Peacebuilding

Rape, Shame and Pride

Citation:

Braithwaite, John. 2006. “Rape, Shame and Pride.” Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology & Crime Prevention 7: 2–16. 

Author: John Braithwaite

Abstract:

A proposition of the theory of reintegrative shaming is that a reason some societies have lower rates of rape is that rape is unthinkable to most men in those societies. This presentation shows how war interrupts the unthinkableness of rape. Bougainville society seems to have had a low level of rape until its war of the 1980s and 1990s. A single rape was one of the important sparks that lit its civil war. It caused perhaps over 5% of the population to lose their lives and perhaps over a third to be displaced from their homes. As in most wars, rape became common in Bougainville. A theory of why war causes epidemics of rape helps criminologists understand rape better. It can also help international relations scholars to see that the bigger problem caused by armed conflict today may be crime rather than battle deaths. Rape in peace and in war is interpreted according to Eliza Ahmed's theory of shame management and pride management. Ahmed's work is seen as an important advance in evidence‐based criminological theory. A deficiency of reintegrative shaming theory is that it neglects pride as the flip side of shame as an emotion. Shame displacement may be important to the explanation of rape; yet narcissistic pride may be more important. In war we see more vividly the social dynamics of how shame displacement and narcissistic pride allow both rape and the onset of war itself. Bougainville helps us to ponder how historically sustained, deep and broad restorative justice processes may be part of what is needed to return a society to peace and to low levels of rape.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Justice, Peacebuilding, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Oceania Countries: Papua New Guinea

Year: 2006

Women in an Insecure World: Violence against Women, Facts, Figures and Analysis

Citation:

Vlachovà, Marie, and Lea Biason, eds. 2005. Women in an Insecure World: Violence against Women, Facts, Figures and Analysis. Geneva: Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.

Authors: Marie Vlachovà, Lea Biason

Abstract:

Women in an Insecure World takes stock of the scope and magnitude of violence experienced by women in daily life, during armed conflict and in post-conflict situations. It aims to increase awareness among governments, donors, policy makers, academics, experts and civil society about the pervasive forms of violence against women. It also highlights the active role of women in peacemaking and post- conflict reconstruction. For what makes women’s role in combating violence indispensable is not the omnipresence and magnitude of their victimisation, but the fact that women demonstrate the capacity to overcome the trauma of violent acts, to survive and help in the survival of others, and to contribute actively to defending and building peace. The book provides analytical data and statistics, legal documents and policy recommendations, complemented by feature stories and illustrations. Over 60 different authors, representing the major international organisations, governments, NGOs and Think Tanks dealing with gender issues, have contributed to this book.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Gender, Women, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, International Organizations, NGOs, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Violence

Year: 2005

Healing for Peace: Traditional Healers and Post-War Reconstruction in Southern Mozambique

Citation:

Honwana, Alcinda. 1997. “Healing for Peace: Traditional Healers and Post-War Reconstruction in Southern Mozambique.” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 3 (3): 293–305.

Author: Alcinda Honwana

Abstract:

After a long period of social and material destruction as a consequence of regional destabilisation and civil war, Mozambique has to confront both its material rehabilitation and its social reconstruction. This article analyses the social and cultural impact of the war and discusses strategies for post-war healing and social reconstruction. It examines more particularly the role that traditional practitioners and the family can play in healing the social wounds of the war in rural communities. Bearing in mind that the majority of the population affected by the war is rural, the article suggests that in this context these traditional institutions are essential in bringing back balance, harmony, and social stability. This is so because the philosophy that underlines the practices of these institutions is embedded in the cosmological model that regulates social life, particularly in rural communities.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Health, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Mozambique

Year: 1997

Psychosocial Interventions and Post-War Reconstruction in Angola: Interweaving Western and Traditional Approaches

Citation:

Wessells, Michael, and Carlinda Monteiro. 2001. “Psychosocial Interventions and Post-War Reconstruction in Angola: Interweaving Western and Traditional Approaches.” In Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21st Century, edited by D. Christie, R. V. Wagner, and D. Winter, 262–75. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Authors: Michael Wessells, Carlinda Monteiro

Topics: Development, Health, Mental Health, Trauma, Humanitarian Assistance, Context-Appropriate Response to Trauma, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Angola

Year: 2001

Healing the Wounds Following Protracted Conflict in Angola: A Community-Based Approach to Assisting War-Affected Children

Citation:

Wessells, Michael, and Carlinda Monteiro. 2004. “Healing the Wounds Following Protracted Conflict in Angola: A Community-Based Approach to Assisting War-Affected Children.” In Handbook of Culture, Therapy, and Healing, edited by Carlinda Monteiro, 321–41. Mahwah, NJ: Routledge.

Authors: Michael Wessells, Carlinda Monteiro

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Gender, Girls, Boys, Health, Trauma, Humanitarian Assistance, Context-Appropriate Response to Trauma, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Angola

Year: 2004

Psychosocial Assistance for Youth: Toward Reconstruction for Peace in Angola

Citation:

Wessells, Michael, and Carlinda Monteiro. 2006. “Psychosocial Assistance for Youth: Toward Reconstruction for Peace in Angola.” Journal of Social Issues 62 (1): 121–39.

