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35461. Preparing for Extreme Weather: Global Lessons from Sandy

Author:
Adam H. Sobel (moderator)
Publication Date:
02-2015
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Columbia University World Leaders Forum
Abstract:
The Columbia Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate will be focused on understanding the risks to human life and property from extreme weather events, both in the present and future climates, and in developing solutions to mitigate those risks. The Initiative engages the broad and deep expertise that exists across Columbia University on all aspects of this problem. With partners in the private sector, government, and academia, we will work towards the goal of greater societal resilience to extreme events.
Topic:
Government

35462. Integrity of Public Officials in EU Countries: International Norms and Standards

Author:
Gillian Dell, Albena Kuyumdzhieva, and Ádám Földes
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Transparency International
Abstract:
Good governance and good administration are among the core pillars that form the foundations of the European governance system. The principles of transparency and openness along with the right of citizens to receive impartial, fair and timely administrative services are embedded in the Founding Treaty of the EU and in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (EU ChFR). These principles are identical to the ones stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Council of Europe's (CoE's) Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe

35463. Local Governance Integrity: Principles and Standards

Author:
Michel Gary and Nuno Ferreira da Cruz
Publication Date:
02-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Transparency International
Abstract:
Local governance reform continues apace around the globe, with an ever increasing trend towards the transfer of powers and responsibilities from central government to the sub national level. Although decentralisation processes can help strengthen accountability by bringing government closer to the people, corruption is a problem at all levels and decentralising services can also simply decentralise corruption. For example, local officials may have greater vested interests based on family, friendships and business ties that can influence decision-making;remuneration at the local government level is, in many cases, low in comparison to the national level; and the institutions that are designed to hold public officials to account at the local level are not always adequate. Monitoring by the media and civic institutions can also be weak. Contact between local government officials and the public is highest at the local level, which increases the opportunities for corruption. Conversely, it also provides more chances for citizens to hold governments to account. Thus, decentralisation provides both significant opportunities which can be leveraged in the fight against corruption, but also presents particular challenges which must be addressed.
Topic:
Corruption

35464. U.N. Peacekeeping in the Sahel: Overcoming New Challenges

Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
<p>New U.N. operations in the Sahel present unprecedented challenges for U.N. peacekeeping. They involve the United Nations directly in the struggle against transnational Islamist terrorism, weapons proliferation, and illicit trafficking by international organized crime. The United Nations must operate in countries with harsh terrain, vast expanses, poor communications, and porous borders. In response, the Security Council adopted more robust mandates based on the peace enforcement provisions of the U.N. Charter. In Mali, the United Nations joined the African Union, the European Union, and France, whose forces conduct combat operations, while the United Nations used helicopter gunships and armed police units to protect civilians. In the Central African Republic, U.N. Police are authorized to control violence and arrest offenders. For the United States, there is new interest in U.N. peacekeeping and its importance to U.S. national security interests</p>

35465. Political Parties in Afghanistan

Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
<p>Political parties in Afghanistan are often dismissed by international and Afghan observers as unruly and highly personalized organizations that contribute little to the democratic process. Yet they continue to play a part in shaping the political landscape, albeit in what might be considered unorthodox ways. This report assesses their history, role, and activities over the last decade and how their future might unfold under and contribute to the countrys new unity government./p

35466. Islamic Law, Customary Law and Afghan Informal Justice

Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
<p>As Afghanistan's nascent democracy works to establish the rule of law across the country, it finds itself contending with the ways that Islamic law converges and diverges from the tribal norms that shape the settling of disputes outside Kabul. Based on surveys conducted in Afghanistan, this report examines the points of tension and agreement between Islamic and customary laws, looking into both of their pasts to suggest a way forward for the Afghan state, particularly in granting greater rights and protections to women.</p>

35467. Neutrality in Afghanistan's Foreign Policy

Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
<p>President Obamas decision to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016 leaves that country once again wide open for an intensified regional race for strategic influence in the country. The majority of expertsboth Afghan and internationalagree that lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan require internationally backed regional arrangements. A recent forum involving high-profile Afghan politicians, former diplomats, and civil society leaders underscores this consensus and the long-term vision of an Afghan-led and Afghanistan-specific enduring neutrality. This report focuses on the historical aspects of neutrality as a first step toward neutrality-based diplomatic solutions for both the immediate Afghan conflict and the countrys long-term positioning./p

