DSpace Angular :: Browsing Awarded Theses by Subject "armed conflict"

Item

At Risk of Falling through the Cracks? The Protection of Children in State Care in Conflict Situations in International Law and Practice

(Global Campus of Human Rights, 2022) Gscheidlen, Anne Sophie ; Luhamaa, Katre

A day before the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Council of Europe vowed to create standards and mechanisms on child protection in armed conflict by 2027. It further promised to address the discrimination of children in state care. The need for a comprehensive child protection scheme during and post-armed conflict as well as efforts to combat the marginalisation of children in state care have, thus, been acknowledged. Yet, as far as Europe is concerned, states have only begun to fuse child protection during armed conflict with the awareness of the heightened vulnerability and marginalisation of children in state care in reaction to the war against Ukraine, a country which has one of the highest child institutionalisation rates in the region. With thousands of children in state care continuing to be evacuated abroad in a humanitarian effort to protect their lives and rights, this thesis seeks to firstly discuss the (in)sufficiency of the existing international legal rights and protective framework for these children. Secondly, this thesis documents how some European countries view their obligations towards these children, and what has already been undertaken by them vis-à-vis these children in light of the war against Ukraine as of early July 2022. Keywords: child protection, rights of the child, children in state care, armed conflict, Ukraine

Item

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.

Item

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.

Item

(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.

Item

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.

Item

“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.

Item

Pragmatic peace : the UNTAES peacekeeping mission as example for peaceful reintegration of occupied multiethnic territories

(Global Campus of Human Rights, 2018) Kasunić, Sandra ; Gardašević, Đorđe

Twenty years after the armed conflict in Croatia ended with the completion of the Peaceful Reintegration of the Danube region on 15 January 1998, the war still echoes in the Croatian society. In contrast, the United Nations Transitional Administration (UNTAES), one of the most successful UN peacekeeping missions, is rarely subject to societal debate. What contributed to the mission’s success was that besides the reintegration of the formerly occupied territory, the region’s predominantly Serb population was reintegrated too. Against the background of official commemorations of military operations and lack of emphasis of the Peaceful Reintegration as Croatia’s successful peace initiative, the author wants to bring out the significance of the UNTAES by shedding light on the circumstances that eventually created stable peace in Croatia. Moreover, given the rise of interethnic tensions that particularly affect the Serb minority, the evaluation and research of the Peaceful Reintegration gives answers as to whether the Croatian state genuinely intended to reintegrate the region’s population. The case study on the divided organisation of schooling investigates whether there are implications of the Peaceful Reintegration on today’s population in the Danube Region with the example of Vukovar’s pupils of Croatian and of Serb ethnicity. Keywords: UNTAES; UN Peacekeeping; Peaceful Settlement of Armed Conflicts; Peaceful Reintegration; Eastern Slavonia; Croatia; Conflict Settlement; Yugoslavia; Reconciliation; Divided Schooling.

Item

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

Item

Voices Unheard, Stories Untold. A Qualitative Content Analysis of Gender Bias in War Reporting and Human Rights Journalism as a Viable Alternative

(Global Campus of Human Rights, 2023) Dierynck, Jozefien ; Gardikiotis, Antonis

In a world marked by numerous conflicts and violence, war reporting plays a significant role in shaping public understanding and perceptions of, as well as reactions to, war. However, concerns have been raised about the presence of gender bias and the perpetuation of patriarchal norms within war reporting, as it perpetuates gender bias in society as a whole and has negative consequences on peacebuilding processes and approaches to human rights violations. This master’s thesis aims to uncover the presence of gender bias and the patriarchal paradigm in war reporting. By utilising a qualitative content analysis to examine war reporting characteristics in three prominent news outlets – The Guardian, De Standaard and Al Jazeera – this research explores the representation of women’s voices, experiences, and contributions, as well as the reinforcement or challenge of traditional gender roles and power dynamics. Additionally, the study acknowledges the significance of alternative approaches such as peace journalism and human rights journalism to get to more balanced, inclusive, ethically responsible and humane journalism that prioritises the protection of human rights in conflict situations. The analysis reveals recurring themes in war reporting. Conclusions indicate that gender bias and the patriarchal paradigm persist in war reporting, with the portrayal of women reinforcing traditional gender roles. Female agency, experiences and contributions are often overlooked and marginalised or serve to bolster patriarchal, patriotic, strategic or elitist discourse. However, some positive developments towards peace journalism and, to a lesser extent, human rights journalism, are noted, highlighting a more people-oriented and solution-oriented approach with a focus on exposing human rights violations. Keywords: journalism, war reporting, gender bias, patriarchy, human rights, peace journalism, human rights journalism

Awarded Theses

Permanent URI for this community

Browse

Browse

Browsing Awarded Theses by Subject "armed conflict"

Results Per Page

Sort Options