En el presente artículo se reportan algunos resultados preliminares de una investigación sobre el impacto psicosocial de la justicia transicional en el Perú, a diez años de la entrega del Informe final de la Comisión de la Verdad y la Reconciliación - CVR. El objetivo consistió en conocer las percepciones que se tienen sobre los pro- cesos de justicia transicional, en particular en el caso de la CVR en el Perú. Para ello, se analizaron materiales gráficos y discursivos que dan cuenta de una narrativa individual y colectiva en víctimas directas e indirectas de la ciudad de Huamanga que fueron obtenidos en el marco de un estudio mayor sobre el impacto psicosocial de la CVR. Los resultados sugieren que existen diversas vivencias de la violencia, caracterizadas por ser recurrentes y continuas en el tiempo a pesar de los procesos de justicia transicional. Más aún, que estos últimos tienen costos emocionales al momento de realizarse, pero que también pueden traer oportunidades que nos permitan construir una convivencia democrática en la sociedad. / The present article reports on preliminary results of a research inthe psychosocial impact of transitional justice in Peru, after ten years of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee - TRC. Its general objective was to learn about the perceptions on transitional justice processes, particularly in the case of the TRC in Peru. Graphics and discursive materials that account for individual and collective narrative of direct and no direct victims in Huamanga were analyzed, which were obtained as part of a larger study on the psychosocial impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee - CVR. The results suggest that there are different expe- riences of violence that are characterized by being recurrent and continuous in time despite transitional justice processes and that the processes have emotional costs but also benefits that allow us to build democratic coexistence in a society.

This document presents a revision of the process that has permitted to establish in Mexico the equality in the candidacies for the relative majority principles and proportional representation to the House of Representatives, the Senate of the Republic and local congresses, and it analyses the phenomenon of political violence that some candidacies suffered during the elections on July 20th, 2015, in Chiapas. / En este trabajo se presenta una revisión del proceso que ha permitido establecer en México la paridad en las candidaturas por los principios de mayoría relativa y representación proporcional a la Cámara de Diputados, al Senado de la República y a los congresos locales, y se examina el fenómeno de la violencia política que sufrieron algunas candidatas en las elecciones en Chiapas el 20 de julio de 2015.

En este artículo, sostenemos que las novelas Rosa Cuchillo y La hora azul proyectan procesos individuales de duelo en un orden social mítico que se limita a reproducir el fantasma de la nación cercada (Ubilluz) como (seudo) propuesta de solución al conflicto armado acontecido en el Perú entre 1980-2000. En Rosa Cuchillo, la protagonista Rosa Cuchillo atraviesa un proceso de duelo por haber perdido a su hijo subversivo, Liborio, mientras que, en La hora azul, el protagonista Adrián Ormache sufre un proceso de duelo a causa de una crisis de la figura paterna idealizada que tenía de su fallecido padre militar. Estas experiencias individuales de duelo tienen como desenlace la apertura al orden social a través del mito del eternoretorno (Debord), en Rosa Cuchillo, y del mito del progreso (Benjamin) en La hora azul. Situados en el tiempo mítico, se hacen tangibles los alcances sociales de las novelas entendidos como una reproducción de propuestas que no cuestionan el fantasma de la nación cercada: Rosa Cuchillo propone un pachacuti de runas, mientras que La hora azul propone una ética tutelar que mantiene el status quo. / In this paper, I propose that the novels Rosa Cuchillo and La hora azulproject individual processes of mourning in a mythical social order thatlimits itself to reproduce the phantom of the enclosed nation (Ubilluz) asa (seudo) proposal to solve the internal conflict that took place in Perubetween 1980-2000. In Rosa Cuchillo the main character, Rosa Cuchillo,goes through a process of mourning due to the loss of his terrorist son,Liborio, whereas in La hora azul the main character, Adrián Ormache,undergoes a process of mourning due to the crisis of the idealized paternalfigure he had of his dead military father. These individual experiences ofmourning result in an opening to the social order by means of the mythof the eternal return (Debord) in Rosa Cuchillo and the myth of progress(Benjamin) in La hora azul. Located in a mythical time, the social consequencesof the novels become apparent: they reproduce proposals thatdo not question the phantom of the enclosed nation, since Rosa Cuchilloproposes a pachacuti of runas, whereas La hora azul suggests a form oftutelary ethics that maintains the status quo.

