Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Erlangen.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-65).

Thesis (doctoral)--Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [343]-373) and index.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

<p>History is regrettably replete with wars and dictatorial regimes that claimed the lives of millions of people. Most of the time the planners were not held accountable for their misdeeds. Fortunately in recent years the idea of people being prosecuted for mass atrocities was launched and debated. The purpose of this study was to propose avenues for promoting respect for victims rights. It examined the rationale of the victims reparation, its evolution, its denial and its rebirth. It canvass victims rights in domestic law especially in the civil law in comparison with international law. It proposed means whereby the international community may better address the issue of victims rights.</p>

This study considers the role war victims empowerment has on peacebuilding. Even though the relation between empowerment and peacebuilding is well examined, the importance of involving war victims in the peacebuilding process has been given less attention. Through a qualitative case study on the NGO GWED-G’s interventions for young war victims in Gulu, Amuru, and Nwoya districts in Uganda, this study contributes to the discussion on the importance of empowering young war victims for improved peacebuilding efforts. The findings and analysis are based on two analytical frameworks, empowerment theory and the four dimensions of peacebuilding, as well as previous realized linkage between the two. Through these frameworks, it is clear that the empirical data collected in this study regarding the empowerment of young war victims are strongly correlated to the four dimensions of peacebuilding. When carrying out the research, it was also discovered that this linkage goes well beyond what previous research have stated. This study additionally discovered that the empowerment of young war victims has contributed to peacebuilding by impacting whole communities as well. By empowering these war victims, GWED-G has generated a ripple effect, the impact extended to families and entire communities of the empowered war victims and thereby more effectively contributed to peacebuilding.

The exploitation and extermination of people in the context of internal conflict in the former Yugoslavia is a grave injustice and the result of a systematic policy of war by an unconventional state. Internal conflict requires investigation by international relations scholars because it is evidence of the changing nature of war. Given that both the methods of violence (ethnic cleansing, systematic/genocidal rape, and sexual torture) and (ethno)nationalism are gendered, a 'new' approach to war is needed. Traditional international relations theoretical approaches to the state, anarchy, and war/peace prove unable to analyze: one, the unconventional state (structure); two, the dichotomous separation of the public/international/external/formal/masculine/autonomous from the private/domestic/internal/informal/feminine/vulnerable; three, unconventional war policy; and four, the 'new' actors, the external and internal 'Others,' the 'Invisibles,' the noncombatants/ civilians, the 'women' (women and men; people with identities). Thinking that will lead to solutions for the dilemma of war, inclusively defined, will be - to employ Joy Kogawa's word - merciful; it will not exclude people and, while critical, it will be hopeful that the protection of both human dignity and community is in the 'national interest,' in 'our and their interest' as political/social/economic/etc. beings. Because it analyzes dichotomies and deals with the role of identity in the various aspects of (changing) war, a feminist or gendered/identity-deconstructivist approach is advanced as a means to more effectively examine internal/international conflicts, such as the former Yugoslav wars - i.e., unconventional wars whose character challenges the rigid traditionalist international relations definition of war.

<p>History is regrettably replete with wars and dictatorial regimes that claimed the lives of millions of people. Most of the time the planners were not held accountable for their misdeeds. Fortunately in recent years the idea of people being prosecuted for mass atrocities was launched and debated. The purpose of this study was to propose avenues for promoting respect for victims rights. It examined the rationale of the victims reparation, its evolution, its denial and its rebirth. It canvass victims rights in domestic law especially in the civil law in comparison with international law. It proposed means whereby the international community may better address the issue of victims rights.</p>

Thesis (LL. M.)--George Washington University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the Internet.

The psychological sequelae of being involved in combat are only recently coming to be understood. Most of the available data are from research conducted on help-seeking Vietnam veterans in the United States, and very little work has been done in South Africa. There does not as yet appear to be any instrument designed specifically to detect combat-related psychopathologies amongst soldiers who are still in active service, either in the USA or in South Africa. Combat involvement has been shown to lead to a high incidence of combat stress reaction. This in turn has shown that it can predispose sufferers to the development of a Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. It is thus expected that there would be significantly higher incidences of reported symptoms of stress disorders amongst soldiers exposed to high levels of combat as compared with a similar group of soldiers who had no combat involvement. This study used a self-reporting questionnaire, developed in the USA but adapted for use in South Africa, to allow the soldiers in the study to rate the severity of various symptoms derived from the DSM-III criteria for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. A Beck Depression Inventory was also administered to eliminate any persons who nay have been exhibiting symptoms of depression, as this would have confounded the results. Both questionnaires were administered to serving members of the Permanent Force of the South African Defence Force, with one group being members of various high-combat units based in what was then South West Africa, and the other group being non-combat or Headquarters elements. As a precondition of the study, absolute confidentiality of the respondents and their units was maintained. The study found the expected higher scores in the high-combat group, and also showed that the Keane questionnaire has a good coefficient alpha in South Africa. The study closes with several recommendations for further research, especially in the light of the new PTSD criteria in the DSM-IIIR.