V Praze, dne 25. července 2013 ………………………………… Abstract The main focus of this thesis is the phenomenon of private military companies and their deployment in situations of armed conflict conducted under the auspices of the so-called "War on Terrorism". The aim is to provide the reader with an introductory insight into this issue, describe specific activities of private military companies during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to answer research questions about their positive or negative contribution to the overall results of these conflicts and the possible impact on civil-military relations. The main thesis of this work is that the performance of these companies can not be categorically evaluated because it is different from case to case. There are, however, some general trends which can be traced in regard to "War on Terrorism". They mainly relate to the lack of efficient state control of private military companies and their conduct. The work is divided into several parts. The first deals with the historical development of conducting military operations with the help of non-state financially motivated actors. This section is intended to create a framework for a better understanding of the issues examined. The second part is devoted to theoretical classification of private military companies and...

Since children are particularly vulnerable in armed conflicts, they are conferred legal protection under International law, like in the International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law. Despite of international legislation, the situation of children remains critically worrying with numerous ongoing armed conflicts and instabilities globally. On the one hand, they are assumed special protection, yet on the other hand, they are commonly used as shields or forced into being combatants. The aim of the study is to outline legal areas of ambiguity or inadequacy in the legal framework and see whether they are sufficient in seeking to protect children in armed conflicts. Following relevant conceptual discussions on International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, the study employs a legal analysis in conjunction with a normative argumentation approach in reference to the works of various scholars. Based on the findings, I conclude that IHL and IHRL are often not adhered to, by state parties in armed conflicts due to a lack of binding power; hence such conventions do not produce the desired result. Since state parties are either in breach of the conventions, or have not yet ratified them, the conventions are not practically effective in protecting children.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:20:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carolina Assed Ferreira.pdf: 4430682 bytes, checksum: ca7e24bec4fb85caee4c48c1aa2e45a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-30 / This thesis analyses the subject of privatization of war through the action of private military companies (PMC) or private security companies (PSC), in view of their vertiginous growth in the present stage of economic globalization, as well as their relation with the energy issue. It analyses, also, the International Law on war, known as Hague Law, and the International Law on the protection of victims in a situation of armed conflict, known as Geneva Law which, in essence, is the International Humanitarian Law. The thesis contextualizes the subject historically and approaches the manner in which decisions on this subject are treated in the United Nations, verifying their impacts on the world peace process. The role of the private military companies and the responsibility over acts of their contracted people, known as new mercenaries , is analyzed. Finally, taking into account both sides of the same reality, combatants on one side, and the treatment given to victims on the other, final conclusions on the subject are made / O presente trabalho é uma análise do tema da privatização da guerra, por meio da atuação de empresas militares privadas (EMP) ou empresas de segurança privadas (ESP), tendo em vista seu crescimento vertiginoso no atual estágio da globalização econômica, bem como sua relação com a questão energética. Analisa-se o tratamento internacional do direito de guerra, denominado Direito de Haia, e o direito de proteção às vitimas em situação de conflito armado, denominado Direito de Genebra, que, em essência, é o Direito Internacional Humanitário propriamente dito. O trabalho contextualiza historicamente o assunto tratado e aborda a maneira pela qual as decisões sobre essa temática são tratadas no âmbito da Organização das Nações Unidas, verificando seus impactos sobre o processo de paz mundial. Analisa-se o papel das empresas militares privadas e a responsabilização sobre os atos de seus contratados, chamados de novos mercenários . Por fim, verificados os dois lados de uma mesma realidade, combatentes de um lado e o tratamento dispensado às vítimas de outro, são feitas as conclusões finais sobre o tema

