Syftet med denna undersökning har varit att undersöka och analysera hur arbetet mot våldsbejakande extremism bedrivs i Gävleborgs län och vilka utmaningar som finns kopplat till ett sådant arbete. Studien gjordes genom nyckelpersonsintervjuer. Resultatet visade att arbetet mot våldsbejakande extremism precis har påbörjats i vissa kommuner medan andra inte har inlett ett sådant specifikt arbete. Flertalet kommuner avvaktar med att formulera en lokal handlingsplan i väntan på regionala direktiv.   Kommunerna i Gävleborgs län anser att förebyggande arbete ska bedrivas i enighet med de nationella rekommendationerna och genom att fortsätta befintliga demokratifrämjande och förebyggande arbete.   Utmaningar som framträdde gällande det lokala arbetet mot våldsbejakande extremism var bland andra osäkerhet, vilken verkade vara kopplad till kunskapsbrist om våldsbejakande extremism och till rådande samhällsdebatt. Till viss del fanns också en osäkerhet kopplad till lagstiftning gällande främst sekretess och personlig integritet. Därtill framstod olika aspekter av samordning som centrala utmaningar.

Våld i olika former beskrivs av många vara ett omfattande och ihållande samhällsproblem, ett som skapar en uppsättning av negativa påföljder; psykiska, fysiska och ekonomiska. Hur våldet ska motarbetas blir därför på grund av dess komplexitet svårt att ge tydliga direktiv på. Olika vetenskapliga ställningstaganden kring vilka interventioner som är effektiva kan vara något motsägelsefulla för den som försöker sätta fingret på vad våldsförebyggande arbete inom skolan betyder. Denna studie syftar därför till att undersöka lärares och skolkuratorers sätt att prata om våldsprevention; vad det innebär och hur det ser ut för dem i deras vardag. Studien utfördes utifrån en kvalitativ metodansats där datan samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med lärare och kuratorer från skolor inom olika utbildningsnivåer. Resultatet analyserades genom en diskursanalys för att få fram essensen i deltagarnas svar, men även för att undersöka vilken betydelse dessa svar har i det praktiska våldspreventiva arbetet. Resultatet visar att en god elev-lärare relation, tillsammans med samverkan mellan skolkuratorer och lärare, kan vara viktiga aspekter i det våldspreventiva arbetet; liksom att undersöka konstruktionen av våld utifrån ett genusperspektiv. / Violence in various forms is often described by many as a widespread and persistent social problem, one that creates a range of negative consequences; psychological, physical and economic. Because of its complexity, it is difficult to give clear directives on how to combat violence. Different scientific positions on which interventions are effective can be somewhat contradictory for those trying to pinpoint what violence prevention work in schools means. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate teachers' and school counselors' way of talking about violence prevention, what it means and how it looks for them in their everyday lives. The study was carried out using a qualitative approach, where the data was collected through semi-structured interviews with teachers and counselors from schools at different education levels. The results were analyzed through a discourse analysis to bring out the essence of the participants' responses, but also to examine the significance of these responses in practical violence prevention. The results show that a good student-teacher relationship, along with collaboration between school counselors and teachers, can be important aspects in violence prevention; as well as examining the construction of violence from a gender perspective.

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Corporations in the resource extraction industry are frequently criticized and their operations opposed by local communities demanding more benefits, compensation for negative consecuences or oppose resource extraction altogether. Research has focused extensively on nonviolent and violent resistance campaigns that target state and quasi-state actors attempting regime change or self-determination. However, campaigns targeting corporations have received little attention so far. This thesis addresses this gap. I argue that nonviolent campaigns have a strategic advantage over violent campaigns in building leverage and forcing corporations to fulfill their demands because they are able to mobilize more numerous and diverse support and have a higher tactical diversity. I test the hypothesis that nonviolent campaigns are more likely to succeed in achieving their objectives and the expected causal mechanism in a qualitative comparative case study using the structured focused comparison method and aspects of process tracing. Applying a most- similar case selection, I select nonviolent and violent resistance campaigns targeting (multinational) corporations in Nigeria and Colombia. I find partial support for the hypothesis. However, limited data availability does not allow for a conclusive evaluation of the theorized causal mechanism. Findings indicate the value of studying resistance campaigns targeting corporations. In particular, future research should use a more fine-grained analysis of causal mechanisms linking the type and outcome of campaigns in this context. Additionally, applying large-n research designs allowing for greater generalizability of findings would be a valuable contribution in the future.

