The aim of this thesis is to provide an objective view of the investment potential of Sri Lanka, including all the important factors that may affect the investment climate and to assess the current investment policy of Sri Lanka and propose some recommendations for improvement. The theoretical part of the thesis is devoted to the impact of armed conflict on the investment environment, it discusses the institutional framework for investment, the legal framework for investment, and investment incentives provided to investors. It also defines the priority investment areas and the main obstacles for the development of investment in the territory. The practical part of the thesis compares the investment potential of Sri Lanka with three selected Asian countries to determine which areas need an improvement, necessary to increase the country's attractiveness for foreign investment. It also evaluates the investment potential of the country in the form of a SWOT analysis and provides recommendations for improvement.

The Master's thesis "Private Military Companies in Africa" deals with the issues of the private military and security companies and their current position in international security relations. The central thesis of this academic publication is the question whether these commercial companies are capable of representing a significant position within the international community and executing extensive operations in conflict resolution and the subsequent transition towards a stable arrangement of the stricken regions. Essentially, the arguments leading to the key objective of this thesis are drawing upon a comparative study of recent activities of PMCs on the African continent, a discursive analysis of the approach towards these private subjects, as well as their international legal status. Consequently, by relying on the gathered information from the aforementioned research, the most substantial section of the text offers basic models of potential widespread use of private military companies in connection with national states and international organizations and explains the benefits resulting from this shift towards privatization of global security. Furthermore, the publication points out specific contemporary cases for the prospective application of PMCs and analyses the space for this industry within the existing international system.

Magister Legum - LLM / This study investigates the the impact of armed conflict on child education in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Naturally, armed conflict affects negatively on people‟s life. In particular, armed conflict affects the education of children as military groups attack schools, schools children and teachers. Ultimately, armed conflicts also affect the quality of education children receive during hostilities. In light of this, the study assesses how the Congolese government, in line with international and regional human rights obligations, responds to the educational needs of children affected by armed conflict.

Four years after the signing of the Final Agreement for the Termination of the Armed Conflict in Colombia, the promises made to achieve a stable and lasting peace have by no means materialized at the expected pace. The implementation of the Agreements has focused on the demobilization of the FARC-EP while structural transformations to reduce the causes for the existence or prolongation of the conflict have been neglected. While the political and economic elites make efforts to halt the implementation –especially the compromises dealing with the rural reform– those who promote such structural changes have been stigmatized and violated in an effort to maintain the status quo. As a result, Colombia has the highest number of killings of social leaders in Latin America. The leaders mobilizing peasant causes have suffered with particular intensity from this violence.  This thesis thus uses a qualitative method of study, developed through data collection, to analyze the relationship between the elite resistance to the implementation of the Comprehensive Rural Reform and the assassinations of social leaders in Colombia. The conceptual basis for the research is the theory of structural violence. / Cuatro años después de la firma del Acuerdo Final para la Terminación del Conflicto Armado en Colombia, la promesas hechas para lograr una paz estable y duradera no se han materializado al ritmo esperado. La implementación de lo pactado se ha centrado en la desmovilización de las FARC-EP mientras las transformaciones estructurales para disminuir las causas de la existencia o prolongación del conflicto han quedado relegadas.. En este escenario, aquellos que impulsan esos cambios estructurales o mobilizan a sus comunidades en las exigencies de sus derechos han sido estigmatizados y violentados en un esfuerzo por mantener el estatus quo; mientras las élites políticas y económicas hacen esfuerzos para frenar lo pactado. Como resultado, Colombia presenta la cifra más alta de asesinatos en contra de líderes sociales en America Latina. Los líderes que mobilizan causas campesinas han sufrido con especial intensidad esta violencia.  Esta tesis usa un método cualitativo de análisis, desarrollado a traves de la recolección y análisis de datos, para analizar la relación entre la resistencia de las élites a la implementación de la Reforma Rural Integral y los asesinatos de líderes sociales en Colombia. La base conceptual para esta investigación la violencia structural.

This thesis is conducted as a descriptive qualitative single case study to establish empirical knowledge of the ongoing internal armed conflict between the government of Colombia and the guerrilla Ejército de Liberación Nacional. The ontological foundation orienting from social constructivism and Galtung’s theoretical concepts of attitude, behaviour, and contradiction along with the three aspects of violence: direct, cultural, and structural. Based on the application of the textual discourse analysis method, 96 different discourses were analysed. The result of the analysis shows that the perception the actors have towards each other strongly is negative. The government and the guerrilla accuse each other of contributing to the social injustice in Colombia, where perception towards the ‘other’, ideology and police violence against social protests are three main subjects found contributing to the conflict. The result indicates an interrelation in Galtung’s theory between the conflict triangle (T1) and the violence triangle (T2). The concept of contradiction from the conflict triangle, in this analysis, could only be distinguished within the three approaches of violence (T2). This study confirms several claims and arguments from previous research within the academic fields of peace and conflict in Colombia. Subsequently, I aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of the ongoing conflict

In recent years protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflicts has become largely mentioned issue. Despite broad international legal codification of principles to prevent destruction of cultural property in the event of armed conflicts, destruction of cultural property obviously occurs. Within discussion on their protection, attention is not so paid to the values of cultural property representing for interested actors not merely in the event of armed conflicts. Attention is not much paid also to the motivations leading actors to destroy cultural property in the event of armed conflicts. The thesis is based on current state of knowledge both in academic or international law and it focuses on exploring motivations leading actors to destroy cultural property in the event of armed conflicts. To answer the research question: "What motivators are leading actors to actively destroy cultural monuments in armed conflicts?" is proceeded from analysis of literature that expounds the motivations for the destruction of cultural property in the event of armed conflicts. These motivations will be understood as theoretical explanations of destruction for the purposes of the work, and on the basis of five case studies, their validity will be checked. The subsequent synthesis of the conclusions of...

Karolina Svobodová The Causes of Sexual Violence in the Armed Conflict in the DRC abstract My dissertation thesis (The Motivations of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) is a case study of sexual violence in armed conflict in the DRC examining and analysing the causes of its intensity and extent. The main research questions of the study are: - What are the causes of the systematic sexual violence in the armed conflict in the DRC? - Why sexual violence in the armed conflict in the DRC occurs in the large extent and with high intensity? The research theoretically stems from the constructivism as one of the three main scientific approaches to sexual violence in armed conflicts. Since the constructivism presents male and female identities as social constructs, it seems as the best approach to sexual violence where gender of victims and perpetrators is often generalized by supporters of essentialism. Hence, the inherent neutralism of constructivism makes it very suitable instrument for an empirical research. Further, the study works with combination of feminism, cultural anthropology, and feminist evolutionary psychology in the construtivist framework. This blend may seem incoherent but it allows a complex insight into the issue of sexual violence in the DRC and an interpretation of its...

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The aim of this thesis is to observe and analyze the effects of religious dimensions in armed conflict on violence against civilians. Focusing on rebel groups in intra-state conflicts, quantitative statistical analysis in form of Ordinary Least Squares multivariate regression, is utilized to examine data onreligious wars, one-sided violence, and conflict-related sexual violence. Two hypotheses are formulatedand tested; that (1) higher significance of religion in armed conflict leads to higher levels of one-sidedviolence, as well as that (2) higher significance of religion leads to higher levels of conflict-related sexual violence. The results, relying on four different datasets and 1107 observations, empirically support both hypotheses. The conclusion of this thesis suggests that civilians are found to be particularly vulnerable in religious armed conflict, pointing to the importance and urgency of further and closer examination of civilian victimization in these types of wars.

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