La juridicité des droits de solidarité, en l’occurrence les droits à la paix et au développement, est une problématique qui agite les controverses doctrinales en droit international. Contrairement aux droits civils et politiques, voire aux droits sociaux, économiques et culturels, les droits à la paix et au développement, symboles des droits de solidarité, sont renvoyés aux sphères axiologiques et du non-droit. Il est fait grief à ces droits de ne pas respecter les caractéristiques normatives nécessaires à l’octroi de la juridicité. Ils n’auraient donc pas d’objets, de titulaires et de fondements juridiques établis. Ce faisant, leurs effectivité et justiciabilité sont remises en question. Cette approche est contestable. Les droits à la paix et au développement sont de véritables droits subjectifs. Ayant un fondement juridique conventionnel et coutumier, les droits à la paix et au développement sont reconnus à l’État et à l’individu. Primo, le droit de l’individu et de l’État à la paix renvoie au droit d’être protégé contre les violences inhérentes au conflit armé, lequel se définit comme l’ensemble des violences armées collectives, intenses et prolongées. Secundo, le droit au développement de l’individu et de l’État équivaut au droit au bien-être et à l’épanouissement. Partant, en plus des mécanismes de protection non juridictionnelle dont ils bénéficient, il est possible de mobiliser ces droits devant le juge international en vue d’en assurer l’effectivité et la justiciabilité. / The justiciabilty of solidarity rights, especially the right to peace and the right to development, remains a controversial issue in international law scholars. Unlike the civil and political rights or even social, economical and cultural ones, the rights to peace and development, symbols of the solidarity rights are generally relegated to mere axiological and lawlessness aspects. Indeed, they are alleged to not be consistent with the normative features that determines the justiciability. From this point of view, they have been denied any object, neither holders, nor established legal basis. Hence their justiciability has been persistenly challenged. However, we argue that this approach is questionable, because the rights to peace and development are true subjective rights. Based on conventional and customary legal foundations, the rights to peace and development are recognized for both states and individuals. Firstly, the right of individuals and states to peace refers to the right to be protected against inherent violences of armed conflict, which is defined as all forms of collective, intense and protracted armed violence. Secondly, the right to development of the individuals and the state is equivalent to the right to well-being or to a full personal development. Therefore, in addition to non-judicial protection mechanisms, it is possible to claim those rights before international courts in order to ensure their effectiveness and their justiciability.

A Child in an Armed Conflict in the Light of Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child The thesis aims to transparently elaborate the topic of protection of children in armed conflicts pursuant to the Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as identification of the main problems associated with the topic and efforts to suggest their solutions. The thesis also focuses on monitoring and enforcement mechanism of individual international instruments. The body of the thesis is divided into four parts, each of several chapters. The first part of the thesis deals with the development of protection of children in armed conflicts until the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and relevant international law documents on the protection of children in armed conflicts. The first part also includes a chapter with the identification of the main problems associated with the protection of children. Second part of the thesis concentrates on the analysis of various instruments of international law regarding the protection of children, that is, of course, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols, and following documents regarding protection of children based on this Convention, i.e. The Convention of the International Labour Organization...

L'intérêt d'une étude sur la mort découle des contradictions qui l'affectent car seuls les vivants pouvant être créateurs de normes et titulaires de droit, la mort en droit public est par définition un droit des vivants. La mort, prise en considération par le droit public, est un prisme sous lequel se dévoile la construction de l'Etat tout en révélant les lacunes et les fragilités du droit face au mystère de la condition humaine. Oscillant entre une conception de la mort perçue comme un néant et des projections individuelles et collectives conférant, malgré tout, une valeur à la personne et à la vie humaine avant et par-delà le décès, le droit tout en s'émancipant de la religion ne s'est pas déparé complètement de toute dimension "sacrée" et l'Etat doit se confronter à ces projections individuelles et collectives face à la mort. Si l'on a assisté en l'espace de moins d'un siècle à un basculement d'un devoir de ne pas tuer à une obligation de protéger la vie à laquelle la norme juridique fait très largement écho, la nouvelle maîtrise de la vie humaine permise par les avancées scientifiques et médicales transforme également l'expression souveraine de l'Etat. Se voyant reconnaître un pouvoir de protection de la vie, c'est désormais sur la condition biologique des individus elle-même que le droit public étend ses ramifications. / The interest of a study about death comes from the contradictions that affect it. Only the living can create laws and regulations: by definition, death in public law is the law of the living. Death, as managed by public law, is a prism which reveals the construction of the State but also uncovers gaps and weaknesses in the law to deal with the mystery of human condition. The law swings back and forth between a conception of death seen as nothingness and individual and collective beliefs giving nevertheless value to the person and human life before and beyond death. While freeing itself from religion, the law has not completely lost any"sacred" dimension and the State must face these individual and collective beliefs about death. In less than a century, there has been a shift from “do not kill” to an obligation to “protect life”; this shift is now widely integrated in modern law. Scientific and medical advances allow a new control of human life and also change the sovereign expression of the state. Public law is now in charge of a life protection duty and starts to integrate rules about the biological condition of human people itself.

