Download or read book Child Soldiers Adult Interests written by John-Peter Pham and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2005 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book weaves a narrative of the history of Sierra Leone, from its foundation as a settlement for black slaves who fought for the British Crown during the American Revolution through the events of the civil war, with a discussion of more general geopolitical lessons to be learned from the recent conflict, its origins, and settlement. In addition, the book contains six appendices that render the present work -- the first comprehensive history of Sierra Leone since the classic studies published more than a generation ago by Christopher Fyfe and John Peterson -- an invaluable reference on conflict resolution in general as well as the West African country in particular, including a chronology of select events in the history of Sierra Leone and the texts of the peace agreements and other post-conflict documents.

Download or read book Religion Tradition and Restorative Justice in Sierra Leone written by Lyn S. Graybill and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2017-06-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking study of post-conflict Sierra Leone, Lyn Graybill examines the ways in which both religion and local tradition supported restorative justice initiatives such as the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and village-level Fambul Tok ceremonies. Through her interviews with Christian and Muslim leaders of the Inter-Religious Council, Graybill uncovers a rich trove of perspectives about the meaning of reconciliation, the role of acknowledgment, and the significance of forgiveness. Through an abundance of polling data and her review of traditional practices among the various ethnic groups, Graybill also shows that these perspectives of religious leaders did not at all conflict with the opinions of the local population, whose preferences for restorative justice over retributive justice were compatible with traditional values that prioritized reconciliation over punishment. These local sentiments, however, were at odds with the international community's preference for retributive justice, as embodied in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which ran concurrently with the TRC. Graybill warns that with the dominance of the International Criminal Court in Africa—there are currently eighteen pending cases in eight countries—local preferences may continue to be sidelined in favor of prosecutions. She argues that the international community is risking the loss of its most valuable assets in post-conflict peacebuilding by pushing aside religious and traditional values of reconciliation in favor of Western legal norms.

Download or read book Amnesty Human Rights and Political Transitions written by Louise Mallinder and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2008-09-10 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amnesty laws are political tools used since ancient times by states wishing to quell dissent, introduce reforms, or achieve peaceful relationships with their enemies. In recent years, they have become contentious due to a perception that they violate international law, particularly the rights of victims, and contribute to further violence. This view is disputed by political negotiators who often argue that amnesty is a necessary price to pay in order to achieve a stable, peaceful, and equitable system of government. This book aims to investigate whether an amnesty necessarily entails a violation of a state's international obligations, or whether an amnesty, accompanied by alternative justice mechanisms, can in fact contribute positively to both peace and justice. This study began by constructing an extensive Amnesty Law Database that contains information on 506 amnesty processes in 130 countries introduced since the Second World War. The database and chapter structure were designed to correspond with the key aspects of an amnesty: why it was introduced, who benefited from its protection, which crimes it covered, and whether it was conditional. In assessing conditional amnesties, related transitional justice processes such as selective prosecutions, truth commissions, community-based justice mechanisms, lustration, and reparations programmes were considered. Subsequently, the jurisprudence relating to amnesty from national courts, international tribunals, and courts in third states was addressed. The information gathered revealed considerable disparity in state practice relating to amnesties, with some aiming to provide victims with a remedy, and others seeking to create complete impunity for perpetrators. To date, few legal trends relating to amnesty laws are emerging, although it appears that amnesties offering blanket, unconditional immunity for state agents have declined. Overall, amnesties have increased in popularity since the 1990s and consequently, rather than trying to dissuade states from using this tool of transitional justice, this book argues that international actors should instead work to limit the more negative forms of amnesty by encouraging states to make them conditional and to introduce complementary programmes to repair the harm and prevent a repetition of the crimes. David Dyzenhaus "This is one of the best accounts in the truth and reconciliation literature I've read and certainly the best piece of work on amnesty I've seen." Diane Orentlicher "Ms Mallinder's ambitious project provides the kind of empirical treatment that those of us who have worked on the issue of amnesties in international law have long awaited. I have no doubt that her book will be a much-valued and widely-cited resource."

Download or read book Civil Wars in Rwanda and Burundi written by Godfrey Mwakikagile and published by New Africa Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a historical survey and analysis of some of the bloodiest conflicts in modern times. The civil wars in Rwanda and Burundi, twin states in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, are often explained in simplistic terms even by some political pundits as mere tribal wars, rooted in anciet hatred, between the Hutu and the Tutsi. Ethnicity is indeed a factor. But of paramount importance in this conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi, in both countries, is the struggle for power although with "racial" overtones, and the exclusion of the Hutu majority from meaningful participation in the political process. Therefore the conflicts are not tribal wars but political statements as well, probably more than anything else; what Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa aptly described as "military expressions of political intent." In this comprehensive study, the author also addresses one of the most controversial subjects today: conflict resolution in Africa. There are no easy answers, but the author attempts to provide some of them. He covers as much ground as possible, trying to come up with solutions not only to the wars in Africa's Great Lakes region, but in other parts of the continent as well.

Download or read book The Sierra Leonean Tragedy written by John-Peter Pham and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The road to the future runs through the past -- Drift, decline, and the establishment of a patrimonial state -- Diamonds aren't forever, are they? -- The coming of the terror -- Child soldiers, hunters, and mercenaries : the widening conflagration -- The perils of peacekeeping and peacemaking -- Dealing with the aftermath : the quest for justice -- The global dimensions of an African civil conflict -- Appendix 1. Chronology of select events in the history of Sierra Leone -- Appendix 2. The Abidjan Peace Agreement (1996) -- Appendix 3. The Lomé Peace Agreement (1999) -- Appendix 4. Agreement between the United Nations and the government of Sierra Leone on the establishment of a special court for Sierra Leone (2002) -- Appendix 5. The statute of the special court for Sierra Leone (2002) -- Appendix 6. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act (2000).

