This study examines and problematizes how the Resolution 1325 has impacted women's inclusion in two developing countries. The study focuses on how the resolution 1325 has affected and increased women's inclusion in peacebuilding since the implementation in Rwanda (2009) and Sierra Leone (2010). To analyse the results a theoretical framing is used, which is Empowerment theory and Feminist Approaches to Peacebuilding. This thesis uses a comparative literature method to compare the impacts in the two cases and critical reading is used while searching for material in e.g. scientific articles and in reports. Based on the theoretical framing and the material that are used in this thesis, the study concludes that Rwanda and Sierra Leone have experienced different results from the implementation of resolution 1325. This study concludes that the implementation of resolution 1325 in Rwanda has worked as a tool to push gender equality further in peace processes as in the parliament and in the security sector, alongside women's organizations and activists since 2009. The results in Sierra Leone concludes that the implementation of resolution 1325 has progressed the work within peacebuilding as the proportion of women has increased in peace processes and in the police and security-sector since 2010. However, the development in Rwanda had come further before the implementation of resolution 1325 and therefore the results differ in these countries.

The concept of ‘empowerment’ has been widely used among development practitioners since the early 1990s. This thesis aims to contribute to the literature on empowerment by developing an analytical framework that incorporates: (a) the dialectical nature of power, (b) multiple levels of analysis, and (c) the subjectivities of power that different actors have and that affect the way they respond to policies. The model is applied to the analysis of Mozambique’s transition to peace and the study of a national initiative called District Development Fund, known as the ‘7 Million’, which aims to promote empowerment by reducing poverty and promoting local participation in the rural districts. The analysis focuses, on the one hand, on the ‘7 million’ policy formulation, stressing the power struggles that shaped its final outcome and, on the other hand, the policy implementation in the district of Angoche, where I conducted extensive fieldwork. I argue that, even though the ‘7 million’ had some positive aspects – including providing a discourse that underlines the relevance of the districts and the local community in matters of governance – its effects in promoting local empowerment have been far below its potential. One of the reasons for this is to be found in the dynamics of power-to and power-over that take place at the local level and that partly reflect structural aspects linked to the Mozambique state formation and peacebuilding process. More generally, the case illustrates the limitations and contradictions of policies that aim promoting ‘bottom-up’ empowerment from the ‘top-down’.

This thesis deals with the circumstances that lead to a fragmented implementation of post-conflict justice and security reforms and their negative impact on institutional capacity to provide justice and security for citizens. It strenghtens the existing critique of SSR by employing liberal peacebuilding critique to examine the development of the SSR agenda within the security-development nexus mainstream and the difficulties in learning from SSR experience. The main research question concerns the factors affecting the coherence and sequencing of justice and security system reforms, and is addressed through a case study of Mozambique. The analysis identifies power dynamics surrounding formal and informal interactions that impact institutional change, and showcase the vulnerability of justice and security system reforms to co-optation by powerful international and national players. Throughout, patterns of critical juncture and path dependence are identified that have influenced the adaptation of powerful local players to external and domestic pressures which resulted in political and institutional bricolage. The thesis also looks at how the sequencing of Mozambique’s triple transition, in which economic liberalisation prevailed over peacebuilding and democratisation, shaped the post-civil war direction and pace of the defence, police and justice reforms. The 1992 peace agreement and the public sector reform programme are investigated with regards to the failure of driving substantive SSR and of imparting it coherence and sequencing in the short, medium and longer term. Finally, lessons are proposed for future reform in Mozambique, and recommendations are drawn for improving the design of strategy and implementation of SSR in general.