Ce mémoire est une analyse féministe critique de cadrage et de discours que véhiculent les représentations médiatiques occidentales des femmes dans les conflits armés. En examinant spécifiquement le cas des combattantes kurdes, nous avons effectué une analyse qualitative de 125 articles de presse dans trois espaces médiatiques différents. Nos résultats mettent en évidence la nature complexe et socialement construite des représentations médiatiques et comment celles-ci sont liées à des relations de pouvoir géopolitiques plus vastes. Alors que les médias de masse et les médias spécialisés (y compris les magazines féminins et la presse culturelle/destinée aux millénariaux) semblent relativement similaires dans leur manière de représenter les combattantes kurdes, seuls les médias alternatifs (tant de gauche que de droite) semblent véritablement différents dans leur manière de les dépeindre. Alors que les images des combattantes kurdes sont censées remettre en question les stéréotypes de genre orientaliste, nous soutenons que – en les présentant à la fois comme des héroïnes et des victimes – la couverture médiatique occidentale de ces dernières ne fait que reproduire ces stéréotypes. / This thesis is a critical feminist framing, and discourse analysis of Western media representations of women in armed conflicts. Looking specifically at the case of Kurdish women combatants, we conducted a qualitative data analysis of 125 news articles in three different media spaces. Our results highlight the complex (and socially constructed) nature of media representations, and how these representations are intertwined with larger geopolitical power relations. While mass media and specialized media (including women’s magazines and cultural/millennial press) seem relatively similar in their way of representing Kurdish women fighters, only the alternative media (both left-wing and right-wing), seem significantly different in their way of portraying them. While the images of Kurdish fighters are supposed to challenge the Orientalist gender stereotypes, we argue that – by portraying them both as heroines and victims – the Western media coverage of them only reproduces these stereotypes.

Cette thèse cherche à mieux comprendre le rôle de la dimension visuelle dans les conflits contemporains en produisant des données empiriques sur les images, leur production, leur circulation et leurs réceptions dans deux cas d’études. Ces deux cas sont les confit urbain autour du trafic de drogue et du Primeiro Comando da Capital à Sao Paulo, et celui de l’insurrection de Boko Haram au Nigéria, Tchad et Cameroun. Cette approche montre que les conflits sont l’objet de controverses sur leurs définitions. Les acteurs de ces conflits tentent tous d’imposer des cadrages (framing) et interprétations de la situation en se servant des images. Quand les acteurs ne produisent pas d’images, ils sont forcés de proposer des interprétations de ces images. Pour montrer le rôle des images dans les controverses des deux conflits étudiés, deux concepts ont été élaborés. Le premier est celui de régime d’images qui correspond à des modes de fonctionnement de ces images permettant d'expliquer leur pouvoir sur les controverses. Ce concept est appliqué aux deux cas pour montrer les dynamiques visuelles propres à chaque conflit. Dans le cas de Boko Haram, nous identifions deux régimes, dont l’un a internationalisé le conflit. A Sao Paulo, les régimes d’images identifiés construisent les positions au sein de la controverse sur la violence. La thèse fait aussi l’hypothèse d’un capital esthétique des groupes armés qui pourrait être converti en capital militaire. Nous validons cette hypothèse en montrant le rôle de ce capital pour Boko Haram et le PCC. Les deux groupes s’efforcent de reprendre les codes visuels de l’Etat islamique pour manifester leur antagonisme politique. / This thesis aims at understanding the visual dimension of contemporary armed conflicts. To do so it presents empirical datas on the pictures, their production, circulation and reception during two armed conflicts. The first case is the urban conflict around drug trafficking and the Primeiro Comando da Capital in Sao Paulo. The second one is the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon. This approach shows that contemporary conflicts are entangled in controversies about their meaning and definition. The actors of theses conflicts try to impose their own framing and their interpretation of the conflict using pictures. When the actors do not produce images, they are forced to advance some interpretations of the pictures. To identify the role of images in controversies relating to armed conflicts the thesis develops two concepts. The first one is the « regime d’images ». It underlines the modes of functionment of these images and makes it possible to explain their power over the controversies. This concept is used to show the different dynamics in the two cases. Regarding the Boko Haram insurgency, one of the « regime d’image » contributed to the internationalization of the conflict. In Sao Paulo the regimes of images reinforce the different positions of the actors in the controversy. The thesis also develops the idea of aesthetic capital of armed groups. This aesthetic capital can be transformed into military capital. We validate this hypothesis showing how this capital worked for the PCC and Boko Haram. The two groups are forced to adopt the visual codes and the aesthetic of the Islamic State to manifest their political antagonism.

