Armed conflict and violence against civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has persisted for years starting in the 1990s. The Eastern, Western and North-Eastern parts of the country have seen the presence of a multiplicity of armed groups that have caused an escalation of the humanitarian crisis. The United Nations, in the interest of civilian protection, peacekeeping and security sector reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo declared a mission under The United Nations Organisational Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC). In spite of this mission, civilians continued in the Congo to suffer attacks and to endure human rights abuses by the armed militants that are fighting government and the government forces in shape of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC). This study examines the problematique of the mandate of MONUC in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in light of the challenges that have made its success debatable. The success of MONUC has become debatable in light of the fact that in spite of its presence and implementation in the DRC, between 2007 and 2010, conflict and the violence against civilians escalated to unprecedented levels. This study examines the causalities of the failure and observes its effect while making propositions towards amelioration of the challenges and the failure of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. / Political Sciences / M.A. (International Politics)

The practice of making international dedications (of days, weeks or years) proliferated in the second half of the twentieth century with the rise of international institutions like the United Nations. The practice contrasts alternative dealings with time i.e. sacred time or dedication as commemoration. International dedications celebrate a concept of social or environmental importance, with a particular emphasis on awareness raising and inculcating change on a practical level. 1995 was the ‘United Nations International Year for Tolerance’. To the study of tolerance, the ‘Year’ marks the apex of tolerance as an object of modern international concern. This thesis is divided into two halves. The former undertakes a close analysis of the build-up to the UN ‘Year of Tolerance’ (Chapter One), the ‘Year’ itself and the subsequent follow-up (Chapter Two). It likewise provides a more general account of the rise and practice of international dedication making. The second half of this thesis addresses the broader theoretical debate on tolerance, 1945-2010. This thesis understands the UN ‘Year of Tolerance’ as a particular institutionalised expression of a specific theoretical mode of tolerance, taken from the theoretical debate on tolerance, and masked by the veneer of cultural universality. It uses 1995 as an artificial marker to gauge continuity and change in the debate on tolerance and to demarcate between Chapter Three-Chapter Four (pre-1995) and Chapter Five-Chapter Six (post-1995). The conclusion summarises the principal points of continuity and discontinuity and finally contextualises the UN ‘Year of Tolerance’ in the theoretical debate on tolerance i.e. as the institutional embodiment of a particular liberal-‘political’ mode of tolerance and an international attempt at final foreclosure of the controversy around tolerance. In seeking to critically account for the UN ‘Year of Tolerance’, and likewise to provide a general overview of continuity and change in the modern theoretical debate of tolerance, this thesis seeks to redress ‘a gap’ in current academic research.

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Drug war has become a global issue that is affecting the whole population. One country that has been especially affected is Mexico. There are more than 120 million people living in Mexico and only in 2007 and 2008 more than eight thousand were assassinated in relation to drug conflicts, including over 500 police officers. Kidnapping has also increased enormously.  Since The Human Security aspect is taking more and more space on the international agenda, it has been chosen as a theoretical framework for this study.   In order to answer the research question, which is to what extent the Mexican government has taken human security principles into account in the war against the drug cartels, a case study method has been used. Focus of the study is the aspect of human security and antidrug policies in Mexico, between 2004 and 2010.   The results of this study show that there is a lack of Human Security Principles in the Mexican strategy to fight the drug cartels. During Felipe’s Calderon president mandate the power has been given to the military forces, excluding the police from the governmental actions. Civilians rights and threats to their personal security has been forgotten and that had led to many violations of human rights.

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At the end of her shift, Madchen, a young diner waitress, waits for a ride home. But on this particular afternoon, Madchen’s encounters with three everyday people in her life – Leonard: a regular at her diner; Beth: a fellow waitress; and Davis: her boyfriend – shed harsh light on her troubled and restless state. Each meeting magnifies her heartaches as well as her hopes, forcing Madchen to face the conflicting and confining truths of her life. Stranded on a two-lane highway, caught in the gloaming, Madchen teeters between the small-town world she knows and the greater world that is beginning to beckon.

La elaboración de la presente Tesis de Grado conlleva, además de analizar y estudiar el suelo de fundación de la estructura del pavimento portuario, también involucra la revisión de los conceptos teóricos para el diseño de un pavimento en los puertos, asimismo, presentar un caso típico de rehabilitación de pavimentos en el Terminal Portuario General San Martín (Pisco) cuyo deterioro y defectos de nivelación es producto, tanto de su uso, como de la presencia de un relleno de suelos construido mediante la modalidad de “área ganada al mar” con un material granular proveniente de zonas cercanas al puerto, cuyas características mecánicas y deformación comprometen aún más el correcto comportamiento del pavimento en este puerto.

