Global Campus Awarded Theses

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https://reponew.gchumanrights.org/handle/20.500.11825/738
Every year the regional master’s programmes of Global Campus of Human Rights select the best master theses of the previous academic year. The selected seven GC master theses cover a range of different international human rights topics and challenges.

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Browsing Global Campus Awarded Theses by Subject "armed conflict"
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    Civil society in exile, reconciliation and the future of Syria: the role of the emerging Syrian civil society in Lebanon
    (Global Campus, 2016-11) Welander, Marta ; Itani, Hala
    As the polarised violent conflict in Syria continues without end in sight, Syrians continue to flee into neighbouring countries in search of safety and security. The displacement of Syrians en masse into Lebanon over the past few years means that there are now Syrians from a wide variety of socioeconomic, sectarian and ethnic backgrounds, together forming a microcosm of Syrian society in Lebanon. Within this exiled population, many Syrians with strong entrepreneurial abilities from different political projects have taken the opportunity presented by the relatively enabling civil society environment in Lebanon to set up different forms of civil society groups. While no official register of these organisations exists, field research in Akkar, Beirut, Bekaa Valley, Shatila, and Tripoli, managed to identify a total of 34 Syrian-led civil society actors across Lebanon. Fourteen of these groups were examined more closely, through interviews and direct observations. The majority of the researched Syrian actors work in response to the suffering of fellow Syrian refugees, while some focus on easing the tension between Syrians and their Lebanese host communities, and others yet again conduct and disseminate research. The research suggests that Syrian civil society in Lebanon ought not to be misunderstood as merely a form of charitable service provision or temporary pastime activities of exiled Syrians. Rather, the analysis of the research findings suggests that the emergence of a Syrian civil society in exile presents a unique phenomenon. Instead of waiting passively for a ceasefire and a political settlement to be reached, these Syrian groups are seizing the opportunity to develop and grow as civil society actors in exile, hoping to play a role in rebuilding Syria at a later stage. However, the emerging civil society will require international support in order to sustain its work and develop organically. While the international community can play an important role in this context, it needs to recognise the specific and fragile circumstances in which the Syrian civil society actors are operating. A number of concrete recommendations are derived from the research findings, proposing ways in which the international community could support the emerging Syrian civil society in exile.
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    Community intervention as a means to destigmatize child soldiers and permit reintegration: a comparison case study of Uganda and Iraq
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2018) Runte, Julia ; De Vido, Sara
    The stigmatization of former child soldiers inhibits and prevents a child’s reintegration by re-victimizing and re-traumatizing the child and also making the child an outcast in their community. Additionally, there is little research and few legal mechanisms in place to help prevent stigmatization. The following thesis shows that more research and assistance is needed in the reintegration process in order to prevent stigmatization. By working directly with the community, former child soldiers have a higher chance for a positive reintegration. The thesis will examine the legal instruments connected to child soldiers, compare two case studies, and show how one case study can be applied to the world at large in aiding the prevention of stigmatization.
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    Conflict-related sexual violence and international peace operations
    (Global Campus, 2013-06) Steinkogler, Cordula ; Murphy, Raymond
    Within the United Nations peace and security work, as well as in academic research, advocacy and policy initiatives concerned with peace and security, gender is mainly conceptualized as synonymous with women while sexual violence is largely conflated with gender-based violence and thus regarded as an issue that exclusively affects women as victims and men as perpetrators. This however led to the exclusion of male victims of conflict-related sexual violence from academic research, advocacy and policy initiatives, as well as UN initiatives on gender, peace and security. This thesis seeks to explore ways to conceptualize and address conflict-related sexual violence in a comprehensive and inclusive way within the UN peace and security agenda and particularly in peace operations. By the means of a critical analysis of academic literature and policy developments the thesis discusses the dominant conceptual and operational frameworks that have been developed to address conflict-related sexual violence and suggests a re-conceptualisation of gender and gender-based violence in order to better accommodate the empirical reality of male victims and female perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence. The dominant explanatory and policy frameworks developed by scholars and adopted by the UN to prevent sexual violence in armed conflict are largely based on a narrow approach and fail to adequately address the complex dynamics of conflict-related sexual violence. Conflict-related sexual violence is conceptualized on the basis of a strict male perpetrator/female victim dualism that regards the perpetrator/victim relationship as a male/female relationship and thereby links it to sex rather than gender. This precludes an effective gender analysis of sexual violence in armed conflict and does not permit to include male victims and female perpetrators into a discussion on the root causes of conflict-related sexual violence. The dominant conceptualization of conflict-related sexual violence furthermore relies on an essentialist representation of men and women, portraying women as vulnerable victims of sexual violence and men as aggressive perpetrators. Through the perpetuation of these associations, existing gender stereotypes, identities and power relations that make sexual violence an effective tool of humiliation and intimidation in times of armed conflict are reinforced rather than challenged. Thus this thesis argues that a more inclusive and comprehensive gender approach to conflict-related sexual violence should be adopted that addresses the various root causes and underlying dynamics by challenging traditional gender stereotypes and identities promoted by dominant gender discourses. Strategies to enhance the ability of UN peace operations to protect civilians from conflict-related sexual violence will hardly be effective as long as gender stereotypes and ideologies that lie at the roots of sexual violence in armed conflict are reproduced rather than deconstructed in UN discourse on peace and security as well as in the discourses of member states and particularly their military institutions.