Contexte: De nombreux conflits armés sévissent en Afrique. Les locaux et civils se combattent afin d’avoir accès aux ressources naturelles et les divers minéraux dont le contient regorge (Leatherman, 2011). Ces conflits armés s’accompagnent d’une arme de guerre bien précise et dévastatrice : les violences sexuelles. Les femmes survivantes de violences sexuelles (FSVS) sont aux prises avec symptômes s’apparentant à l’état de stress post-traumatique et vivent de la stigmatisation sociale. Objectif : Le principal objectif de la présente étude est de cerner la réalité des FSVS en lien avec leur santé psychosociale en contexte de conflits armés ou plutôt de féminicide. Pour ce faire, un cadre de référence basé sur le cadre théorique des violences sexuelles comme arme de guerre et un cadre conceptuel de neuf catégories (Mukamana, 2018) du trauma lié aux violences sexuelles en contexte de génocide a été conceptualisé pour guider la revue. Méthodologie: Afin de procéder, une stratégie de recherche a été mise en place. Deux bases données ont été consultées : 1) Medline (n= 136); 2) APA PsychInfo (n=172). Après révision des critères d’inclusion et l’évaluation des critères de rigueur méthodologique des études selon le JBI Qualitative Assessment (2017), 17 articles ont été sélectionnés. L’extraction des données s’est faite au moyen du logiciel Covidence. La synthèse et l’interprétation des données a été réalisée avec le logiciel Nvivo12 en se basant sur une méthode développée par Harden et Thomas dans leur article Methods for the Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Reseach in Systematic Reviews. La dernière étape de la méthodologie consiste en l’évaluation des résultats qui a été effectuée selon l’approche Grade CERQual. Résultats: 1) la santé psychosociale est vécue difficilement en lien avec les catégories du trauma lié aux violences sexuelles en contexte de féminicide, notamment les émotions accablantes et les souvenirs insupportables; 2) le vécu de la santé psychosociale en contexte de conflits armés en lien avec les facteurs sociaux est marqué par de la stigmatisation; 3) le cadre de référence invisibilise deux éléments : i) l’émergence d’une résilience chez les FSVS soutenue par la foi et la communauté; et, ii) des besoins institutionnels, éducatifs et communautaires; et, 4) la littérature ne comporte pas assez d’information afin de s’énoncer sur la perception des FSVS de l’imbrication des trois (3) systèmes du cadre de référence dans son influence éventuelle sur leur santé psychosociale. / Intro: Africa has been marked with several armed conflicts in the past years. Locals and civils are combatting to have access to the natural resources available on the continent such as minerals (Leatherman, 2011) These armed conflicts often create favorable situations where a particular weapon of war is used against the population: wartime sexual violence. Women surviving wartime sexual violence are living with multiple trauma related consequences: post-traumatic stress symptoms and social stigma. Aim: Using an original framework based on the theory of wartime sexual violence as a weapon of war and the nine categories of genocide rape trauma by Mukamana et al (2018), this review aims to explore the psychosocial wellbeing of women surviving wartime sexual violence in Africa. Methods: This rapid qualitative systematic review followed the JBI Evidence Synthesis approach. Two data bases have been consulted as part of the search strategy: 1) Medline (n=136) and 2) APA PsychInfo (n=172). After the selection process, 17 articles have been selected to be included in the study according to our criteria of inclusion. Data extraction was done using Covidence. The synthesis and interpretation of results was based on Harden and Thomas (2008) method for thematic synthesis of qualitative research in systematic reviews using Nvivo 12. The results have been evaluated using Grade CERQual. Results: 1) women surviving wartime sexual violence are experimenting overwhelming feelings and unbearable memories the most; 2) psychosocial health is affected by stigmatization, which is guided by cultural norms; 3) our framework does not account for two elements: i) the resilience emerging for the women surviving wartime sexual violence that is based on their faith and support from their communities and ii) the needs for institutional and educational changes and 4) the literature does not have enough information on the perception of women surviving wartime sexual violence regarding the interrelation of the framework used in the study and their psychosocial health.

This study was a qualitative examination of social, economic, political, and cultural dilemmas that face Peruvian survivors of the Communist Shining Path Revolution, an internal armed conflict that cut a swath of terror and destruction during the years 1980-2000, with a reported loss of 69,000 residents either killed or considered “disappeared.” The conflict affected primarily poor, uneducated Andean campesinos and townspeople in the highland areas of the Ayacucho District. In this study, I looked closely at the responsibilities of both government and NGOs in the facilitation of readjustment during and after times of instability. In addition, specific challenges the elderly, women and campesinos face in a post-conflict world are analyzed and possible social policies are discerned that might be developed to better implement the transition to a new form of community. Ideas that emerged from this research may assist policy shapers in other less developed countries involved in similar conflicts by examining how Peru dealt with its own issues. Methodology included participant observation and interviews with long-term Ayacuchan residents who stayed-in-place during war time, along with migrants who went to live in shantytowns in more urban areas. The government-mandated Truth and Reconciliation Commission report serves as a framework as it outlined those ultimately deemed responsible and detailed what those affected may expect in the way of appropriate reparations and compensation in the future. Much emphasis is given to the emerging role of women and how ensuing shifts of gender specific cultural roles may affect familial and communal bonds in small-scale societies.