The aim of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of disability's place amongst the competing priorities of the post-civil conflict policy agenda. In the redevelopment of political, economic, and social structures, conflict transformation presents opportunities for developing inclusive communities. Despite the development of policies aimed at building an inclusive post-civil conflict society, people with disabilities have largely been invisible in literature about the process. This project set out to review the evidence of prevalence of disability as a direct result of conflict, identify whether this group was recognized during the process of conflict transformation, and determine what advancements had been made to facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities based on the implementation of post-conflict policies. The study has taken a comparative approach and focused on the experiences of Mozambique, South Africa, and Northern Ireland. Although the three case studies were selected for their different levels of human development (as determined by the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index), they have resulted in similar findings. The prolonged civil conflicts (lasting over fifteen years) have all employed strategies of warfare that are likely to result in an increased incident rate of disability, though disability has not always been considered an issue that is directly linked to the conflict. In addition, they have all undergone conflict transformation since the mid-1990s and developed policies based on international guidance on the inclusion of people with disabilities, however; despite the presence of these policies, they have largely remained unimplemented due to a lack of political will, a failure by the governments to commit the necessary resources, or a weak collection of disability organizations and activists that have not been able to hold the government accountable.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:680070 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Irvine, Rebecca Shea |
| Publisher | Queen's University Belfast |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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