Oil producing communities of Nigeria known as Niger Delta region has been a region characterized with fierce violent conflict for more than a decade. The conflict is between successive Nigerian Governments and their collaborating oil companies, and militant groups from the region. And the core issues in the conflict are the socio-economic deprivations and denial of resource control which were occasioned by corporate malfeasance and indifference of successive Nigerian Governments to the plight, demands and aspirations of the people of the region. The Nigerian Government who first aggravated the violent conflict in the region through the use of violent repression as an anti-protest measure however proposed an amnesty policy in June 2009 as a non-violent measure to address the crisis in the region. The policy aimed solely at disarming, rehabilitating and reintegrating the militants into the Nigerian state. The implementation of the policy brought a relative peace to the long troubled region for the first time, with the seeming compliance of the militants. This study however argues that the policy has no feasibility of ensuring a genuine and lasting peace in the long troubled region because its focus is not on the root cause of the crisis. Thus it argues that addressing the issue of human rights whose lack is the root cause of the crisis and whose provision has always been demands and the aspirations of the people will instead engender a genuine and lasting peace in the region.

This thesis investigated a rupture in the U. S. legal tradition of punishing sexual crime, initiatedby The Community Protection Act of 1990 and the Sexually Violent Predator Statute, that defined the criminal subject as a sexually violent predator. Thus, with this definition was initiated a new legislative innovation. Effectuated as the following Sexually Violent Predator laws, it allowed for the civil commitment of sex offenders post completed sentence. A commitment scheme that has been subject to a vast criticism qua its severe deprivation of basic human rights and dismissal of Constitutional provisions. The investigation was composed as a content analysis of the framing of the journalistic production responding to these laws. A selection of 35 news articles was appropriated as source material. The method of content analysis was accompanied by a theoretical framework, scrutinising normative orders and claims of disability and able-ism. The analysis of the source material resulted in the identification of eight repetitive thematics. Their framing was presented and analysed in order to critically discuss the composition and execution of the Sexually Violent Predator laws.

