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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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Results for armed conflict
18 results foundAuthor: Roth, Francoise Title: Using Quantitative Data to Assess Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Colombia: Challenges and Opportunities Summary: Via Resolutions 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008) and 1889 (2009), the United Nations Security Council has strongly promoted the collection of data about wartime sexual violence and other issues related to gender equality in situations of armed conflict. The resolutions do not fully appreciate the size of the task laid out. Sexual violence, in wartime or in peacetime, is among the most notoriously difficult forms of violence to measure. A data mandate that does not point the way toward data quality leaves policy-makers in the dark as they seek to prevent or mitigate sexual violence, to punish perpetrators, or to make reparations to victims. Worse, poor-quality data on sexual violence may give a false impression of specificity and reliability, leading to incorrect policy assessments, misallocation of resources, and other outcomes that are assuredly not in line with the United Nations’ goals on this issue. This report addresses the challenges of sexual violence measurement in a specific context: Colombia’s ongoing internal armed conflict. After discussing in depth the difficulties faced by researchers attempting to measure sexual violence around the world, the report addresses several Colombian data collection efforts more specifically. Both governmental and non-governmental data sources are considered; more importantly, the authors outline several key cultural and political issues affecting sexual violence data collection in Colombia. In particular, the research team found, sexual violence reporting procedures in Colombia are fragmented and incomplete. Sexual violence is frequently viewed as a domestic violence or criminal justice issue; it is seldom considered as a phenomenon in its own right, or as an outcome associated with armed conflict. Details: Colombia: Corporación Punto de Vista; Palo Alto, CA: Benetech Technology Serving Humanity, 2011. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 5, 2011 at: http://www.hrdag.org/resources/publications/SV%20report%20april%2026,%202011.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia URL: http://www.hrdag.org/resources/publications/SV%20report%20april%2026,%202011.pdf Shelf Number: 121657 Keywords: Armed ConflictRapeSex OffensesSexual Violence (Colombia) |
Author: de Koning, Ruben Title: Conflict Minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Aligning Trade and Security Interventions Summary: Mineral resources have played a crucial role in fuelling protracted armed conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Illegal armed groups, state forces and civilian authorities are all involved in illicit rent seeking from the mineral sector, with serious repercussions for security, human rights and development. This Policy Paper examines the the prospects for and interactions between various trade- and security-related initiatives that are aimed at demilitarizing the supply chains of key minerals. It also describes the changing context in which such initiatives operate following a series of military campaigns against illegal armed groups. Finally, it offers policy recommendations for how the Congolese Government and international actors can coordinate and strengthen their responses in order to break resource–conflict links in eastern DRC. Details: Stockholm: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2011. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: SIPRI Policy Paper 27: Accessed July 6, 2011 at: Year: 2011 Country: Congo, Democratic Republic URL: Shelf Number: 121979 Keywords: Armed ConflictCriminal Violence (Congo, Democratic Republic of)Illegal TradeNatural ResourcesSmuggling |
Author: Kemper, Yvonne Title: No One To Trust: Children and Armed Conflict in Colombia Summary: Colombia’s civilians have been pulled into a decades-long civil war among the government’s forces, paramilitary groups and their successors, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the People’s Liberation Army (ELN). During the conflict, girls and boys have been subjected to forced recruitment, rape and sexual violence, killing and maiming, and have been seriously affected by attacks against schools and the denial of humanitarian assistance, according to the 2011 UN Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict in Colombia. More than half of an estimated 3.9 – 5.3 million internally displaced people in Colombia are under 18, rendering them even more vulnerable to the threats that caused them to flee their homes in the first place. Details: New York: Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, Women's Refugee Commission, 2012. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 4, 2012 at: http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/documents/Watchlist_NoOnetoTrustChildrenandArmedConflictinColombia.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia URL: http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/documents/Watchlist_NoOnetoTrustChildrenandArmedConflictinColombia.pdf Shelf Number: 124812 Keywords: Armed ConflictChild ProtectionChildren as VictimsCriminal Violence (Colombia)Violence Against ChildrenViolent Crime |
