The Acholi people have remained poor despite the existence of a legal regulatory framework to guarantee enjoyment of the right to development (RTD) in Uganda. The study, therefore, seeks to explore alternative approaches for the protection and attainment of the RTD for the Acholi; a society that recently emerged from a conflict that lasted over 20 years. The conflict stifled the Acholis’ development opportunities and stripped them of their culture, a corner-stone for development in their society, due to forced encampment. The broken cultural system had the effect of limiting access to development opportunities. In the absence of protection from cultural structures, access to land and other sources of livelihood, the Acholi were reduced to a life of abject poverty during and after the conflict. The objective of this study was two-fold. First, to contribute to the debate on justiciability of the RTD for the Acholi by questioning the efficacy of the legal, policy and institutional framework for the protection of developmental rights in the post-conflict setting. The study also sought to explore the use of alternative approaches, including a clan-based development model, to facilitate development of the Acholi. This is in line with the right to self-determination which recognises the right of all people to freely participate in their development. From a theoretical standpoint, despite its controversial nature, the study shows that the RTD is indeed recognised under the African Charter, and is, therefore, justiciable in Uganda by virtue of article 45 of the Uganda Constitution. However, the legal basis upon which the RTD can be claimed is weak given that the right is only justiciable at the African regional level, beyond the reach of an ordinary Acholi of limited means. Its justiciability alone has remained contentious not just in Africa but also in the international realm. The study advocates for the adoption of a clan-based development model to tap into the pre-conflict Acholi clan structure through which development could be communally attained. This process would be state-funded through public-private partnerships in a bid to facilitate sustainable and meaningful development in Acholiland. The study advances the need for legal and institutional reforms; including, constitutional reforms to give formal recognition of the RTD in the bill of rights. The recognition of the role of culture in development planning and peace processes is also advocated for as it is critical for ensuring sustainability of peace and development. / Thesis (LLD (Human Rights))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Centre for Human Rights / LLD (Human Rights) / Unrestricted

Yes / Poor people attempting to claim a share of resources in post-conflict societies seek allies internationally and nationally in attempts to empower their campaigns. In so doing, they mobilize the languages of liberalism, nationalism and local cultural tradition selectively and opportunistically to both justify stances that transgress the strictures of local culture and to cement alliances with more powerful actors. In the case of poor widows in East Timor, the languages of nationalism, ritual, and justice were intermingled in a campaign aimed at both international actors and the national state in a bid to claim a position of status in the post-conflict order.

How can actors and agencies in post-conflict societies construct activities and navigate theirways through the challenges affecting locally owned peace process? What are the majorchallenges obstructing the goals for peace-building in local post-conflict societies? How canthese challenges be tackled to enable local peace process to become sustainable? These questionsare deeply motivated by the presumably failed peace-building processes in Myanmar. This thesisseeks to contribute to the feasibility of peace-building in local context. To highlight thechallenges of locally owned peace process which- are shaped by the elements of local ownership,this thesis offers a layout on which peace practitioners, policy makers and donor agencies canembed their framework for local peace operations in post-conflict societies. The existing elementof local ownership distorts reality and creates numerous challenges for post-conflict internal andexternal actors and agencies implementing peace framework. To counter the impediments oflocal ownership in post-conflict peace-building, this thesis argues for external-local ownershipand cooperation, as a means to promote and strengthen transparency of all forms of supportsnecessary to achieve sustainable peace-building goals in local post-conflict societies.

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Over the past decade academics and policymakers have increasingly recognised the growing importance of diasporas. While diasporas have been variously defined, an important common element is continued identity with the ‘home’ country even when many years have been spent in the ‘host’ country (Lyons, 2004b: 3). Some may even not have visited their ‘home country’ but offer valuable political support. For example, even though many of the Jewish diaspora in the United States have never been to Israel, let alone been born there, they nevertheless mobilise support for the Jewish ‘homeland’ (Mearsheimer and Walt, 2006). For the academic community, diasporas thus offer a challenge to the traditional ‘inside/outside’ conception of social life whereby socio-political activities are defined as either purely ‘domestic’ or purely ‘international’ (Al-Ali and Koser, 2002). Diasporas are, at one and the same time, both and neither. As suggested by Shain (2002), diasporas form a distinct ‘third level’ between interstate and domestic politics — a type of transnational actor that is becoming increasingly important due to the globalisation of markets, politics and culture. How, through what mechanisms and with what impact diasporas express themselves as ‘transnational actors’, therefore, is currently a matter of intense research. While there is an expanding literature in this area, there has been less research on diasporas in the field of conflict and peace studies. Here research has tended to emphasise the role of diasporas as ‘peace-wreckers’, though work has emerged emphasising the role of diasporas as ‘peace-makers’ (Smith and Stares, 2007).