Scholars generally assume that states are shamed for their own behavior, but they can also be shamed for the lack of investigation for violence perpetrated by domestic non-state actors. I engage this previously-unstudied phenomenon and develop a theory to explain how states will respond to being shamed for failing to control domestic violence. I examine two types of outcomes: the governments' change in behavior, and the accountability efforts against state agents that have abused human rights. For the government's reaction to being shamed for violence from non-state organizations, I develop a theory to examine changes in coercive state capacity – including military and police personnel – since this reaction may largely exacerbate human rights violations. I hypothesize that states shamed due to abuses by violent non-state organizations (VNSO) will increase military personnel to halt criminal violence and respond to the international spotlight. I then examine the relationship between naming and shaming states over physical integrity abuses by different types of perpetrators and human rights prosecutions. Using newly coded data on the types of perpetrators shamed in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) country reports, I find that shaming over abuses that include VNSO as perpetrators decreases the likelihood of expanding their police force when the state has the military patrolling the streets and is likely to increase the predicted number of police prosecutions, particularly if the shaming is over killings from VNSOs. Lastly, I examine how changes in coercive capacity affect human rights violations and the number of violent episodes from VNSOs.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study concerns the state and violence in the Western Cape. This study was undertaken because the Western Cape has since 1996 been plagued by violence, including bombings, assassinations and violent protests. In particular these violent incidents have been labeled as terrorism or urban terrorism. The South African government does however not have a definition or a policy promulgated into law regarding terrorism. Very little progress has been in apprehending the person(s) and or group(s) responsible for these incidents of violence. The study therefore looked at violence in the Western Cape in an exploratory way. The aim of the paper was to (1) find credible appropriate definitions of terrorism, (2) to identify possible role players in violence, (3) to establish a chronology of violent events, (4) to identify the frequency, distribution and patterns of violence, (5) analyse the communication of events. An underlying theme throughout the paper is the weak state in which violence is a cause, consequence, and indicator of the weak state. The violence-plagued Western Cape is the geographical focus of the study. The paper looks at three incidents of violence, representative of the types of violence that have taken place in the Western Cape. The bombing of the Planet Hollywood restaurant, the killing of policeman Bennie Lategan and the killing of gangster Neville Herold are the cases discussed by in paper. For the purpose of the paper, the period of interest is the transitional period of the 1980's to 1994. The period under study is August 1998 to December 1999. After careful consideration of all the information the following conclusions where reached. The killing of Bennie Lategan is a terrorist act while the killing of Neville Herold and the Planet Hollywood bomb blast are not terrorist acts according to the definition used by this paper. PAGAD emerged as the major role player involved in violence. The organization is also complex and multidimensional with various groupings within the organization. The weak policing and justice systems are among the factors contributing to violence. The propositions and theories suggested by this study are based on current information and therefore speculative. Should more information become available these propositions may need to be revisited. Continual research on this topic is therefore important. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie gaan oor geweld in the Wes Kaap. Die studie was nodig omdat die Wes Kaap sedert 1996 geteister word deur geweld, insluitende bomplanting, sluipmoorde en geweldadige protesaksie. Hierdie geweldige insidente is bestempel as terrorisme of stedelike geweld. Die Suid Afrikaanse regeering het egter nie 'n definisie of beleid oor terrorisme nie. Baie min persone of groepe verantwoordelik vir geweld is voorgekeer. Hierdie studie gaan dus oor geweld in die Wes Kaap. Die doel van hierdie studie was (1) om 'n definisie van terrorisme, georganiseerde misdaad, geweld, vigilantisme en Islamietiese Fundamentalisme te vind, (2) om moontlike deelneemers van geweld te identifiseer, (3) om 'n kronologie van geweld op te stel, (4) Sekere patrone van geweld te identifiseer, en om te studeer wat hierdie insidente aan ander kommunikeer? 'n Onderligende tema, in die studie is die swak staat waarin geweld 'n oorsaak, gevolg en aanduiding is van die swak staat is. Die Wes-Kaap is die geografiese fokus van die studie. Die studie kyk na drie insidente van geweld wat alle tipe geweld in die Wes Kaap verteenwoordig. Die bomontploffing van die Planet Hollywood restaurant, die moord van polisieman Bennie Lategan en bende leier Neville Herold is die gevalle wat bespreek word in die studie. Vir die doel van die studie is die tydperk van die 1980' s tot 1994 van belang. Die tydperk onder bestudering is Agustus 1998 to January 1999. Na oorweging van al die informasie is die volgende gevolgtrekkings gemaak. Die Planet Hollywood ontploffing en die moord op Neville Herold is nie terroriste dade nie, maar die moord op Bennie Lategan is 'n terroriste daad. PAGAD kom te voorskyn as die grootse deelnemer in geweld. Die organisasie is kompleks en het veelvuldige dimensies met verskeie groepe binne die organisasie. Swak polisieering en die regstelsel is onder die faktore wat bydra tot geweld. Die voorstellings en teorië wat voorgestel in die studie, is gebaseer op huidige informasie en daarom is dit spekulatief. Indien meer inligting beskikbaar gemaak word sal die afleidings en voorstelle hersien moet word. Voordurende navorsing oor hierdie onderwerp is daarom nootsaaklik.