Author: Roth, Francoise Title: Using Quantitative Data to Assess Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Colombia: Challenges and Opportunities Summary: This report addresses the challenges of sexual violence measurement in a specific context: Colombia's ongoing internal armed conflict. After discussing in depth the difficulties faced by researchers attempting to measure sexual violence around the world, the report addresses several Colombian data collection efforts more specifically. Both governmental and non-governmental data sources are considered; more importantly, the authors outline several key cultural and political issues affecting sexual violence data collection in Colombia. In particular, the research team found, sexual violence reporting procedures in Colombia are fragmented and incomplete. Sexual violence is frequently viewed as a domestic violence or criminal justice issues; it is seldom considered as a phenomenon in its own right, or as an outcome associated with armed conflict. Details: Corporación Punto de Vista; Palo Alto, CA: Benetech, 2011. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 4, 2012 at: http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/documents/CPV_UsingQuantitativeDatatoAssessConflictRelatedSexualViolenceinColombia.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia URL: http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/documents/CPV_UsingQuantitativeDatatoAssessConflictRelatedSexualViolenceinColombia.pdf Shelf Number: 124813 Keywords: Armed ConflictHuman RightsRapeSexual AssaultSexual Violence (Colombia) |
Author: Child Soldiers International Title: Louder Than Words: An Agenda for Action to End State Use of Child Soldiers Summary: The report “Louder than words: An agenda for action to end state use of child soldiers” was published to mark the tenth anniversary year of the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. It examines the record of states in protecting children from use in hostilities by their own forces and by state-allied armed groups. It finds that, while governments’ commitment to ending child soldier use is high, the gap between commitment and practice remains wide. Research for the report shows that child soldiers have been used in armed conflicts by 20 states since 2010, and that children are at risk of military use in many more. The report argues that ending child soldier use by states is within reach but that achieving it requires improved analysis of “risk factors”, and greater investment in reducing these risks, before the military use of girls and boys becomes a fact. Real prevention means tackling risk where it begins – with the recruitment of under-18s. A global ban on the military recruitment of any person below the age of 18 years – long overdue – must be at the heart of prevention strategies, but to be meaningful it must be backed by enforcement measures that are applied to national armies and armed groups supported by states. The report contains detailed analysis of the laws, policies and practices of over 100 “conflict” and “non-conflict” states providing examples of good practice and showing where flaws in protection put children at risk. It also shows how states can do more to end child soldier use globally via policies and practices on arms transfers and military assistance, and in the design of security sector reform programs. On the basis of this analysis a “10-Point Checklist” is included to assist states and other stakeholders in assessing risk and identifying the legal and practical measures needed to end child soldier use by government forces and state-allied armed groups. Details: London: Child Soldiers International, 2012. 162p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 4, 2012 at: http://www.child-soldiers.org/global_report_reader.php?id=562 Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://www.child-soldiers.org/global_report_reader.php?id=562 Shelf Number: 126555 Keywords: Armed ConflictChild ProtectionChild Soldiers |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Colombia: Hidden from Justice. Impunity for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, A Follow-Up Report Summary: Conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls in Colombia has long been a largely hidden human rights tragedy. Members of all parties to the conflict – paramilitaries, the security forces and guerrilla groups – have been responsible for these crimes, and almost all have evaded justice. This was the picture painted in Amnesty International’s September 2011 report, “This is what we demand. Justice!”: Impunity for sexual violence against women in Colombia’s armed conflict. Following publication of that report, the authorities in Colombia made a number of commitments to comply with their national and international legal obligations to end all forms of sexual violence, including those committed in the context of the conflict, and to bring those responsible for such crimes to justice. This report details what progress has been made over the past year and what still remains to be done. It ends by calling on the government to intensify its efforts to ensure the rights of women and girls in Colombia to freedom from violence and to justice. amnesty.org Details: London: Amnesty International, 2012. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 5, 2012 at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR23/031/2012/en/8779cba6-f18f-4f06-9007-4cb337fcd1bd/amr230312012en.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Colombia URL: https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR23/031/2012/en/8779cba6-f18f-4f06-9007-4cb337fcd1bd/amr230312012en.pdf Shelf Number: 126565 Keywords: Armed ConflictHuman RightsRapeSexual Violence (Colombia)Violence Against Women |
Author: Prendergast, John Title: Can You Hear Congo Now? Cell Phones, Conflict Minerals, and the Worst Sexual Violence in the World Summary: The time has come to expose a sinister reality: Our insatiable demand for electronics products such as cell phones and laptops is helping fuel waves of sexual violence in a place that most of us will never go, affecting people most of us will never meet. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the scene of the deadliest conflict globally since World War II. There are few other conflicts in the world where the link between our consumer appetites and mass human suffering is so direct. This reality is not the result of an elaborate cover-up, either. Most electronic companies and consumers genuinely do not appreciate the complex chain of events that ties widespread sexual violence in Congo with the minerals that power our cell phones, laptops, mp3 players, video games, and digital cameras. But now that we are beginning to understand these linkages, we need to do all we can to expose them and bring this deadly war fuelled by “conflict minerals” to an end. As a start, the Enough Project has worked with other like-minded groups to create a conflict minerals pledge that commits electronics companies to ensure their products are conflict-free. We are initiating a consumer campaign aimed at encouraging the users of these electronics products to let the biggest companies know that it matters to us that our purchases don’t prolong this ongoing tragedy. Details: Washington, DC: The Enough Project, 2009. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: October 7, 2012 at http://www.enoughproject.org/files/Can%20Your%20Hear%20Congo%20Now.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Congo, Democratic Republic URL: http://www.enoughproject.org/files/Can%20Your%20Hear%20Congo%20Now.pdf Shelf Number: 126635 Keywords: Armed ConflictCell PhonesConflict Minerals (DRC)RapeSexual Violence |
Author: Utas, Mats Title: Urban Youth and Post-Conflict Africa on Policy Priorities Summary: Youth in urban areas of post-war African countries lead lives that are not very different from non-post-war societies. In fact it is often hard to separate battle-hardened ex-combatants from street-hardened urban youth in general. In this context, youth is a social category of people living in volatile and dire life conditions rather than a group defined by age. It is people who are no longer children, but who have yet to become social adults, people who have been marginalized into what they see as a chronic state of youthhood. It is the number of social youth, not the number of an age-categorized “youth bulge”, that poses a danger for stability in many African countries. This way of defining youth demands special efforts and raises special concerns when international donor communities create and implement youth-specific projects in post-conflict areas. Related to that, this policy note reflects on number of issues that will help improve the results of such projects through knowing and using existing social structures, including gender relations, the problems of social elites and the advantages of utilizing already existing systems of labor training. Details: Uppsala, Sweden: The Nordic Africa Institute, 2012. 4p. Source: Policy Notes 2012/4: Internet Resource: Accessed October 8, 2012 at http://nai.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:556625/FULLTEXT02 Year: 2012 Country: Africa URL: http://nai.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:556625/FULLTEXT02 Shelf Number: 126641 Keywords: Armed ConflictAt-risk YouthEducational and Training ProgramsUrban Areas |
Author: Manning, John D. Title: Dark Networks Summary: he world today operates in a state of persistent conflict on a sliding scale. The conflicts in question are not traditionally military in nature and often involve nonstate actors. These conflicts present problems for the nation-state, because its historical methods for dealing with conflicts do not work in this case. To manage these conflicts, nation-states and global organizations will have to develop mechanisms to deal with "dark networks." These are networks made up of illicit traffickers, organized crime members, urban gangs, terrorists, pirates, insurgents, and other nefarious characters. The purpose of this paper is to examine the environment that feeds these dark networks, the characters who make up the networks, the networks themselves, and the policy and strategy issues related to defeating dark networks. Details: Carlisle Barracks, PA: U.S. Army War College, 2010. 28p. Source: Strategy Research Project: Internet Resource: Accessed November 12, 2012 at http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA518125 Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA518125 Shelf Number: 126920 Keywords: Armed ConflictCriminal NetworksOrganized CrimeTerrorism |