35468. The Intellectualist movement in Ethiopia, the Muslim Brotherhood and the issue of moderation

Author:
Terje Østebø and Wallelign Shemsedin
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
Abstract:
The Intellectualist movement is one of the major Islamic reform movements in contemporary Ethiopia. Informal and decentralised in character, it has attracted young students, professionals and urban intellectuals. The movement was inspired to a great extent by the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood, which were critically contextualised and applied to the Ethiopian context. This has entailed avoiding the more political aspects of Brotherhood thinking while emphasising the positive role of Islamic virtues in the formation of individual and societal piety. The Intellectualists have further been formative for Ethiopian Muslims' thinking about secularism, democracy and constitutional rule, and have played a significant role in mediating between various religious actors in Ethiopia, as well as negotiating the position of Islam in relation to the political authorities. Of particular importance is the way in which the movement has served as a moderating force in a rapidly changing and fluid political and religious landscape. This demonstrates the inherent complexity of the trend commonly labelled as Islamism, and points to the need for nuanced and localised approaches when trying to understand this trend.
Political Geography:
Ethiopia

35469. Haitian migrant workers in the Dominican Republic: a different framework

Author:
Wenche Hauge
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
Abstract:
In recent decades Haitian migration to the Dominican Republic has been unregulated. It has garnered more attention after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti caused a slight peak in cross-border migration. The ruling of the Dominican Republic's Constitutional Tribunal on September 23rd 2013, which effectively denationalised many Dominicans of Haitian ancestry, has increased this attention. However, a narrow focus has defined the debate in terms of human rights concerns versus the Dominican Republic's sovereignty. This policy brief shows why it is necessary to broaden the focus to include other aspects of the relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, such as asymmetrical trade relations and how they affect Haitian communities along the border between the two countries in particular. It also points out the importance of social representation, and how images that Dominican and Haitian populations have of each other are formed, and influence the situation of Haitian migrant workers and their families in the Dominican Republic. Finally, it argues that more attention should be paid to the role of local civil society in support of Haitian migrant workers in the Dominican Republic, because civil society has proven to be very active, using a multifaceted strategy in its work.

35470. Women, Violence and Conflict in Pakistan

Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Eight years into its democratic transition, violence against women is still endemic in Pakistan, amid a climate of impunity and state inaction. Discriminatory legislation and a dysfunctional criminal justice system have put women at grave risk. Targeted by violent extremists with an overt agenda of gender repression, women's security is especially threatened in the conflict zones in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). On 8 March, International Women's Day, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed that his government would take all necessary legislative and administrative steps to protect and empower women. If this pledge was in earnest, his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government should end institutionalised violence and discrimination against women, including by repealing unjust laws, countering extremist threats, particularly in KPK and FATA, and involving women and their specially relevant perspectives in design of state policies directly affecting their security, including strategies to deal with violent extremist groups. Women in the past were the principal victims of state policies to appease violent extremists. After democracy's return, there has been some progress, particularly through progressive legislation, much of it authored by committed women's rights activists in the federal and provincial legislatures, facilitated by their increased numbers in parliament. Yet, the best of laws will provide little protection so long as social attitudes toward women remain biased, police officers are not held accountable for failing to investigate gender-based crimes, the superior judiciary does not hold the subordinate judiciary accountable for failing to give justice to women survivors of violence, and discriminatory laws remain on the books. Laws, many remnants of General Zia-ul-Haq's Islamisation in the 1970s and 1980s, continue to deny women their constitutional right to gender equality and fuel religious intolerance and violence against them. Their access to justice and security will remain elusive so long as legal and administrative barriers to political and economic empowerment remain, particularly the Hudood Ordinances (1979), FATA's Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) (1901) and the Nizam-e-Adl (2009) in KPK's Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA). The government has a constitutional obligation and international commitments, including under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), to combat gender inequality and remove such barriers to women's empowerment. Repealing discriminatory legislation and enforcing laws that protect women, including by ensuring that they have access to a gender-responsive police and courts, are essential to ending the impunity that promotes violence against women. The extent to which rights violations go unpunished is particularly alarming in FATA and KPK, where women are subjected to state-sanctioned discrimination, militant violence, religious extremism and sexual violence. Militants target women's rights activists, political leaders and development workers without consequences. The prevalence of informal justice mechanisms in many parts of Pakistan, particularly in Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, are also highly discriminatory toward women; and the government's indiscriminate military operations, which have displaced millions, have further aggravated the challenges they face in the conflict zones. In KPK and FATA, and indeed countrywide, women's enhanced meaningful presence in decision-making, including political participation as voters and in public office, will be central to sustainable reform. Pakistan should invest in their empowerment and reflect their priorities in all government policies, including counter-insurgency and peacebuilding efforts. All too often, women comprise a majority of both the intended victims of the insurgency and the unintended victims of the counter-insurgency response. National and provincial legislation to enhance protections for women is a step in the right direction, but much more is needed to safeguard them against violence and injustice and ultimately to consolidate Pakistan's democratic transition.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution
Political Geography:
Pakistan