Download or read book Identity Politics and Ethnic Conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi written by Godfrey Mwakikagile and published by New Africa Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work looks at conflicts between the Hutu and the Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi. The conflicts between the two groups have sometimes been characterised as ethnic, although neither group has fundamental attributes of ethnicity or ethnic identity which separate one from the other. They have the same culture. They speak the same language. And they have had a common history during the past 400 years. They have intermingled and have intermarried for so long since the Tutsi arrived in the region about 400 years ago that whatever differences existed between them in the past in terms of culture, identity, and biology have been erased. Yet they do exist as distinct social groups. They maintain separate group identities, as Hutus and as Tutsis, mainly because of the asymmetrical relationship between them. Inequity of power has solidified those identities. Historically, the Tutsi minority have been the rulers. Their status as the dominant group was enhanced during colonial rule when the Belgians favoured and recognised them as the traditional rulers, superior to the Hutu, thus legitimising inequalities between the two groups. The differences between them were even given official sanction. And the subordinate status of the Hutu majority was used by the Belgians to justify discrimination against them in terms of employment and educational opportunities while favouring the Tutsi. The conflict between the two groups is rooted in inequity of power, fuelled by stereotypes against the Hutu majority. Domination of the Hutu majority by the Tutsi minority, which started before the advent of colonial rule, has also solidified ethnic identities of the two groups through the years. A shared consciousness among the members of each group and their distinctiveness - each seeing themselves as different from the other - have also played a major role in the evolution and consolidation of these separate identities.

Download or read book Berkeley Journal of International Law written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Temple international and comparative law journal written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 1194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Journal of Psychology in Africa written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Christian Science Monitor Index written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Virginia journal of international law written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 1182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Memories of the Slave Trade written by Rosalind Shaw and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-04-04 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is the slave trade remembered in West Africa? In a work that challenges recurring claims that Africans felt (and still feel) no sense of moral responsibility concerning the sale of slaves, Rosalind Shaw traces memories of the slave trade in Temne-speaking communities in Sierra Leone. While the slave-trading past is rarely remembered in explicit verbal accounts, it is often made vividly present in such forms as rogue spirits, ritual specialists' visions, and the imagery of divination techniques. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival research, Shaw argues that memories of the slave trade have shaped (and been reshaped by) experiences of colonialism, postcolonialism, and the country's ten-year rebel war. Thus money and commodities, for instance, are often linked to an invisible city of witches whose affluence was built on the theft of human lives. These ritual and visionary memories make hitherto invisible realities manifest, forming a prism through which past and present mutually configure each other.

Download or read book Deliver Us From Evil written by William Shawcross and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-01-10 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reporting from war zones around the globe, acclaimed journalist William Shawcross gives us an unforgettable portrait of a dangerous world and of the brave men and women, ordinary and extraordinary, who risk their lives to make and keep the peace. The end of the Cold War was followed by a decade of regional and ethnic wars, massacres and forced exiles, and by constant calls for America to lead the international community as chief peace-keeper. The efforts of that community -- identified with the United Nations but often dominated by the world's wealthy nations -- have had mixed results. In Africa, the West is accused of indifference or too little, too late. In Cambodia, the UN presides over free elections, but the results are overridden. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein continues to defy the UN, and in Bosnia and Kosovo, the West acts hesitantly after terrible slaughter and ethnic cleansing. Shawcross, a veteran of many war zones, has had broad access to global policymakers, including UN secretary general Kofi Annan, high American diplomats, peacekeepers and humanitarian-aid professionals. He has traveled with them to some of the world's most horrifying killing fields. Deliver Us from Evil is his stark, on-the-ground report on the many crises faced by the international community and its servants as they struggle to respond around the world. He brings home the price many have paid attempting to restore peace and help alleviate terrible suffering. He illuminates the risks we face in a complex and dangerous world. Some critics have concluded that some interventions may prolong conflict and create further casualties. The lesson we learn from ruthless and vengeful warlords the world over is that goodwill without strength can make things worse. Shawcross argues that recent interventions -- in Kosovo and East Timor, for example -- provide reason for concern as well as hope. Still, the unmistakable message of the past decade is that we cannot intervene everywhere, that not every wrong can be righted merely because the international community desires it, or because we wish to remove images of suffering from our television screens. Nor can we necessarily rebuild failed states in our image. When we intervene, we must be certain of our objectives, sure of popular support and willing to expend the necessary resources -- even lives. If our interventions are to be effective and humane, they must last for more than the fifteen minutes of attention that the media accord to each succeeding crisis. That is a tall order. As Shawcross concludes, "In a more religious time it was only God whom we asked to deliver us from evil. Now we call upon our own man-made institutions for such deliverance. That is sometimes to ask for miracles."

Download or read book The World Today written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Daily Graphic written by George Aidoo and published by Graphic Communications Group. This book was released on 1970-07-10 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Andr de Faro s Missionary Journey to Sierra Leone in 1663 1664 written by André de Faro and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sierra Leone beyond the Lome Peace Accord written by M. Mustapha and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-09-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Lomé Peace Accord, signed in 1999, presented significant implications, challenges, and possibilities for post-conflict Sierra Leone, but the literature on post-conflict Sierra Leone only scantily addresses these issues. This project seeks to address the void in the literature on post-Lomé Sierra Leone.