Author: Nellemann, Christian Title: Protecting the Environment and Natural Resources in Conflict Areas Summary: This report offers photographs and diagrams, interspersed with text, related to the problem of protecting the environment and natural resources in conflict areas. Details: Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environment Programme, 2012. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 17, 2012 at http://www.interpol.int/content/download/6397/51451/version/1/file/ChristianNellemann%5B1%5D.pdf2Fdownload%2F6397%2F51451%2Fversion%2F1%2Ffile%2FChristianNellemann%5B1%5D.pdf&ei=fJXPUMqbDILC0QHdooC4DA&usg=AFQjCNGm1Eiy2ToEhGdoN-0zoU3QU7X2Gg&bvm=bv.1355325884,d.dmQ&cad=rja Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://www.interpol.int/content/download/6397/51451/version/1/file/ChristianNellemann%5B1%5D.pdf2Fdownload%2F6397%2F51451%2Fversion%2F1%2Ffile%2FChristianNellemann%5B1%5D.pdf&ei=fJXPUMqbDILC0QHdooC4DA&usg=AFQjCNGm1Eiy2ToEhGdo Shelf Number: 127235 Keywords: Armed ConflictNatural ResourcesOffenses Against the Environment |
Author: Kartas, Moncef Title: On the Edge? Trafficking and Insecurity at the Tunisian-Libyan Border Summary: Tunisia, Libya, and much of the Arab world are in the midst of political and social upheaval widely known as the 'Arab Spring-. Thus far, the tidal wave of change that began in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid on 17 December 2010 has led to the end of former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year dictatorship and to the fall of fellow dictator Muammar Qaddafi in Libya, while also setting off government transformations and conflict across the region. The revolutions in Tunisia and Libya have not only changed the political landscapes in both countries, but also affected the informal networks and ties that have long characterized the shared border region of the two nations: the Jefara. Indeed, the revolution in each country has profoundly affected the other and will probably continue to do so. With this understanding, this report investigates how the Libyan armed conflict and its aftermath have affected the security situation in Tunisia, particularly in light of the circulation of firearms and infiltrations by armed groups. As the circulation of Libyan small arms and light weapons in Tunisia cannot be adequately understood without a closer look at the tribal structures behind informal trade and trafficking networks in the border region, this report examines how the Libyan revolution affected such structures in the Jefara. This Working Paper presents several key findings: - Despite the weakening of the Tunisian security apparatus and the ongoing effects of the armed conflict in Libya, the use of firearms connected to crime and political violence has remained relatively low in Tunisia. Even in light of recent assassinations of two prominent leftist politicians and regular armed clashes between violent extremists, the military, and security forces on the AlgerianTunisian border, the use of firearms remains the exception rather than the rule. - In Tunisia, firearms trafficking currently exists in the form of small-scale smuggling. However, larger smuggling operations have been discovered and tied to Algeria-based violent extremist networks-such as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb-which have infiltrated the country. - Since the 1980s, tribal cartels have been in control of informal trade and trafficking in the Jefara. Their continued control rests on the cartels' strategic stance, informal agreements with the government, and their ability to withstand new, Libya-based competitors (both tribal and militia-based). Details: Geneva: Small Arms Survey, Graduate Institute of international and Development Studies, 2013. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper no. 17: Accessed April 19, 2014 at: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/F-Working-papers/SAS-WP17-Tunisia-On-the-Edge.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Africa URL: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/F-Working-papers/SAS-WP17-Tunisia-On-the-Edge.pdf Shelf Number: 132077 Keywords: Armed ConflictArms TraffickingBorder SecurityCriminal NetworksExtremistsGun-Related ViolenceOrganized CrimeSmuggling |
