Abstract: This thesis argues that taking a strategic sustainable development (SSD) approach to conflict resolution in areas of the world in long-term intractable conflict with intermittent violence could support an effective process and lasting outcome. SSD proposes a holistic systems perspective and decision-making framework to address challenges and opportunities at the largest scale, including identifying root causes and drivers of the conflict as well as finding common ground internally and externally. The currently unbalanced dynamics between the two fundaments of sustainability, a robust ecosystem and social fabric, are the basis of deeply unsustainable patterns of behaviour which are often also at the heart of conflicts. Socio-ecological unsustainability can be both a threat, and an opportunity for resolution and social change. The framework offers a proven way of organizing, evaluating and using tools that can aid in dealing with sustainability issues constructively, and evidence is presented to suggest its usage can be extended to conflict issues. This thesis analyzes the links between sustainability, strategic sustainable development and conflict resolution work in the areas of conflict described, and proposes a set of guidelines for approaching conflict resolution with SSD.

This thesis develops a model that can be used to assess the ability of religious institutions to contribute to post-conflict state building. Highlighting the tendency in state building literature to stop short in discussing what seems to be inferred, but unnameable—religion—the research proposes a framework that identifies theoretical mechanisms through which religious institutions can contribute to post-conflict state building. Drawing from the theologies of Roman Catholicism and Sunni Islam the thesis then reflects upon why they would, of their own accord, lend their considerable legitimacy and resources. The thesis diverges from traditional approaches such as rational choice theory that suggest religious institutions act to maximise membership or assets, and instead embraces a teleological view recognizing the importance of belief structures in understanding a religious institution's motivations. It embraces salvation as a hermeneutical key to outline a Roman Catholic theology of state building while drawing upon the concept of justice for Sunni Islam. The thesis concludes by incorporating the particularistic nuances of Bosnia and Herzegovina's unique historically and culturally influenced religious practices, structures and theologies to suggest the ability and willingness of the two religions' institutions to contribute to their country's state building.

The difficulty of transforming war economies into peace economies has become increasingly problematic in the search for long-term peace and stability in Africa. In many African countries such as Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, conflict actors have created distinct war economies in order to maintain the conflict in these countries. The enduring nature of the war economies presents a unique challenge to actors involved in ensuring that peace returns to a country by applying a peacebuilding strategy. The economic environment during a conflict has a vast influence on a post-conflict economy and a post-conflict reconstruction strategy. Although post-war rebuilding occurred during the reconstruction of Europe and Japan after the Second World War, the terms "post-conflict peacebuilding" and "post-conflict reconstruction" have only came to prominence during the mid-1990s. Using the case study of Sierra Leone, this study explores the challenge of war economies and its impact on post-conflict reconstruction. Sierra Leone presents an appealing case study as the country experienced a very profitable war economy during the armed conflict in the country between 1991 and 2002, and continues to struggle to transform this war economy into a peace economy. The case study of Sierra Leone is well researched, however, most studies focus on the conflict period, and only briefly look at the post-conflict period. In addition, discussions of post-conflict reconstruction in Sierra Leone have failed to adequately address the challenges presented by the war economy. This study uses existing analyses about the war economy in Sierra Leone, and links these to the current post-conflict reconstruction strategy, focusing specifically on the economic dimension. Therefore, this study represents a departure from traditional approaches to exploring war economies because it considers the direct impact these economic systems have on the process of post-conflict reconstruction. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

