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Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation

UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation-Cutting : Accelerating Change : Annual Report 2010 : Nurturing Change from Within.

Upphovsperson: Malmström, Maria Frederika
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | New York : UNFPA-UNICEF
År: 2011
Ämnesord: circumcision, female genital cutting, Social change, body, agency
The objective of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C): Accelerating Change is to contribute to the abandonment of FGM/C in 17 African countries within a generation. FGM/C is a deeply embedded in social norm – woven into all aspects of social, cultural and political life. Although the practice is a violation of human rights and causes untold harm to the health and wellbeing of women and girls, it has long been viewed as a cultural necessity. In this context, simply exhorting people to change their beliefs and behaviour is not eff ective and can, in fact, be counterproductive. People must arrive at these decisions on their own; public support and consensus are key to promoting sustainable change. In its work to change such a deeply ingrained cultural practice as FGM/C, from its inception the Joint Programme has supported a holistic, culturally sensitive and participative approach grounded on a firm foundation of human rights. This approach ensures that the principles of human rights guide all programmatic activities and analysis in the target countries. The aim is to create local environments characterized by participation, empowerment, non-discrimination, equity, accountability and the rule of law. This holistic, participative approach has proven to be a most eff ective means for ending FGM/C in a sustainable manner. It also tends to promote wider community empowerment. Similarly, a supportive national environment based on an accurate, country-specific, culturally sensitive understanding of the causes and eff ects of FGM/C is also crucial to accelerating the abandonment of the practice.

Re-conceptualising Identity, Citizenship and Regional Integration in the Greater Horn Region

Upphovsperson: Bereketeab, Redie
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Woodbridge
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Horn of Africa
The Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) is engulfed by three interrelated crises: various inter-state wars, civil wars, and inter-communal conflicts; an economic crisis manifested in widespread debilitating poverty, chronic food insecurity and famines; and environmental degradation that is ravaging the region. While it is apparent that the countries of the region are unlikely to be able to deal with the crises individually, there is consensus that their chances of doing so improve markedly with collective regional action. The contributors to this volume address the need for regional integration in the GHA. They identify those factors that can foster integration, such as the proper management of equitable citizenship rights, as well as examining those that impede it, including the region's largely ineffective integration scheme, IGAD, and explore how the former can be strengthened and the latter transformed; explain how regional integration can mitigate the conflicts; and examine how integration can help to energise the region's economy.

Between Protection and Stabilization? Addressing the Tensions of Contemporary Western Interventions in Africa: An Introduction

Upphovspersoner: Gelot, Linnéa | Bachmann, Jan
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation
År: 2012
Ämnesord:
This special issue sets out to analyze—from different epistemological perspectives and based on different case studies—tensions that have arisen in a number of recent security interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. The character of international peace and security missions in the Global South has changed significantly after the end of the Cold War. On the one hand, we witness a greater willingness to engage in order to terminate or prevent violent conflict. This willingness is grounded in a broader understanding of security in which the protection of the population is prioritized over the claim to security of a sovereign state. A state’s sovereignty is increasingly interpreted as entailing a responsibility to protect the citizenry. On the other hand, a broadened international will to intervene in conflicts in the Global South raises a number of controversial questions regarding when and how and on whose behalf to intervene. What should be the projected end state of such liberal interventions? What does a responsibility to protect entail, conceptually and in practice? Who are the principal actors in complex and ambitious missions aimed at creating stability, peace, or (human) security? When should a stabilization mission end? What are the consequences when (short-term) security or humanitarian interests and (long-term) state-building or development interest are all legitimized through a discourse of protecting vulnerable populations? And, perhaps most importantly, what stakes do the actors directly affected by the conflict and the international response have? These are some of the questions the contributors address and analyze in this special issue.

Self-determination and secession : A 21st Century Challenge to the Post-colonial State in Africa

Upphovsperson: Bereketeab, Redie
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala, Sweden
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Independence, Self-determination, decolonization, Secession, boundaries, Nation-building, Post-colonialism, Sovereignty
Two approaches have characterised analysis of the postcolonial state in Africa. One emphasises the territorial integrity of the postcolonial state, with inherited colonial borders being viewed as sacrosanct and state-centred rights being given primacy. The other questions the sacrosanctity of colonial borders and seeks to promote the primacy of people-centred rights. The increasing frequency in recent years of quests for self-determination and secession in Africa poses an existential challenge to the postcolonial state on that continent. This Policy Note addresses this emerging trend.

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