Author: Vargas Meza, Ricardo Title: Drugs, Armed Conflict and Peace. How does the agreement on drugs between the government and the FARC help to put an end to the armed conflict in Colombia? Summary: This policy briefing analyses the results of the partial agreement on drugs reached at the talks being held in Havana between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, and the Colombian government. analysis is based on the joint communique issued on 16 May 2014, the eve of the first round of the presidential election in Colombia. Following a brief introduction to the drugs issue in the broader framework of the peace talks, the briefing looks at how the subject of illicit crops, drug use and trafficking is dealt with in the agreement. It concludes with an assessment of the progress that the agreement represents in terms of the link between drugs and armed conflict. Key Points - The diversity of participants in the war who are involved in drug trafficking has led to a complex scenario in which the guerrilla groups are only one part of the problem. The criminal economy is able to continue operating regardless of who controls security in the producer regions. - The territorial approach that the agreement rhetorically claims to adopt is weak. It is not based on an integrated view of the territory and reduces it to the coca situation. A genuinely territorial approach would open the door to participation by rural settlers, indigenous and African-descent communities and give them a say in their territory's future. - The agreement is a ratification of the ongoing relevance of the current approach to drugs, which is based on prohibition. In this case, the objective is the total elimination of both coca and drug trafficking. To insist on "eradicating drug trafficking" is to repeat old recipes in new packaging because it leaves intact the very mechanism that makes the drug trade competitive: continued prohibition. - The agreement ignores the significant level of progress made in processes that have become stronger and currently represent a critical mass in favour of a regulation scenario. These processes include the development of harm reduction models. These models are based on the understanding that drugs must be accepted as a reality that must be lived with, while preventing or minimising the harm that drugs may cause to users. - The agreement fails to envisage a strategic approach to the problem, including the seeking of commitments from other countries to rethink the current policy on drugs. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2014. 6p. Source: Internet Resource: Drug Policy Briefings Nr 42: Accessed November 25, 2014 at: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/dpb_42_eng_072014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Colombia URL: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/dpb_42_eng_072014.pdf Shelf Number: 134252 Keywords: Armed ConflictDrug Abuse and Addiction (Colombia)Drug EnforcementDrug TraffickingIllicit Crops |
Author: Cockayne, James Title: Strengthening mediation to deal with criminal agendas Summary: A growing proportion of armed conflicts nowadays do not only involve political and ideological agendas but criminal ones. While armed conflict mediators have extensive experience of dealing with armed groups in various contexts of political and ideological conflicts, there is often a lack of attention towards addressing criminal agendas, making it a blind spot of mediation. In Strengthening mediation to deal with criminal agendas, James Cockayne takes an in-depth look at ways in which mediators have addressed, or not, criminal agendas, in peace processes, and the potentially spoiling effect that ignoring them may have had on those processes. Through the review of several peace processes in which criminal agendas have been directly tackled including gang truces in El Salvador and community violence reduction cases in Haiti and Brazil, Cockayne highlights how the practice of mediation can adjust to take criminal agendas into account. While mediation is by no means the only way to address and deal with such agendas, it can be a useful and complementary tool to do so. Cockayne also puts forward examples of peace processes in which criminal agendas were not taken into account and how this has contributed to spoiling those processes, for example through a return to conflict, or the empowerment of criminal agendas through disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration processes. Cockayne also offers recommendations on ways to ensure that the fundamentals of mediation, such as preparedness, inclusive ownership, legal frameworks and impartiality, are respected despite the presence of criminal agendas. Details: Oslo: Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, 2013. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Oslo Forum Papers: Accessed April 25, 2016 at: http://www.hdcentre.org/uploads/tx_news/Strengthening-mediation-to-deal-with-criminal-agendas.pdf Year: 2013 Country: International URL: http://www.hdcentre.org/uploads/tx_news/Strengthening-mediation-to-deal-with-criminal-agendas.pdf Shelf Number: 138803 Keywords: Armed ConflictGangsMediationViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Rey Marcos, Francisco Title: The Humanitarian Impact of the New Dynamics of the Armed Conflict and Violence Summary: The peace agreement that is expected to be reached between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) will end more than 50 years of armed conflict. It will highlight new opportunities for the country, and also new violence dynamics that are especially present in remote regions of the country and some urban areas. The role of other armed groups besides the FARC-EP, especially post-demobilisation armed groups, is one of the greatest risks facing the consolidation of a peace process. While the peace talks in Havana were still ongoing, these actors reconfigured their operations and have been responsible for serious humanitarian impacts on some communities. Despite seeing improvements in many indicators (e.g. the homicide rate, acts of war, etc.), other more surreptitious activities such as threats, individual displacement, extortion and social control have increased, indicating that the humanitarian situation remains alarming. This should be a priority in post-agreement peace planning, since this type of violence has a more subtle humanitarian impact and there is the danger that it could become invisible. This report analyses these conflict dynamics, their possible evolution during the post-agreement stage, and their humanitarian and social consequences. It also highlights the need to improve monitoring systems and improve protection for affected communities. Details: Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF), 2016. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 13, 2016 at: http://www.css.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/gess/cis/center-for-securities-studies/resources/docs/NOREF-humanitarian%20impact%20armed%20violence%20Colombia.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Colombia URL: http://www.css.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/gess/cis/center-for-securities-studies/resources/docs/NOREF-humanitarian%20impact%20armed%20violence%20Colombia.pdf Shelf Number: 147919 Keywords: Armed ConflictConflict ViolenceRevolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)Violence |
Author: U.S. General Accounting Office Title: SEC Conflict Minerals Rule: Companies Face Continuing Challenges in Determining Whether Their Conflict Minerals Benefit Armed Groups Summary: Armed groups in eastern DRC continue to profit from the exploitation of minerals, according to the United Nations. Congress included a provision in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that, among other things, required SEC to promulgate regulations regarding the use of conflict minerals from the DRC and adjoining countries. The act also required Commerce to develop a list of worldwide processing facilities and to assess IPSAs filed in conjunction with SEC disclosures, and included provisions for GAO to assess the SEC regulations effectiveness in promoting peace and security and report on the rate of sexual violence in the DRC and adjoining countries. This report examines (1) company disclosures filed in 2015 in response to the SEC conflict minerals regulations, (2) challenges to companies due diligence efforts related to the processing facilities in conflict minerals supply chains and efforts to mitigate those challenges, and (3) Commerces actions regarding its conflict mineralsrelated requirements under the DoddFrank Act. The report also provides information on sexual violence in the DRC and three adjoining countries. GAO analyzed a generalizable random sample of SEC filings and interviewed relevant officials. What GAO Recommends GAO recommends that Commerce establish a plan outlining steps and time frames for assessing the accuracy of due diligence processes such as IPSAs, and developing the necessary expertise to fulfill these requirements. Commerce concurred with GAOs recommendation. Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2016. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-16-805: Accessed September 17, 2016 at: http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/679232.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/679232.pdf Shelf Number: 147932 Keywords: Armed ConflictConflict Minerals |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: The Risk of Returning Home: Violence and Threats against Displaced People Reclaiming Land in Colombia Summary: Violence associated with Colombia's long-running internal armed conflict has driven more than 4.8 million Colombians from their homes, generating the world's largest population of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Colombian IDPs are estimated to have left behind 6 million hectares of land, much of which armed groups, their allies, and others seized, and continue to hold. In June 2011, President Juan Manuel Santos took an unprecedented step towards addressing this problem by securing passage of the Victims Law, which aims to return land to hundreds of thousands of displaced families over the course of a decade. Despite some notable gains in applying the Victims Law, major obstacles stand in the way of its effective implementation. IDPs who have sought to recover land through this new law and other restitution mechanisms have faced widespread abuses tied to their efforts, including killings, new incidents of forced displacement, and death threats. The Risk of Returning Home - based