This thesis outlines the evolution and roles of the political fronts in Northern Ireland and their potential for attaining political change. It will assess the impact of a number of selected 'variables', both 'internal' and 'external', on the utility (or lack of utility) of these fronts. The variables that have been selected for consideration are: 1) Ideology, structure and leadership, 2) The notion of violence as a habit, 3) Popular support, 4) State response and 5) Other factors and events in the External Environment. Alexander George's 'structured, focused, comparison' methodology will be employed and the selected cases are the Irish Republican Army, the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force. Although all of the 'variables' have had a significant impact the thesis argues that the greatest motivation behind the use of Simi Fein has been the desire to mobilise or tap perceived existing support. In the case of the loyalist political fronts the domestic external environment, specifically the perception that the loyalist working classes had been manipulated by 'respectable' unionist politicians, was the most important factor behind their greater use. Paradoxically, it is unionist culture (such as its 'law abiding' nature and division of labour ethos) that has presented the most significant obstacle to their utility. The thesis will then assess whether or not political fronts represent moderation towards the use of violence on the part of the groups. It will suggest that they have in the loyalist cases. Although the following argues that political fronts are very much part of the 'terrorist machinery' as the political voices and propaganda outlets for terrorist groups, and that it is a misconception to view them as the 'moderate half of a movement, the thesis will contend that Sinn Fein has also ultimately come to represent moderation towards the use of violence. The conclusion will then suggest that the selected variables be tested in other examples and, assuming that Sinn Fein has come to represent moderation towards the use of violence, will then attempt to draw some lessons from the case of the IRA and its political front that might be considered when studying other cases.

abstract: Why and when do political actors use violence? This project answers these questions by exploring the dynamics of the interactions between state authorities and political dissidents. Both the state and the dissidents face the dilemma of using violence to achieve their political goals. While structural factors influence state violence and dissident violence, I contend that we need to examine how the dynamics of the state-dissident interactions shape these actors’ political behavior. This project first asks if nonviolent methods of resistance are effective--and perhaps even more successful than violent methods--why do opposition movements ever resort to violence? I argue that the efficacy of nonviolent resistance changes over time. When the likelihood of demobilization increases, dissident movements doubt the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance and weigh violence as an alternative tactic. The first chapter of this dissertation shows that the failure in expanding the size of a movement over several periods provides increases the risk of demobilization, and so dissident violence. I also argue while the expansion of the movement decreases the risk of dissident violence, a sudden and large expansion in the size of the movement overburdens its monitoring and sanctioning capacities, which raises the risk of dissident violence. These arguments are supported empirically using two different datasets. In the second theoretical part of this project, I examine the effects of foreign interventions on the dynamics of state repression and dissident violence. I find that the diplomatic statements and efforts such as disapproving state behavior, asking for political reform, and threatening to impose economic sanctions and to deploy military forces either did not have a significant effect, or increased state repression and decreased state concession during the Arab Spring. Finally, the last part of this project contributes to the literature on the formal modeling of dissent-repression by developing a recursive model of political violence dynamics. In addition to addressing several drawbacks in the literature, this model endogenizes the mobilization and demobilization of the movement and explains how these changes affect dissident violence. Due to the complexity of the developed mathematical model, I use a computational model to find the optimal outcomes. This computational model also can be used for simulating the state’s and the dissidents’ behavior under different scenarios. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2018

Storytelling holds a significant place in peace education and dialogue work with young people in Israel/Palestine, reflecting the popularity of the dual narrative approach as a framework for understanding the conflict. The approach is predicated on the assumption that there are two competing national narratives that have collided in the same geographical space, with young people only able to come to terms with the ‘other’ narrative through a process of concession and compromise, mediated by adults. Recognising the constraints and limitations of the dual narrative approach, my thesis focuses on the lives of Israeli and Palestinian youth who inhabit a border of some kind (physical, linguistic, ethnic, or intergenerational) and analyzes how stories are transmitted across and influenced by such boundaries. Special attention is given to traumatic histories that carry a social taboo, such as the Nakba in Israeli society and the Holocaust in Palestine, and how young people may develop and express their conceptions of community, belonging, and exclusion through storytelling. The research is grounded in ethnographic fieldwork and practical storytelling workshops conducted over sixteen months in Israel/Palestine (March 2014 to July 2015), with various methods of narrative inquiry forming the basis for data analysis, notably Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The thesis is divided into four chapters, which are based on the dominant themes that emerged through fieldwork. ‘Language and the Hidden Landscape’ is an applied linguistic analysis of how young people living in segregated communities imagine and narrate places that are off-limits to them. ‘Violence in the Narration of Self and Other’, an examination of the violence inherent in face-to-face storytelling that is grounded in the phenomenological theory, discusses how the storytellers deal with violence through narrative, their depiction of members of the ‘other’ community’, and the more disturbing and potentially violent functions of storytelling in peace education for youth. ‘Forbidden Histories in Contested Spaces’ unpicks the shadowy interweave between Holocaust and Nakba memory, while ‘Happily Ever After?’ examines how the narrators view and construct endings – both for the conflict, and in their narratives. These themes bring together time, place, and inhabitants’ interaction with place and memory, resulting in a more complex and nuanced understanding of how young people growing up with intractable conflict use storytelling to interpret their histories and make sense of their lives in the present day, as well as the ways in which stories may interact even in a highly polarized and segregated society. In conclusion, the role of storytelling with children in conflict zones is re-evaluated, with the research suggesting that there needs to be a shift in emphasis from storytelling as a means of therapy to storytelling as a social and political act, a means of enabling young people to take a more active role in community-building, rehabilitation, and ultimately reconciliation.