In this thesis, I investigate the different ways in which photography can be used to build peace in conflict situations. Although its role can be ambivalent, I primarily focus on its positive uses with the question: to what extent can photography promote peace rather than violence and conflict? My contention is that photography has the potential to contribute to building peace through several important roles in pre-conflict, post-conflict, and conflict situations: it can bear witness to truth, represent victims' suffering, encourage nonviolent resistance against violence, reconstruct painful memories, and re-imagine justice and reconciliation. To do this, I primarily focus on the May 18th Gwangju Democratic Uprising which happened between the 18th and 27th of May 1980 in the city of Gwangju, in the south-western region of South Korea. In the first chapter, I explore the relation between photography and peacebuilding, providing a brief history of 'war photography' particularly between the mid-19th century and the mid-20th century. I focus on two movements in war photography - realism and surrealism. Then, I consider the role of war photography from a peacebuilding perspective, by focusing on the concept of 'social psychological distance' between photographs and audience. In the second chapter, I consider how a photograph can reveal truth in violent conflict situations, focusing on the concept of 'bearing witness'. In comparison with the concept of 'eye witnessing', I examine how photographs have contributed to bearing witness to violent events. In this fashion, I focus on the importance of journalists and their roles as bearing witness to truth. In the third chapter, I investigate how photography can represent a victim's suffering and promote empathy. For this, I re-examine compassion fatigue theory, drawing upon the work of Susan Sontag and Susan Moeller. I then explore the theme through analysis of social documentary photography in the mid-twentieth century in the United States. In the fourth chapter, I argue that photography has the potential play an active role in empowering people to overcome fear and resist violence nonviolently. This offers a balance to those who propose a compassion fatigue theory, arguing that repeated exposure to violent images can reduce moral sensibility. In other words, even though photography can produce cultural fatigue from overwhelming violent representations, it can also promote moral sensibility and social actions against violence. In the fifth chapter, I investigate the role of photography in the aftermath of violent conflict, mainly focusing on the relationship between remembering and painful history. Drawing on cultural memory theories such as those developed by Maurice Halbwachs and Aleida and Jan Assmann, I contend that social identities can be reconstructed through the process of remembering. I argue that photography can be a tool for remembering the painful history wisely, mainly focusing on reconstruction of identity and healing of cultural trauma (Hicks 2002; Volf 2006). I explore how photography contributes to the practice of remembering painful history rightly. In the final chapter, I focus on reconciliation and restorative justice as an alternative approach to building a just and peaceful society in the aftermath of a conflict such as the Gwangju Uprising. Because of the relational aspect of reconciliation and restorative justice, I argue, the approach can contribute to the development of the 'moral imagination' that overcomes the limits of the current juridical justice system. Reconciliation cannot be only the end of peacebuilding, but also a practical guideline for achieving both peace and justice.

The emergence of resilience in the peacebuilding field shows an important change of paradigm and turn to the local context. So far few ethnographic research has been done to understand how resilience works locally and what are the mechanisms helping individuals to cope and recover from a crisis. This study intends to fill this gap through an ethnographic study of local mechanisms, structures, and understandings of resilience, gathering insights on the perspectives and experiences of women in a conflict-sensitive and post-natural disaster context. It relies on an abductive and inductive methodology using interviews and field-based observations answering the following research questions: 1) How are national and local organizations seeking to enhance the resilience of women in Putumayo? What are the tools and strategies they use? How are these related to their own understanding of resilience? 2) How do the women perceive and act in terms of resilience? How do they manage the consequences of the conflict and the natural catastrophe? What are their strategies of survival? The study brings forth a frame building on the current state of the literature, underlying factors contributing to the resilience of the local population in Putumayo and shedding light on local perspectives to contribute and deepen our current understanding of the concept.

Studies have examined the causes and impacts of terrorism in Nigeria; however, no known research has documented the psychological impacts of witnessing ongoing Boko Haram terrorist violence based on the lived experiences of Nigerian children. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the psychological consequences of the Boko Haram insurgency based on the lived experience of Nigerian children exposed to terrorism in Nigeria. The study's theoretical framework combined Piaget's theory of cognitive development and punctuated equilibrium theory. The central research question examined the adverse psychological effects of the Boko Haram insurgency for Nigerian children residing in Nigeria. Data for this study were collected through interviews from a purposeful sample of 8 participants who were exposed to the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria and a review of literature that primarily included peer-reviewed articles and studies relevant to the psychological theories. Colaizzi's method of phenomenological analysis was employed for data analysis. Results showed that all the participants reported negative symptoms of mental health disorders, which did not lead to permanent mental health illnesses. Among the participants, the primary factors that moderated the symptoms, preventing progression to permanent mental health illnesses, were fasting and religious support. Implications for positive social change include giving voice to voiceless Nigerian children and providing the Nigerian populace, multilateral and bilateral organizations, and the Nigerian government with information necessary to understand the effects of terrorism on children and promote resilience in children who have experienced terrorism.