La Commission de Vérité et de Réconciliation du Canada (CVRC) qui s’est tenue du mois de juin 2008 au mois de juin 2015 avait pour objectif de faire la lumière sur la douloureuse période des pensionnats qui s’est étendue des années 1820 aux années 1990. Bien que le mandat de la CVRC se limitait uniquement au dossier des pensionnats, il illustre la fragmentation de la nation canadienne autour des rapports entre Autochtones et autres habitants du territoire canadien. Malgré la tenue de cette commission, très peu d’auteurs s’accordent sur les résultats de cette commission. Bien que l’on remarque certaines avancées, il semblerait que, plus d’une décennie plus tard, de nombreux obstacles entravent encore le chemin vers la réconciliation. Parmi eux, nous retrouvons l’absence de demande de pardon du pape aux autochtones ayant fréquenté les pensionnats catholiques. L’objectif de ce mémoire est de mieux comprendre l’importance du pardon dans le processus de réconciliation entre Autochtones et non-Autochtones au Canada. Cette recherche revêt une vision bidisciplinaire, politique et théologique, pour répondre à cet objectif. La question de recherche proposée est la suivante : pourquoi l’absence de demande de pardon du pape aux Autochtones constitue un obstacle à la réconciliation ? Nous supposons sur la base de nos lectures préliminaires que cette absence de demande de pardon est un obstacle par sa dimension politique et sa dimension spirituelle. Nous supposons également en nous basant sur la théorie de peacebuilding de John Paul Lederach, que l’attention portée sur l’absence de demande de pardon du pape constitue en soi un obstacle à la réconciliation. Pour répondre à cette question de recherche, nous avons mené une revue de la littérature approfondie sur le rôle du pardon dans un processus de réconciliation d’un point de vue politique puis spirituel. Nous avons ensuite mené une enquête pour confronter nos résultats à la réalité du terrain. Cette enquête a réuni douze acteurs locaux de la réconciliation au Québec. Certains parmi ces participants sont Autochtones, certains font partie d’une institution catholique et d’autres n’affichent aucune affiliation. Les résultats recueillis démontrent que contrairement à notre idée préliminaire, l’absence de demande de pardon du pape ne constitue pas un obstacle à la réconciliation. Cependant, c’est effectivement l’attention qui y est portée qui nuit à la réconciliation. Nos conclusions ont été bousculées par la mobilisation Wet'suwet'en qui s’est tenue dès le début de l’année 2020 au Québec et qui illustre que la réconciliation est encore un chemin sinueux parsemé d’obstacles qui doivent être pris en compte dans de futures recherches. / The Truth and Reconciliation Commission held in Canada (TRC) from June 2008 to June 2015 aimed to shed light on the painful residential school era that occurred between 1820 and 1990. Although the TRC’s mandate only focused on the residential schools’ matter, it illustrates the fragmentation on relationships between Indigenous people and other Canadian inhabitants. Despite the holding of this commission, very few academic authors agree on its results. Although some progress has been noted, it seems that many obstacles still stand in the way of reconciliation. Among them is the absence of a request for forgiveness from the Pope to the natives who attended Catholic boarding schools. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the importance of forgiveness in the process of reconciliation. This research takes a bi-disciplinary, political and theological approach to meet this objective. The research question under study goes by the following: why does the absence of a Pope’s request for forgiveness to the Indigenous people constitutes an obstacle to reconciliation? We assume—based on our preliminary readings—that the absence of a request for forgiveness is an obstacle due to its political and spiritual dimensions. We also assume—based on John Paul Lederach’s theory of peace building—that the attention paid to the Pope’s lack of request for pardon itself constitutes an obstacle to reconciliation. To answer this research question, we conducted a comprehensive literature review on the role of forgiveness in processes of reconciliation from a political, and then a spiritual, point of view. We then conducted a survey to compare our results with the reality on the ground. This survey brought together twelve key players of reconciliation in Québec. Some of these participants are Indigenous, some are part of a Catholic institution, and others have no affiliation. The evidence collected in this study shows that, contrary to our preliminary idea, the absence of the Pope’s request for forgiveness does not constitute an obstacle to reconciliation. However, it is indeed the attention paid to it that undermines reconciliation. Our findings have been shaken up by the Wet’suwet’en mobilization that took place at the beginning of 2020, which illustrates that reconciliation is still a winding road dotted with obstacles that need to be considered for future research.

This paper will investigate what role human rights can play in the reconstruction of a post-conflict society. The true root causes of conflict are not addressed by prior peace interventions, often governments are unable to deliver to their populations what they were promised. This thesis is guided by an overarching research interest in how during these situations, peacebuilding, human rights, and the construction of a new, accountable social contract can go hand-in-hand. The case study of the Central African Republic’s conflicts will be used to investigate the hypothesis. Nurturing and restoring society’s trust in the peacebuilding process is often underestimated. To break the vicious cycle of self-enforcing conflicts and their recurrence, a revitalisation of the social contract may be a strategy to optimize working towards reconciling the post-conflict society. The research finds that a human rights-rooted social contract approach in a post-conflict society can impact the peacebuilding positively.

