Einklang mit Transitional Justice-Prinzipien umzusetzen, wurden eine Vielzahl von Institutionen eingerichtet: acht Sondergerichtskammern, eine Sondereinheit der Staatsanwaltschaft (Unidad Nacional de Fiscalia para la Justicia y la Paz), ein staatlicher Fonds für Entschädigung (Fondo de Reparación) und eine Nationale Kommission für Wiedergutmachung und Versöhnung (Comisión Nacional de Reparación und Reconciliación). In Kolumbien herrscht seit mehr als 40 Jahren ein bewaffneter Konflikt. Es ist der längste bewaffnete Konflikt in der westlichen Welt. An diesem Konflikt sind der Staat, die rechtsgerichteten Paramilitärs und linksgerichtete Guerillagruppen beteiligt. Bis heute hat der Staat in weiten Teilen des Landes de facto kein Gewaltmonopol über einige Gebiete, die stattdessen von der Guerilla oder den Paramilitärs beherrscht werden. Die paramilitarischen Gruppen sind für die überwiegende Zahl von Menschenrechtsverletzungen seit mehr als 30 Jahren verantwortlich. Als Folge wurden tausende Bauernfamilien von ihrem Land vertrieben. Kolumbien steht mit drei Millionen Binnenvertriebenen nach dem Sudan weltweit an zweiter Stelle. Neben Bauern sind auch andere Gruppen Opfer des Konflikts, vor allem Afro-Kolumbianer, Frauen, Gewerkschaftsfunktionäre, Menschenrechtsverteidiger und Journalisten. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist eine wesentliche Voraussetzungen für einen Übergang von Konflikt- zu Frieden, dass der Staat die Garantie der Nicht-Wiederholung der vorausgegangenen Verbrechen und die Stärkung der demokratischen Bürgerrechte sicherstellt. In diesem Zusammenhang sind Transitional Justice-Instrumente, wie u. a. Strafverfolgungen und Amnestie, Wahrheits- und Versöhnungskommissionen, Wiedergutmachungen und Demobilisierungsprozesse zu sehen, die im Rahmen von Übergangsprozessen eingesetzt werden. Sie verfolgen das Ziel, die Vergangenheit eines gewaltsamen Konfliktes oder Regimes aufzuarbeiten, um so den Übergang zu einer nachhaltig friedlichen demokratischen Gesellschaftsordnung zu ermöglichen. Einerseits wird mit Hilfe von Transitional Justice-Instrumenten versucht, Gerechtigkeit und Entschädigung für die Opfer herzustellen. Andererseits sollen die angeklagten Täter mit Hilfe von Amnestie und Wiedereingliederungsprogrammen in die Gesellschaft reintegriert werden. So steht die Anwendung dieser Instrumente einem Dilemma zwischen Frieden und Gerechtigkeit, Verantwortlichkeit und Straflosigkeit, Strafe und Vergeben gegenüber. Diese Arbeit evaluiert die Umsetzung des Demobilisierungsprozesses, die gerichtlichen Prozesse und die Wiedergutmachungspolitik. Wichtig ist es zu analysieren, ob der Demobilisierungsprozess der paramilitärischen Gruppen einen Übergang von Krieg zu Frieden zum Ergebnis hat. Ein Übergang sollte die Erfüllung der oben erwähnten Bedingungen – Ausübung des legitimen Gewaltmonopols durch den Staat, Garantie der Nicht-Wiederholung von Gewaltverbrechen und die Stärkung von Bürgerrechten – bedeuten.

Many of the recent armed conflicts have taken place in cities of the Developing World. In the resulting emergency situations, water supply and sanitation are among the most essential services to restore. They form part of the urban services available to the city dwellers that are commonly managed by local water sector institutions. This is, in principle, acknowledged by aid agencies but partnerships between them and water sector institutions do not always happen because of concerns such as: independence vis-a-vis the local government; possible corruption arid inefficiency problems; and political obstacles. Moreover, agencies prefer short-term structural rehabilitation to long-term institutional development, for which they do not always feel sufficiently qualified and experienced. This study tackles the problem by determining how these partnerships influence the performance of aid operations, in particular in terms of efficiency I effectiveness in the case of emergency response and of sustainability and coverage in the case of rehabilitation. It is based on a number of case studies selected in: Kabul (Afghanistan); Jaffna (Sri Lanka); Monrovia (Liberia); Beni (Democratic Republic of Congo); Port-au Prince and Port-de-Paix (Haiti), and Grozny (Chechnya in the Russian Federation). For emergency operations, findings show that partnerships tend to take place when the type or level of technology involved and/or security conditions do not allow the aid agency to work independently from water utilities. Partnerships do not necessarily influence efficiency I effectiveness in the short term but are beneficial because they prepare for rehabilitation. In terms of rehabilitation, findings suggest that current practice maintains a separation between large-scale rehabilitation projects and community-based projects focusing on specific neighbourhoods. This has a detrimental effect on sustainability and fails to address the needs of the most vulnerable populations. The study recommends a more coordinated approach that involves a reform of funding patterns, in order to reconcile sustainability and universal service.