Violence, insurgency, and terrorism have been a recurring problem in Nigeria. Efforts to address these challenges through the use of force have proved ineffective. The purpose of this study was to explore the application of peace education in the educational curriculum with a view to promoting consensual peace building in Kafanchan Town, Jema'a Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. Although peace education has been applied in some countries, this approach has not been applied to these challenges plaguing Nigeria. This study adopts the survey research method and utilizes the tripodal theoretical framework of ethnic conflict theory, enemy system theory, and the integrative theory of peace. Ethnic conflict theory stipulates that the internecine conflict between ethnic groups results from denial of their biological and psychological needs. Enemy system theory postulates that humans have a predisposition to discriminate. Integrative theory of peace projects peace as the interface between all aspects of human life, psychological, spiritual, ethical, or sociopolitical. A purposeful sampling technique was used to select 25 participants who were interviewed, and their responses analyzed first by synthesizing and isolating main themes and then by using the Nvivo statistical software. The emergent themes resulting from the data include: changing the mindset of individuals; lack of peace education; mainstreaming of peace education; holistic curriculum content; and a dynamic, participatory as well as integrated approach to peace education. Positive social change results from rejection and abhorrence of violence on a permanent basis and embracing a more peaceful approach to resolving contentious issues that may arise in the course of daily human interaction. This change will lead to peaceful coexistence at the individual, family, organizational, and societal level.

This thesis seeks to evaluate the International Pediatric Emergency Medicine Elective (IPEME) as a case study of a peace-through-health initiative. Using the reasoning of Scolnik (2006), IPEME is first evaluated in terms of narrow, short-term outcomes and subsequently considered in terms of the greater body of peace-through-health work. A novel evaluation tool was designed to examine change in students’ ethical and professional attitudes over the course of the four-week elective. Supplementary qualitative data was collected to shed light on evaluation findings and provide insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the IPEME curriculum. Ethics and professionalism were defined in terms of the WHO 5 Star Global Criteria for Global Doctors conceptualized by the World Health Organization (Boelen, 1996). This research discusses these findings in light of the study’s limitations and considers their implications for IPEME as a medical elective and for its contribution to the greater body of peace-through-health work.

This thesis seeks to evaluate the International Pediatric Emergency Medicine Elective (IPEME) as a case study of a peace-through-health initiative. Using the reasoning of Scolnik (2006), IPEME is first evaluated in terms of narrow, short-term outcomes and subsequently considered in terms of the greater body of peace-through-health work. A novel evaluation tool was designed to examine change in students’ ethical and professional attitudes over the course of the four-week elective. Supplementary qualitative data was collected to shed light on evaluation findings and provide insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the IPEME curriculum. Ethics and professionalism were defined in terms of the WHO 5 Star Global Criteria for Global Doctors conceptualized by the World Health Organization (Boelen, 1996). This research discusses these findings in light of the study’s limitations and considers their implications for IPEME as a medical elective and for its contribution to the greater body of peace-through-health work.

This paper considers the situation of Congolese women and their almost complete social, political and economic marginalization in society. The Congolese constitution formulates the principle of gender parity between men and women; however, numerous provisions of the law still actively discriminate against women, relegating them to the status of second-class citizens. The violent conflict that the Congo has experienced and continues to experience has only exacerbated the socio-economic and cultural differences in status between men and women. How are Congolese women responding to these obstacles and have they been able to make any sustainable gains in doing so? The findings of this paper contend that despite the inequities that they experience in the social, political and economic spheres, Congolese women have in fact been able to take steps towards achieving gender equality. The conflict that has so negatively affected them has also provided them with intended and unintended opportunities for improving their situation. One such opportunity is evident in the creation of City of Joy, a women empowerment program established and developed entirely by Congolese women. A refuge for survivors of sexual violence, City of Joy helps rehabilitate these women with the hope that they will have acquired the necessary tools to catalyze social change as they are reintegrated into their respective communities after the six-month program. City of Joy as a case study illustrates both the opportunities for empowerment and change as well as the difficulties of providing women with meaningful agency given the structural obstacles that they are faced with. Although it is difficult to evaluate the long-term success and sustainability of the program, the general observations that can be gleaned from this example demonstrate that war and conflict can create fresh beginnings and new opportunities for women to produce their own social, political and economic realities. City of Joy, although limited in scope, is a socially enhancing program and a pragmatic step toward increasing the probability of a peaceful outcome in the aftermath of a brutal and long-lasting conflict and will ultimately have a positive long-term effect Congolese society.