Authors: Michael Wessells, Carlinda Monteiro

Abstract:

Following decades of war, Angolan youth are at risk of continuing cycles of violence and need support in developing positive behaviors and social roles. Accordingly, a community-based program, conducted in Angola 1998–2001, taught youth life skills, provided peer support and peace education, educated adults about youth, and engaged youth as workers on community development projects. The main results included increased adult awareness of the situation and needs of youth, improved youth-adult relations, reduced perceptions of youth as troublemakers, reduced fighting between youth, increased community planning, and increased perceptions that youth make a positive contribution to the community. The results suggest that a dual focus on youth and community development contributes to peacebuilding and the disruption of cycles of violence.

Topics: Age, Youth, Development, Education, Gender, Girls, Boys, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Peacebuilding Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Angola

Year: 2006

The ‘Basket Case’ and the ‘Poster Child’: Explaining the End of Civil Conflicts in Liberia and Mozambique

Citation:

Moran, Mary H., and M. Anne Pitcher. 2004. “The ‘Basket Case’ and the ‘Poster Child’: Explaining the End of Civil Conflicts in Liberia and Mozambique.” Third World Quarterly 25 (3): 501-19.

Authors: Mary H. Moran, M. Anne Pitcher

Abstract:

Through a comparison of protracted domestic conflicts in Liberia and Mozambique this paper evaluates several standard explanations regarding the roles of leaders, third parties and domestic social forces in resolving or continuing civil wars in Africa. The paper finds that no single account of how peace is achieved is sufficient to explain the continuance of violence in Liberia and the successful attainment of peace in Mozambique. Rather, an explanation that can accommodate the divergent outcomes of conflict in the two countries must combine insights from elite, structuralist and agency-based approaches. Furthermore, the paper addresses the ways in which the construction of social organisations, particularly women's groups, during wartime affects the direction of donor funding and the shape of reconstruction efforts after the peace is signed. We illustrate our argument by examining the efforts of leaders, third parties and local actors, particularly women, to perpetuate violence or to bring about peace in Liberia and Mozambique, and the gendered contexts in which donor aid is distributed in the postwar period.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Gender, Women, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa Countries: Liberia, Mozambique

Year: 2004

Grounding Local Peace Organisations: A Case Study of Southern Sudan

Citation:

Hilhorst, Dorothea, and Mathijs van Leeuwen. 2005. “Grounding Local Peace Organisations: A Case Study of Southern Sudan.” The Journal of Modern African Studies 43 (4): 537-63.

Authors: Dorothea Hilhorst, Mathijs van Leeuwen

Abstract:

Since the early 1990s, building peace during and after conflict has been moving away from the conference tables of diplomats to informal settings created by local NGOs. The vast majority, if not all, of the peacebuilding policy and literature argues for strengthening local organisations as vehicles for peace. This paper starts from the observation that there is a dire lack of organisational perspective to the processes set into motion. Current local peacebuilding policy, we argue, is based on analyses that are far removed from the everyday practices of the actors engaged in peacebuilding. The paper offers instead a qualitative approach that gives central attention to the dynamics of peace organisations and the way conflict is experienced in the everyday life of local people. It analyses the case of one local women's peace organisation: the ' Sudanese Women's Voice for Peace'. Peacebuilding is done by people, and the dynamics of their organisation are crucial for its success. The paper argues that a process approach to peace organisations will enhance agencies' efforts for local peacebuilding. Such an approach focuses on the question how actors in and around organisations give meaning to an organisation. The paper outlines this approach, presents five central properties of local peace organisations, and discusses what lessons can be learnt from this perspective for the practice of peacebuilding.

Topics: Gender, Women, NGOs, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: South Sudan

Year: 2005

Sustainable Peace - Building in the South - Experiences from Latin America

Citation:

Pearce, Jenny. 1997. “Sustainable Peace-Building in the South: Experiences from Latin America.” Development in Practice 7 (4): 438–55.

Author: Jenny Pearce

Abstract:

While some recent internal conflicts have attracted international attention, other long-term conflicts with high accumulative death tolls have been relatively ignored. A decontextualised and partial view of conflict and violence is further encouraged by the separation between the emergency and development sections in many Northern aid agencies. Drawing on detailed case-studies of post- conflict experience in El Salvador, Peru, and Nicaragua, the author argues that conflict analysis, emergency intervention,and peace-building must be rooted within specific socio-historical contexts. The article ends with a critical reflection on the extent to which local-level capacities have in fact been able to influence the post-war situation and prospects for long-term and sustainable peace-building in these three countries.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Development, Humanitarian Assistance, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Violence Regions: Americas, Central America, South America Countries: El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru

Year: 1997

The 'Sex War' and Other Wars: Towards a Feminist Approach to Peace Building

Citation:

Pankhurst, Donna. 2003. “The ‘Sex War’ and Other Wars: Towards a Feminist Approach to Peace Building.” Development in Practice 13 (2-3): 154–77.

Author: Donna Pankhurst

Abstract:

For more than a decade, resolutions from the UN and the European Commission have highlighted women's suffering during wars, and the unfairness of their treatment upon the return to peace. Yet the injustices and the hypocrisy continue. Women are reified as the peacemakers while they are excluded from peace processes. Women's suffering during war is held up as evidence of inhumanity by the same organisations that accept, if not promote, the marginalisation of women's needs during peacetime. The author reviews the processes through which these phenomena are perpetuated and outlines some ways forward which could help to break these cycles. (Oxfam)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict

Year: 2003

Pages

© 2024 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - Peacebuilding