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NTS Bulletin

NTS Bulletin November 2009 (Issue 2)
Issues:
Note: Please click on the respective titles or headers for the full report.

Disclaimer: All links and news reports are correct at the time of publication.

MAIN HIGHLIGHT

The Fight Against Corruption Continues (various news sources)

Over 1,000 delegates from 125 countries gathered in Doha, Qatar, from 9-13 November 2009 for the third session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption. This Conference is the third attempt to finalise the world's first and only international anti-corruption convention and to establish a review mechanism for its enforcement. At the end of the Conference, participating States agreed to a mechanism to monitor implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

Following the Doha Conference, Transparency International launched its 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) on 17 November 2009. The CPI measures the perceived level of public-sector corruption in 180 countries and territories around the world. The vast majority of the 180 countries included in this year’s edition scored below 5 on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption). Fragile, unstable states that are scarred by war and ongoing conflict linger at the bottom of the index. These are: Somalia, with a score of 1.1, Afghanistan at 1.3, Myanmar at 1.4 and Sudan tied with Iraq at 1.5. These results demonstrate that countries which are perceived to have the highest levels of public-sector corruption are also those plagued by long-standing conflicts, which have torn apart their governance infrastructure. Highest scorers are New Zealand at 9.4, Denmark at 9.3, Singapore and Sweden tied at 9.2 and Switzerland at 9.0. These scores reflect political stability, long-established conflict of interest regulations and solid, functioning public institutions. Globally and nationally, institutions of oversight and legal frameworks that are actually enforced, coupled with smarter, more effective regulation, will ensure lower levels of corruption. This will lead to a much needed increase of trust in public institutions, sustained economic growth and more effective development assistance. Most importantly, it will alleviate the enormous scale of human suffering in the countries that perform most poorly in the CPI.

Additional Info:

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MIGRATION

News & Commentaries

Papers & Reports

This Global Detention Project working paper attempts to map the web of international and regional instruments and mechanisms that together make up the ‘solid legal framework’ relevant to the phenomenon of migration-related detention. Among the documents examined are treaties and protocols, UN declarations, and Charter-based mechanisms, regional norms and standards and international humanitarian law.

This paper examines the economic effects that large refugee movements have on host communities in terms of the costs of aid and non-aid related food items.

Events & Announcements

Latest Publication

Edited by Susan Forbes Martin & John Tirman.

Based on extensive field research, this book brings together the problems that women and children experience as they are caught in the crossfire of conflict, as well as potential solutions. Derived from a project to advise UN agencies, and based on field research and the extensive knowledge of the authors on the issue, the book is targeted at a wide audience ranging from students of international relations to policymakers at the national and international levels.

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INTERNAL AND CROSS-BORDER CONFLICT

News and Commentaries

Papers & Reports

In the aftermath of the July 2009 protests in western Xinjiang province, Chinese security forces detained hundreds of people on suspicion of participation in the unrest. Dozens of these detainees, and possibly many more, have since ‘disappeared’ without a trace. The protests of 5 - 7 July 2009, in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, were one of the worst episodes of ethnic violence in China in decades. Information about the Xinjiang protests and their aftermath remains fragmentary. On 5 July, protests by Uighurs, an ethnic minority group, against the killing of Uighur workers at the Guangdong toy factory appear to have begun peacefully. It remains unclear how the protest turned violent, with Uighur sources blaming the riot police for the excessive use of force against the protestors. Chinese authorities were quick to accuse a variety of external forces of masterminding and sponsoring the unrest. They specifically blamed Rebiya Kadeer, a former political prisoner in Xinjiang and a prominent Uighur rights activist living in exile in the United States, for planning and organizing the protests. No evidence, however, has been provided to support those claims, and many analysts believe that the root causes of the protests were largely related to China’s longstanding discriminatory policies toward the Uighur minority. By the evening of July 5, large groups of Uighur youths launched brutal attacks against Han Chinese residents in southern parts of Urumqi, leaving scores dead or injured, and setting dozens of buildings and cars on fire. Security forces did not reestablish control until the morning of July 6. On July 7, they attempted to prevent retaliatory assaults by Han Chinese residents of Urumqi, although at least some Uighurs fell victim to these attacks. The latest official figures put the death toll from the protests at 197 people, the majority of them Han. More than 1,600 were injured. Uighur groups continue to question the official death toll, saying it underestimates the number of Uighur victims.

Although the Protection of Civilians (PoC) today is largely embedded in the UN system as a whole, there are a number of issues still critical to address at the institutional level for the PoC to inform a shared culture of protection effectively. These include addressing the extent to which preparations for civilian protection are an integral component of mission planning, and whether protection activities are part of the mission’s mandate per se or a mere part of its many tasks. Also of key concern is the extent to which operational capacity is achieved and designed to enhance protection. At headquarter level, two main challenges remain. How can PoC become part of a shared interagency culture, rather than remaining the sole prerogative or task of UN OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) without thereby losing its institutional momentum, and how can UN DPKO (United Nations Department of Peace Keeping Operations) take greater ownership to PoC without this being prejudicial to the ability of the concept to include both military and humanitarian segments of peace operations. Finally, as the effective protection of civilians in mission depends not only on the UNSC’s ability to adopt new measures aimed at protecting civilians, but also on the extent to which these measures are effective in protecting vulnerable groups on the ground, there needs to be clearer institutional mechanisms for learning from experience. As of today, the reporting from the field is largely lost to those drafting resolutions. The ability of UN missions to protect civilians in peacekeeping operations will only become fully effective once the UN system manages to set in place institutional structures for learning on the basis of the experiences on the ground, and cooperate on PoC on a case-to-case basis.