Among the political documentary cinema in Latin America, Peru documentary has been focused in its internal conflict since the last fifteen years. This subject has been on the core of different analysis and publications. However, the subjective turn has not been taking importance along these works. In this article the author discusses about the importance on the subjectivity through the analysis of the films Alias Alejandro (Cárdenas, 2005) and Sibila (Arredondo, 2012), in which ones with an autobiographical approach results in a complex final product, taking distance of the apparent “truth” representations mainly boarded by classical documentaries films. / Dentro de la producción de cine documental político latinoamericano, los documentales sobre el conflicto armado interno han sido los más representativos en el Perú los últimos quince años. Esta temática ha sido investigada y abordada por diferentes autores en textos y publicaciones; sin embargo, el giro subjetivo no ha sido tomado en cuenta como elemento distintivo en tales análisis. El presente artículo pone el acento en la subjetividad inherente en los films Alias Alejandro (Alejandro Cárdenas, 2005) y Sibila (Teresa Arredondo, 2012), en los que la aproximación autobiográfica de sus realizadores genera un producto final complejo, diferenciado de la supuesta “verdad” que busca retratar el documental clásico.

The central question this thesis poses is how and why the modes of Palestinian political activism have changed from the first to the second intifada. The thesis will explore the underlying major political, territorial and social developments that created a new environment for the second uprising that was no longer conducive to the mass protests and acts of civil disobedience, which had dominated the first intifada in the late 1980s. The decline of civil society, the reassertion of Palestinian political factionalism and the unique geographical dislocation of the Palestinian territories, which created new physical obstacles to resistance but also caused division within society, were the key factors in reshaping the context of the second intifada. In addition, rising support for violent resistance among the population was rooted in the sense of hopelessness and frustration that re-emerged over the Oslo period. Much of the population’s frustration was directed at Israel’s colonial regime but in part it was also a response to the rule of the Palestinian Authority, which had failed to fulfil its commitments to its own population in view of its obligations under Oslo toward Israel. In the absence of alternative non-violent outlets within either politics or civil society, what took root instead was individual activism via militant organisations. As such, this thesis offers an account of the development of Palestinian political action (and in particular political violence) that is indebted to an effort to employ historical and contextual analysis in ways that deepen the insights available from explanations of behaviour drawn from political science.

Magister Scientiae - MSc / The objective of the study was to conduct an internal validation on miniSTR systems and apply it to cases received from the South African Missing Persons Task Team (SAMPTT). This was prompted by the fact that miniSTR systems have been shown to out perform some of the commercial kits available in the time of the study and provide an alternative to mtDNA when analysing degraded DNA from skeletal remains and that the DNA extracted from skeletal remains received from the SAMPTT would be degraded due to the remains generally being fragmented or charred and buried for many years. The miniSTR loci chosen for validation comprised the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) thirteen core loci and were arranged into four triplexes and one uniplex. / South Africa

Magister Artium - MA / This thesis falls within the category of historical studies that is concerned with a difficult legacy of South Africa's liberation struggle, namely the practice of necklacing that accompanied it. My interest in the practice is limited to its emergence and politicizing as it relates to the ANC, the UDF and the apartheid state. The ANC and the UDF overwhelmingly understood the practice as resistance, yet ambivalently so. The question guiding this thesis therefore asks: how is necklacing written into the narrative of struggle history? Here I refer to its (re)representation, its (re)characterization, its (re)articulation in a wider discursive war of propaganda strategies that was waged through the interplay of an apartheid state discourse and what I consider to be an official non-state discourse, that of the ANC and the UDF. / South Africa