Due to processes of change, there has been an increase in reconciliation initiatives around Colombia directed at promoting spaces for human interaction and social reconstruction to be encourage. This repertoire of strategies nurture collective memory, individual trauma healing and communities’ transformation, and become a place for peacebuilding to take place. The following research pretends to determine how art initiatives create and promote a space for reconciliation and peacebuilding processes for people that have participated in them. This thesis is based on the experience of 10 individuals that consider themselves artists and victims, which were interviewed concerning their experience with art performances and exhibitions in music, muralism, cinema, sewing, narration and theatre as instruments of self-reconcilement with traumatic experiences, catharsis processes and peacebuilding strategies for themselves due to their personal experience with the Colombian conflict inside Bogotá, Colombia. This investigation makes use of a qualitative analysis for a narrative investigation based on semi-structured interviews of different individuals who have led and worked in Art performances including theatre plays, narration, mural painting, songwriting, movie production and sewing focused on reconciliation and the construction of peace and memory. At the same time, this research makes use of the exercise and theoretical framework of “the meeting place” by John Paul Lederach as a general guideline on how to approach concepts related to reconciliation and peacemaking. This approach in relation to elements such as truth, mercy, justice and peace provides guiding principles to understand how and to which extent art initiatives act as a strategy in the promotion of personal and collective peace for the interviewees. Furthermore, “the meeting place” as a theoretical approach is necessary for the comprehension of the role art initiatives can have in the creation of a space in which participants can genuinely generate significant change towards the dissolution of tensions, truth-telling, catharsis processes, pain handling and the fortification of human relations. This thesis however does not indicate how the art initiatives promoted by the participants affected its viewers. This thesis concludes by supporting the argument that art provided a space for reconciliation and for meaningful processes of peacebuilding to rise in the case of all interviewees as they personally used art as a coping mechanism which provided a space for reconciliation for themselves.

This study investigates the South Sudanese government’s policy titled South Sudan National Action Plan 2015–2020 on UNSCR 1325 to identify the discourses in the policy document and examine whether they can be linked to the concepts of power and agency. The thesis uses the feminist theory of power and agency with Carol Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) framework as a method to answer the research objectives. The thesis finds that the South Sudanese government justice system is represented as the dominant “problem” representation because the government is represented as lacking the political will to change its formal and customary laws that have harmful consequences for women in South Sudan. The Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare (MGCSW), via the SSNAP, is blaming the government for the overall challenges that South Sudanese women endure, which in turn works contrary to the policy objectives since the government oversees allocating financial resources and enacting legislation. Further, the empowerment and agency of women in South Sudan are also undermined since they are portrayed as powerless and dependent on the change in formal and customary laws by the government.

The occurrence of internal armed conflict in Africa has increased over the last two decades. As such, Africa continues to be viewed by many as a troubled continent. In an attempt to avoid further conflict in Africa, organisations such as the United Nations have implemented comprehensive tools and strategies to prevent further conflicts from occurring. However, the genocide in Rwanda and the on-going unrest in Sudan have shown that there is still a lot of work to be done. In both these cases, the conflicts took place or escalated even with UN presence on ground. This paper will thus examine the UN's legal role in the prevention of internal armed conflict and establish the type of lessons that could be learnt from Rwanda and Sudan. / Public, Constitutional, & International / LL.M.

Le droit international encadre l’exercice de la diplomatie des États dans une finalité de prévenir l’insécurité et, par extension, les conflits armés. Le droit de la diplomatie préventive reflète ainsi l’idée que la prévention de risques imminents de dommages matériels graves délimite l’objet d’un principe général de droit international. L’affirmation d’un principe est fondée sur l’analyse inductive des conventions majeures conclues en matière de maintien de la sécurité collective de 1899 à 1945. Elle est vérifiée à la lumière de la pratique de leur application par les Membres de la SdN et, depuis 1945, de l’ONU. Le caractère général de ce principe est déduit d’une étude combinée de la jurisprudence d’un nombre de juridictions internationales dans une variété de domaines du droit international. Les efforts individuels et collectifs de prévention des conflits obéissent donc à un régime juridique général qui organise le système contemporain de maintien de la paix internationale. / International law regulates States’ diplomacy for the purpose of preventing insecurity, and, by extension, armed conflicts. Accordingly, the law of preventive diplomacy reflects, in a sense, the idea that prevention of imminent risks of serious material damages defines a general principle of international law. The assertion of such a principle is based on an inductive analysis of the major treaties on collective security concluded between 1899 and 1945. It is verified in light of their application by Member States of the League of Nations and, since 1945, of the United Nations. The general nature of this principle is deduced from a combined study of the jurisprudence of a number of international courts and tribunals in various fields of international law. Those findings support the idea that individual and collective efforts of conflict prevention are subject to the respect of a general legal regime governing the current international system of peace-maintenance and collective security.

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