Conflict prevention occurs in peaceful situations where rising hostilities and other indicators suggest that substantial physical violence is possible. However, conflict prevention is still a relatively marginal international concern for several reasons. These include difficulty in determining the type of intervention to use in which circumstances, dispersed activism by diverse professions, overstretched resources and a lack of clear guidelines for implementation. Direct prevention, such as diplomacy or intervention, includes time-sensitive and actor-or event-focused measures. Structural measures address deeper societal conditions that generate tensions, such as rebuilding faulty institutions or correcting gross disparities in the standard of living. Both of these types can be applied at the ad hoc (regional or country-specific) or a priori (international) levels. Different levels of early conflict require different prevention methods For example: Latent conflicts occur when changes generate unacknowledged, underlying strains among social groups. This level benefits the most from a mixture of structural and direct measures aimed at alleviating socio-economic sources of conflict or institutional policy deficits. Manifest limited conflicts occur when groups publicly voice diverging positions. These conflicts benefit from direct measures towards non-binding interactions, facilitation of dialogue, and if necessary coercive diplomacy. Structural measures are used to support direct measures. Escalating violent conflict occurs where major hostilities are imminent. Direct measures like formal diplomacy, coercive diplomacy and careful military intervention are most effective.

In order for fragile states and the concept of state weakness to be properly understood, they need to be considered in the contexts of political economy and world history. Four apparently disparate cases – Guatemala, Haiti, Kosovo and Angola – show surprising similarities, and highlight common lessons for international state-building efforts. In all four cases, behind a façade of ‘normal’ state institutions, public life and development are increasingly subject to shadow economies and shadow forces with strong international linkages. There are unfortunately no existing remedies for state weakness. However, methods of improvement should include autonomous non-state actors, sustained efforts to build state capacities and restore the fabric of society, and significantly improved governance of global flows.

As the sixtieth anniversary of the Geneva Conventions is recognized, the relevance of international humanitarian law continues to be challenged by the Burmese junta. Despite ratifying these rules of war, the Burmese Army persists in indiscriminately attacking civilians and causing massive displacement with apparent impunity. The Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) has been collaborating with ethnic community-based organisations to document internal displacement in eastern Burma since 2002. This year's survey updates information about the scale and distribution of displacement in 38 townships and reviews trends through an analysis of interviews with over 3,100 households between 2005 and 2009. It also includes a conflict assessment based on community consultations in areas of ongoing fighting as well as ceasefire areas. The main threats to human security in eastern Burma are related to militarisation. TBBC's partner groups have identified 235 State Peace and Development Council battalions that are currently based in eastern Burma. In areas of ongoing conflict, Burmese Army patrols target civilians as a means of undermining the opposition. Land confiscation and extortion are more widespread impacts of the Burmese Army's so called ‘self reliance’ policy. Increasing pressure on ceasefire groups to transform into Border Guard Forces has already resulted in the resumption of hostilities in the Kokang region of north-eastern Burma, and raised fears about Burmese Army deployments into other border areas.

Events & Announcements

Latest Publications

By James R. Lee.

This book examines the evolution of the relationship between climate change and conflict, and attempts to visualize future trends. Owing to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, current trends in climate change will not appreciably alter over the next half century even if drastic action is taken now. Changes in climate will produce unique types and modes of conflict, redefine the value of important resources, and create new challenges to maintaining social order and stability. This book examines the consequences of climate change and argues that it has and will produce two types of different types of conflict: 'cold wars' and 'hot wars'. Cold wars will occur in northern and southern latitudes as warming draws countries into possible conflict due to expanding interests in exploiting new resources and territories (inter-state conflict). Hot wars will break out around the equator as warming expands and intensifies dry areas, increasing competition for scarce resources (intra-state conflict). Conflict is not inevitable, but it will also be a consequence of how states, international institutions and people react to changes in climate. Climate change and conflict have always shaped human experiences. This book lays out the parameters of the relationship, shows its history, and forecasts its trends, offering future conditions and opportunities for changing the historical path we are on.

By Nicholas Jones.

