Post-Conflict Syria: From Destruction to Reconstruction – Who's Involved and to Which Extent

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-19
Author(s):  
Nura Ibold
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Reconstruction Process ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
Regional Powers ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
Proxy War ◽  
The Government ◽  
Syrian Conflict

The wave of popular unrest in the Arab world reached Syria in March 2011, and what started as peaceful demonstrations with simple demands of justice and freedom turned into a brutal armed conflict and a full-scale civil war. Over seven years of conflict resulted in the deaths of over half a million Syrians, the forced displacement of millions more, and a huge loss of the country's social and physical structures. What began as another Arab Spring movement against a dictatorial regime has turned into a proxy war that has attracted the interests of the world and regional powers. The paper discusses Syria's political history and investigates the motives for the Syrian uprising and argues that it is related to socio-economic deprivations rather than sectarianism. The work underlines the interests of the countries involved in the Syrian conflict focusing on Russia, USA, Iran, and Turkey, as well as their contribution to the future reconstruction of the country. Over the past few years, the Syrian regime and its allies targeted many cities and destroyed opposition-held neighborhoods. The work considers if this destruction was part of an overall strategy adopted by the al-Assad regime to terrorize those who opposed it and change Syria demographically, examining the new laws issued by the government to transfer public properties into the hands of its loyal businessmen factions, as in the case of the reconstruction project in the city of Homs. Seven years of war exhausted Syria's financial stocks, and the country (and in turn the regime) is suffering the consequences of military spending. But like any other war, destruction is also a great opportunity to generate money through reconstruction and growth. It is a “win-win situation”; the regime will use the fund designated for reviving the country to its own benefit, gaining future profits. Already invested in the conflict, involved countries will be part of the reconstruction process to secure their presence and control in Syria. United Nations agencies like UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) are working closely with the Syrian regime and its governmental representatives. This research examines their involvement and how their ‘humanitarian mission' is being exploited to prop up the al-Assad regime.

scholarly journals Refugee Repatriation and the Problem of Consent

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 855-875 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mollie Gerver
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
The Past ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
Existing Data

Over the past decade, millions of refugees have fled their countries of origin and asked for asylum abroad. Some of these refugees do not receive asylum, but are not deported. Instead they are detained, or denied basic rights of residency, some forced into enclosed camps. Hoping to escape such conditions, they wish to return to unsafe countries, and ask for help from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In such cases, should NGOs and the UN assist refugees to return? Drawing on original data gathered in South Sudan, and existing data from around the world, I argue that they should assist with return if certain conditions are met. First, the UN and NGOs must try to put an end to coercive conditions before helping with return. Secondly, helping with return must not encourage the government to expand the use of coercive policies to encourage more to return. Finally, NGOs and the UN must ensure that refugees are fully informed of the risks of returning. Organizations must either conduct research in countries of origin or lobby the government to allow refugees to visit their countries of origin before making a final decision.

The Neo-Colonial State of Exception in Occupied Iraq

2016 ◽  
pp. 298-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Whyte
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Reconstruction Process ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Important Means ◽  
The Government ◽  
Coalition Provisional Authority ◽  
Conflict Period

This paper explores the immediate post-conflict period following the 2003 Coalition invasion of Iraq, analysing the political strategy of economic exceptionalism violently and illegally imposed by the Coalition partners. The government of occupation, Coalition Provisional Authority, (CPA) ensured the disbursal of revenue and the accumulation of profits at an accelerated rate with few administrative controls or mechanisms of accountability. In the case of the post-invasion transformation of Iraq, routine corporate criminality, facilitated by the government of occupation, is revealed as an important means of producing and reproducing (neo) colonial power relations. The systematic corruption of the reconstruction economy unfolded in a liminal space opened up by the suspension of law. This neo-colonial ‘state of exception' became the mode of domination that sough political and social transformation as part of the ‘reconstruction' process in post-Saddam Iraq.

scholarly journals Japanese Foreign Policy towards the Republic of Croatia: Preventive Diplomacy and Post-conflict Reconstruction 1994 - 1997

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela Peric
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Humanitarian Crisis ◽  
United Nations High Commissioner ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The Republic

This article analyses the policy of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) towards the former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in the 1990s during the Yugoslav crisis. It argues that MOFA adopted an indirect foreign policy approach since it acted through theUnited Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to help foster the peace process. The article particularly focuses on the roles played by Yasushi Akashi, the head of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Sadako Ogata, through whom Japan provided aid during the humanitarian crisis. Japan exerted its preventive diplomacy to defuse tensions in the successor republics and to prevent thespread of the conflict to Macedonia and Albania. After the end of the conflict, Japan’s policy towards the region focused on post-conflict reconstruction and supporting the transition to prepare for theEuropean integration process.

Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Government of Australia, Relating to the Settlement of Refugees in Cambodia & UNHCR Response to Australia-Cambodia Agreement on Refugee Relocation

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-356
Author(s):  
Ryan Harrington
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
United Nations High Commissioner ◽  
Human Rights Organizations ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Government

On September 26, 2014, the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Government of Australia concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Relating to the Settlement of Refugees in Cambodia. The agreement provides for refugees on the Pacific Island of Nauru to be voluntarily relocated to Cambodia. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and several international human rights organizations have lambasted the agreement, maintaining that Australia would be contravening its humanitarian and refugee obligations.

Settlement of the Southern Sudanese Problem: Its Significance and Implications for the Future

1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-12
Author(s):  
Yassin El-Ayouty
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
News Media ◽  
Arab World ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
African Unity ◽  
The South ◽  
Southern Sudan ◽  
The Future ◽  
Organization Of African Unity ◽  
The Government

On 27 and 28 February 1972, the news media carried reports from Addis Abada that the Government of the Sudan and the South Sudan Liberation Front had reached an agreement settling the problem of the southern Sudan. The importance of this news to the Sudan, Africa, the Organization of African Unity, the Arab world, and the United Nations lies in the fact that an armed uprising in the largest state in Africa seems to have come to an end by peaceful means.

Land of Blue Helmets

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Member States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Political Mediation

Born in 1945, the United Nations (UN) came to life in the Arab world. It was there that the UN dealt with early diplomatic challenges that helped shape its institutions such as peacekeeping and political mediation. It was also there that the UN found itself trapped in, and sometimes part of, confounding geopolitical tensions in key international conflicts in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, such as hostilities between Palestine and Iraq and between Libya and Syria. Much has changed over the past seven decades, but what has not changed is the central role played by the UN. This book's claim is that the UN is a constant site of struggle in the Arab world and equally that the Arab world serves as a location for the UN to define itself against the shifting politics of its age. Looking at the UN from the standpoint of the Arab world, this volume includes chapters on the potential and the problems of a UN that is framed by both the promises of its Charter and the contradictions of its member states.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian MacNaughton ◽  
Mariah McGill
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
United Nations High Commissioner ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

For over two decades, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has taken a leading role in promoting human rights globally by building the capacity of people to claim their rights and governments to fulfill their obligations. This chapter examines the extent to which the right to health has evolved in the work of the OHCHR since 1994, drawing on archival records of OHCHR publications and initiatives, as well as interviews with OHCHR staff and external experts on the right to health. Analyzing this history, the chapter then points to factors that have facilitated or inhibited the mainstreaming of the right to health within the OHCHR, including (1) an increasing acceptance of economic and social rights as real human rights, (2) right-to-health champions among the leadership, (3) limited capacity and resources, and (4) challenges in moving beyond conceptualization to implementation of the right to health.

Global Norms and Local Action

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peace A. Medie
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Local Action ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Global Norms ◽  
The United Nations

When and why do states implement international women’s rights norms? Global Norms and Local Action is an examination of states’ responses to violence against women (VAW) in Africa and their implementation of the international women’s justice norm. Despite the presence of laws on various forms of VAW in most African countries, most victims face barriers to accessing justice through the criminal justice system. This problem is particularly acute in post-conflict countries. International organizations such as the United Nations and women’s rights advocates have, therefore, promoted the international women’s justice norm, which emphasizes the establishment of specialized mechanisms within the criminal justice sector to address VAW. With a focus on the response of the police to rape and intimate partner violence in post-conflict Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, this book theorizes the United Nations’ and women’s movements’ influence on the implementation of the international women’s justice norm. It draws on over 300 interviews in both countries to demonstrate that high international and domestic pressures, combined with favorable political and institutional conditions, are key to the rapid establishment of specialized mechanisms within the police force and to how police officers respond to rape and intimate partner violence cases. It argues that despite significant weaknesses, specialized mechanisms have improved women’s access to justice. The book concludes with a discussion of why a holistic approach to addressing VAW is needed.

What Do We Mean by Protection?

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dallal Stevens
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
The State ◽  
Refugee Policy ◽  
International Protection ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
United Nations High Commissioner ◽  
High Commissioner

Protection is arguably the raison-d’être of refugee policy. Yet, surprisingly, the meaning of protection is not without ambiguity. ‘Domestic protection’ can be distinguished from ‘international protection’; the sense attributed to protection within the 1951 Refugee Convention contrasts with that of the 1950 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Statute. Equally, how the state interprets its protective obligations departs frequently from the practice of humanitarian organisations. Alongside such differences, there has been a proliferation of protection concepts in recent years which, far from improving understanding, have added unnecessary confusion and undermined the fundamental purpose of protection. This article considers the language of ‘protection’ within the refugee field and argues that protection proliferation must now be addressed and reversed.

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