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    Delayed justice in El Salvador prospects for transitional justice 25 years after the signing of the peace accords
    (Global Campus, 2017) Morales Ramírez, Ernesto José ; De Gori, Esteban
    This thesis analyses the political transition process in El Salvador after its twelve-year civil war and the Transitional Justice mechanisms used in the post-conflict context: first the Truth Commission and then the amnesty laws. The objective of this research is to establish the effects of the amnesty on the peace building process and the scenarios that may occur after its recent declaration of unconstitutionality in connection to democratic governability and the pursuit of justice for serious human rights violations perpetrated during the armed conflict, which remain still unpunished 25 years after the signing of the Peace Accords. Keywords: Transitional Justice, Peace Accords, amnesty.
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    “Forgotten Victims of War”. Invisible, though Stigmatised: the Case of Children Born of Wartime Rape and Conflict- Related Sexual Violence
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2020) Hermus, Nina ; Agapiou-Josephides, Kalliope
    Conflict-related sexual violence has many disastrous consequences, yet one consequence that is systematically ignored is the children being born as a result from such violence. This research focuses on children born of wartime rape, the often ‘forgotten victims of war’. The aim of this study is to explore how the human rights of these children, enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, are compromised, while, additionally, identifying ways to rectify these violations and safeguard the child’s rights in an adequate way. This research adopts an innovative approach that sheds a light on four different cases: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Uganda, Colombia and Myanmar. It examines in a comparative way key issues that affect the lives of these children. Stigmatisation, discrimination, statelessness, abuse, economic hardship and, at worst, infanticide; the findings reveal that the human rights of these children are systematically violated, irrespective of time and space. However, before analysing the multitude of violations on the human rights of children born of wartime rape, this research will begin with tackling the root cause of the issue: conflictrelated sexual violence, too often falsely perceived as a mere by-product of war. This research will analyse this complex phenomenon by stepping away from the classical explanations of patriarchal culture, sexual desire or opportunity and will demonstrate on the basis of feminist discourse that conflict-related sexual violence not only has, but can be effectively prevented.
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    Prosecution of crimes of appropriation of private property before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the international residual mechanism for criminal tribunals
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2019) Ferizović, Jasenka ; Heintze, Hans-Joachim
    Property rights enjoy protection not only during peacetime, but also in times of armed conflict. However, despite the existence of a well-established legal framework, these rights continue to be violated in armed conflicts around the world. Violent conflicts that took place in the former Yugoslav countries during the last decade of the 20th century were no exception. This thesis analyses crimes of appropriation of private property committed during armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and the criminal justice response of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and its successor the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) to these crimes. The ICTY and the IRMCT undertook prosecutions of several individuals for breaches of norms of international humanitarian law prohibiting unlawful appropriation of property. These prosecutions generated a comprehensive record of committed crimes and resulted in the establishment of criminal responsibility of a number of perpetrators, including the highest-ranking wartime officials in military, police and political structures. Examination of the ICTY’s/IRMCT’s cases reveals that crimes of appropriation of private property were committed on a large scale and in a variety of conflict-related settings. These cases shed light on the multitude of forms of these crimes, involvement of an array of perpetrators and a variety of categories of unlawfully appropriated property. Research findings also show that these crimes were deeply embedded in systematic violence and utilised as a tool in persecution campaigns. Additionally, the ICTY’s/IRMCT’s cases provide insight into approaches and practices applied in prosecution of crimes of appropriation of property, and this study identifies some of the key lessons learned. Experience of the ICTY/ IRMCT with prosecution of these crimes teaches us, among other things, 1) that prosecutions should encompass crimes against property as a constituent component of the systematic violence, 2) that they should capture different manifestations and dimensions of criminal conduct, a range of actors involved in the commission of these crimes and a variety of modes of perpetration and 3) that crimes must be adequately contextualised within the broader system of violence through the appropriate use of legal characterisations and modes of liability. These good practices can serve as a guide in the process of devising adequate strategic and practical approaches to prosecution of conflict-related crimes of appropriation of property in other jurisdictions. Keywords: unlawful appropriation of property, armed conflict, war crimes, ICTY, IRMCT