on a year and a half of field research - details those abuses and assesses the government's response. Human Rights Watch found that crimes targeting IDPs for their restitution efforts almost always go unpunished: prosecutors have not charged a single suspect in any of their investigations into threats against land claimants and leaders. Justice authorities also rarely prosecute the people who originally displaced claimants and stole their land. This is a root cause of the current abuses targeting claimants because those most interested in retaining control of the wrongfully acquired land often remain at large and are more readily able to violently thwart restitution. The failure to significantly curb the power of paramilitary successor groups - which have committed many of the abuses against land claimants - also poses a major threat to restitution. To ensure that IDPs can safely return home, Human Rights Watch recommends that prosecutors work with land restitution authorities to vigorously pursue crimes against claimants in the areas where restitution is being implemented. Unless Colombia delivers justice for current and past abuses against land claimants and makes substantial progress in dismantling paramilitary successor groups, the threats and attacks will continue - and the Santos administration's signature human rights initiative could be fundamentally undermined. Details: New York: HRW, 2013. 192p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 24, 2016 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/colombia0913webwcover.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/colombia0913webwcover.pdf Shelf Number: 131167 Keywords: Armed ConflictHuman Rights AbusesLand GrabsViolence |
Author: Human Security Report Project (Simon Fraser University) Title: Human Security Report 2013: The Decline in Global Violence: Evidence, Explanation, and Contestation Summary: During the past decade, an increasing number of studies have made the case that levels of violence around the world have declined. Few have made much impact outside the research community-Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined is a major exception. Published in 2011, Better Angels' central argument-one made over some 700 densely argued pages of text, supported by 70 pages of footnotes-is that there has been an extraordinary but little-recognized, long-term worldwide reduction in all forms of violence-one that stretches back at least to 10,000 BCE. Better Angels has received high praise for its extraordinary scope, its originality, and the breadth and depth of its scholarship. It is engagingly written, powerfully argued, and its claims are supported by a mass of statistical evidence. It has also generated considerable skepticism and in some cases outright hostility. Part I of this Report discusses the central theses of Better Angels and examines the major claims of its critics. Part II presents updated statistics on armed conflicts around the world since the end of World War II, plus post-Cold War trends in assaults on civilians and conflicts that do not involve governments. Details: Vancouver, Canada: Human Security Report Project, 2014. 127p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 13, 2017 at: https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/178122/HSRP_Report_2013_140226_Web.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/178122/HSRP_Report_2013_140226_Web.pdf Shelf Number: 145152 Keywords: Armed ConflictCrime StatisticsHomicidesOrganized CrimeViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Londono, Ana Maria Ibanez Title: Abandoning Coffee under the Threat of Violence and the Presence of Illicit Crops. Evidence from Colombia Summary: This paper explores the importance of the risk of violence on the decision making of rural households, using a unique panel data set for Colombian coffee-growers. We identify two channels. First, we examine the direct impact of conflict on agricultural production through the change in the percentage of the farm allocated to coffee. Second, we explore how conflict generates incentives to substitute from legal agricultural production to illegal crops. Following Dercon and Christiaensen (2011), we develop a dynamic consumption model where economic risk and the risk of violence are explicitly included. Theoretical results are tested using a parametric and semi-parametric approach. We find a significant negative effect of the risk of violence and the presence of illegal crops on the decision to continue coffee production and on the percentage of the farm allocated to coffee. Results are robust after controlling for endogeneity bias and after relaxing the normality assumption. Details: Brighton, UK: HiCN Households in Conflict Network, 2013. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: HiCN Working Paper 150: Accessed May 24, 2017 at: http://www.hicn.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HiCN-WP-150.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia URL: http://www.hicn.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HiCN-WP-150.pdf Shelf Number: 145750 Keywords: Armed ConflictConflict Related ViolenceIllegal CropsIllicit Crops |