One of the most common struggles of societies emerging from violent conflict is the struggle to re-invent or re-imagine the ‘nation’. In the process, the critical question becomes: what to do with the traumatic knowledge of the past? Education policy becomes a crucial arena for asserting political visions for a new society and for signalling a clear break with the past - the history curriculum the means through which new collective memories and identities are both reflected and asserted. The purpose of this study is to understand how two African societies, Rwanda and South Africa, in transition from a traumatic past, re-invent or re-imagine themselves as they emerge from conflict. The particular focus is the intersection between the politics of memory and identity and education policy in the form of the history curriculum. The construction of curricula in post-conflict societies is an under researched facet in the field of curriculum development and education policy. While there are studies on the curriculum of transition from socialist to post-socialist states or colonial to post-colonial regimes or routine changes of government in capitalist democracies there are very few studies which examine societies that have experienced the transitional trauma arising from internecine racial conflict that was culturally embedded at all levels as the focus of curriculum analysis – and how in such societies issues of memory and identity are both reflected and contested through what is taught. The main research question for this study focuses on how post-conflict societies re-conceptualise/re-imagine themselves through the medium of the schools’ curriculum. Ancillary questions include the ways in which memory and identity are constructed and to what purpose; how societies emerging from conflict deal with the traumatic knowledge of the past; and how curriculum reflects and asserts the new identities. The research methodology included historical research; the analysis of key education policy documents; workshop observation and the analysis of evaluations and focussed responses; and group interviews. Being intimately involved in South African curriculum change, the theory of situated learning provided a valuable context for the analysis of the South African data. The study breaks new ground in that it is the first comparative African case study research on how societies emerging from violent conflict engage with a traumatic past. Secondly, it is the first study to take the legacy of trauma after identity-based conflict into account. What have been underlined by this study are the complexities of educational change and the fragility of post-conflict societies. The deep inequalities which remain after the conflict has been settled need to be taken into account, but seldom are, in the construction of post-conflict education policy and in teacher development. Importantly, the study also raised questions about the extent to which identities formed within a conflict society, filter curriculum knowledge in post-conflict classrooms. The main findings to emerge from the research are firstly, that the depth, direction and pace of curriculum change in post-conflict societies is conditioned by the terms that settled the conflict; secondly the nature of the emergent state and the character of regional or provincial politics sets limits as well as possibilities for curriculum change and implementation; and that in a post-conflict society, theories of change need to move beyond the formal curriculum to take into account the historical meanings of identity within the national context. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Interreligious peacebuilding is one of the oldest methods used in peacebuilding around the world, as religion is often one key factor in war and used both to fuel conflicts or to promote peace and co-existence. However, the use of interreligious dialogue in post-conflict societies is still not fully understood and researcher has still not encapsulated its different components. The purpose of this study was therefore to provide understanding of the use of interreligious dia-logue in a highly sectarian societies as contemporary Lebanon is. Therefore, to explore and contribute to this research field, I conducted semi-structured interviewees with a local peace-building organisation in Lebanon. The findings were analysis with an analytical framework, based on intergroup contact theory and research methods on religious dialogue. This study il-lustrated the challenges and opportunities Lebanese peacebuilders face when conducting dia-logues in a very religiously divided society. The findings presented that the affective and cog-nitive effects from interreligious dialogue do varies between individuals depending on their own view on being a majority or minority religion and their own prejudice against other beliefs. Therefore, this paper contributes to new insight on the effects of contact theories relevance in sectarian societies and could be utilised to enhance the peacebuilding efforts in Lebanon.

No / Three interrelated factors make Sierra Leone in general and its extractive sector in particular worthy of examination. First, since the formal declaration of peace in 2002 the country has emerged as a model of liberal peacebuilding.1 The UN deployed one of its largest ever peacekeeping operations at a total cost of $2.8 billion.2 Official development assistance to Sierra Leone (multilateral, bilateral and UN agencies) amounted to US$1.2 billion between 2003 and 2006 (DACO, 2006: 7) and in 2006 the country’s $1.6 billion debt was forgiven (ICG, 2007: 8). In 2007 the country experienced its second successful post-conflict national election resulting in a transition of power to the opposition All People’s Congress.

The correlation between food insecurity and conflict has previously been studied and established in multiple studies. Furthermore, additional research has found linkages allying increased levels of female political participation and the de-escalation of conflict. Despite these facts, there are to date no studies examining whether female inclusion in peace processes has an effect on hunger. Thus, this dissertation addresses the relationship between female signatories’ presence in peace processes and food insecurity. Food insecurity is operationalized as prevalence of undernourishment, and female inclusion in peace negotiations is measured by the presence of female signatories in such processes. The study’s main conceptual claim is based on gaps found in previous literature, and argues that a higher level of female participants in peace processes leads to a lower level of food insecurity. The claim is evaluated in a quantitative statistical analysis, using data on food insecurity from the FAOSTAT Data for Food Security Indicators​, and incorporating statistics on female inclusion in peace negotiations from the ​Replication Data for Women’s Participation in Peace Negotiations and the Durability of Peace​. The analysis illustrates food insecurity’s dissemination in post-conflict societies and gender dispersals within peace negotiations, in order to demonstrate an existing correlation. Built on results from an ordinary least squares regression, the study confirms that higher presence of female signatories in peace processes decreases the likelihood of food insecurity in post-conflict societies.

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