Master of Arts - International Relations / This research attempts to examine and explain the failure of UN diplomacy that was applied in Iraq from 1991 post-Gulf War to 2003. In order to achieve this, UN diplomatic instruments that included diplomatic negotiations, UN Resolutions, sanctions, and weapons inspections have been rigorously analysed within the context of ascertaining their diplomatic effectiveness. The report specifically focuses on the impact that was made by the diplomatic tools in an effort to peacefully disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. In addition, the report explores factors that undermined the use of the diplomatic instruments. A number of factors have been responsible for the failure of the UN diplomacy in Iraq. They include, among others, a structural problem in form of an enforcement mechanism in the UN Security Council Resolutions; lack of complementarity in the use of the diplomatic instruments, and implemented at an earlier phase of the disarmament crisis; use of the UN by some of its key members to pursue their interests; flaws in the overall US/UN policy toward Iraq; deeply entrenched hostilities between Iraq and the West especially US and Britain; the approach within which sanctions were modelled discouraged key diplomatic dialogue and negotiation; and the nature of the UN of being an association of sovereign countries largely limited diplomatic efforts to resolve the disarmament crisis. Thus, the report reveals factors ranging from the ineffectiveness of the UN diplomatic instruments to the flaws in the external influence- that is, the policy of the UN and some of its key members to have failed the UN diplomacy in Iraq.

Ce travail de recherche porte sur les jeunes étrangers arrivant en France sans responsable légal : les dits mineurs non-accompagnés. Il propose une investigation de leurs conditions d’accueil, comme de non-accueil, suivant une approche psychosociologique clinique. Si la Convention Internationale des Droits de l’Enfant établit la responsabilité des autorités publiques face à la vulnérabilité de leur situation, force est de constater aujourd’hui les avatars de la prise en charge de ce public. Cette recherche se concentre dans un premier temps sur l’accompagnement de ces jeunes par l'Aide Sociale à l’Enfance (ASE) ainsi que sur les tensions produites par la rencontre de deux discours opposés au sein des organisations d'accueil : celui de la protection de l'enfance et celui de régulation migratoire. De par le contexte migratoire actuel, nous sommes amenés à accorder une attention toute aussi soutenue à l’expérience des jeunes non-accueillis par l'ASE, relégués hors des murs de l’institution. Cette thèse analyse les modalités d’investissement autour de la figure du jeune migrant et s’intéresse aux effets du « désaccueil » et à l’épreuve du « rien ». Cette jeunesse, qui traverse des frontières en quête d’un lieu dans lequel elle puisse exister en tant que sujet social, se voit confrontée à des obstacles incessants qui l’empêchent d’envisager une existence pleine. Comment ces sujets vivent-ils cet environnement marqué par l’incertitude et la négation ? Quels supports mobilisent-ils pour trouver une manière d’investir leurs projets et construire leur avenir ? Nous approfondissons ces questions dans ce travail / This research focuses on young foreigners arriving in France without their legal guardians: the so-called unaccompanied minors. It proposes an investigation of their “welcoming” and “un-welcoming” conditions following a clinical psychosociological approach. If the International Convention on the Rights of the Child establishes the responsibility of public authorities regarding the vulnerability of their situation, it is for us today to observe the specificities of educational-protective work and the mishaps of the care provided to them.At first, this research focuses on the social care of these young people provided by the Aide Sociale à l’Enfance (ASE), a French institution of child protection, as well as the tensions produced by the encounter of two opposing institutional discourses within the care/host organizations: the child protection discourse and the regulation of migration discourse. Secondly, as a result of the current migratory situation, this research focuses, on the experience of young people who are not hosted by the ASE, those who are relegated outside the institution's walls. Therefore, this thesis analyzes the types of investments around this youth and focuses on the effects of a policy of “un-welcoming” referring subjects constantly to the condition of “not being". This youth who crosses borders in the search of a place to “be” an active social and political subject, found themselves confronted with the dimension of “not possible”, relegated to the margins of institutions. How do they live this environment marked by uncertainty and negation? How are they able to find the support necessary for each human being to build their professional and life projects? These are the main questions we investigate in this thesis.

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