The Courts of Genocide focuses on the judicial response to the genocide in Rwanda in order to address the search for justice following mass atrocities. The central concern of the book is how the politics of justice can get in the way of its administration. Considering both the ICTR (International Criminal tribunal for Rwanda), and all of the politics surrounding its work, and the Rwandan approach (the Gacaca courts and the national judiciary) and the politics that surround it, The Courts of Genocide addresses the relationship between these three 'courts' which, whilst oriented by similar concerns, stand in stark opposition to each other. In this respect, the book addresses a series of questions, including: What aspects of the Rwandan genocide itself played a role in directing the judicial response that has been adopted? On what basis did the government of Rwanda decide to address the genocide in a legalistic manner? Around what goals has each judicial response been organized? What are the specific procedures and processes of this response? And, finally, what challenges does its multifaceted character create for those involved in its operation, well as for Rwandan society? Addressing conceptual issues of restorative and retributive justice, liberal legalism and cosmopolitan law, The Courts of Genocide constitutes a substantially grounded reflection upon the problem of 'doing justice' after genocide.

Edited by Donna Pankhurst.

This volume contributes to the growing literature on women, conflict and peacebuilding by focusing on the moments after a peace accord, or some other official ending of a conflict, often denoted as ‘post-conflict’ or ‘post-war’. Such moments often herald great hope for holding to account those who committed grave wrongs during the conflict, and for a better life in the future. For many women, both of these hopes are often very quickly shattered in starkly different ways to the hopes of men. Such periods are often characterized by violence and insecurities, and the official ending of a war often fails to bring freedom from sexual violence for many women. Within such a context, efforts on the part of women, and those made on their behalf, to hold to account those who commit crimes against them, and to access their rights are difficult to make, are often dangerous, and are also often deployed with little effect. Gendered Peace explores international contexts, and a variety of local ones, in which such struggles take place, and evaluates their progress. The volume highlights the surprising success in the development of international legal advances for women, but contrasts this with the actual experience of women in cases from Sierra Leone, Rwanda, South Africa, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, East Timor, Peru, Central America and the Balkans.

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HUMAN TRAFFICKING

News & Commentaries

Papers & Reports

This paper, jointly developed by Anti-Slavery International, Transparency International and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime addresses several issues pertaining to the inter-linkages of corruption and trafficking in persons, including the corrupt actors involved in both the trafficking process and the criminal justice process. It further provides an overview of the legal frameworks to combat both crimes and the inter-linkages between key international instruments.

This research aims to understand the differences in the perceptions of bordersbetween the Thai government, Shan migrant workers, Thai employers, and informal brokers, which perpetuate the flow of illegal migration. A focus on the different perceptions of borders in the migration phenomenon may lead toward a more comprehensive view of the international migration process, particularly for ASEAN to have more realistic border and migration policies.

Events & Announcements

Latest Publication

This Casebook contains summaries of judicial decisions from ten countries in Latin America, as well as a selection of relevant judgements and reports from the Inter-American human rights system. The introduction sets out the context of the national legal systems of the countries concerned and gives an overview of the types of cases selected. The case summaries highlight how the courts have relied on Convention No. 169. The Casebook will be useful for judges, lawyers and legal educators, and a source of information for indigenous and tribal peoples and their organizations in the context of advocacy and litigation. The publication is also intended as a way to share the experiences of Latin America with interested stakeholders in other regions.

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WATER SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Papers & Reports

The study examines the global pattern and impacts of droughts through mapping several drought-related characteristics – either at a country level or at regular grid scales. It appears that arid and semi-arid areas also tend to have a higher probability of drought occurrence. It is illustrated that the African continent is lagging behind the rest of the world on many indicators related to drought-preparedness and that agricultural economies, overall, are much more vulnerable to adverse societal impacts of meteorological droughts. The study also examines the ability of various countries to satisfy their water needs during droughts using storage-related indices.

Water storage has a vital role to play in improving global food security and building resilience for adaptation to climate change. A wide range of storage options are available, each with strengths and weaknesses. Because of the uncertainty associated with climate change, planners need to focus on flexibility in storage systems and give careful consideration to the sustainability, effectiveness and suitability of different storage types.

Events & Announcements

Latest Publications

By François Molle & Chu Thai Hoanh.

In the last decade, many Southeast Asian countries have remodelled part or all of their water policies. Development banks, notably the Asian Development Bank, and multilateral cooperation agencies have been quite influential in supporting the adoption of policies and reforms that embody principles held as modern and internationally sanctioned. This includes the drafting of national policy and laws, the creation of ‘apex bodies’, the establishment of river basin organizations (RBOs), the privatization of public companies, and increased financial contribution from users (e.g., through water pricing and the formation of water user groups). The report shows that the promotion of Integrated Water Resources Management icons such as RBOs by donors in Vietnam has been quite disconnected from the existing institutional framework.

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TRANSNATIONAL CRIME

News & Commentaries

Papers & Reports

This paper analyses Nigeria's implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative process, a global initiative that seeks to promote transparency in company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.

A shocking decline in the Russian Federation’s wild tiger population highlights the importance of eliminating trade in and demand for tiger parts. According to a report released by the Siberian Tiger Monitoring Program, Siberian tiger numbers in the Russian Far East, which in 2005 stood at between 428-502, has declined significantly due to poaching of tigers for their skins, bones and meat as well as habitat degradation.

It sometimes seems that the only people who want to stay in Somalia are pirates. While the Gulf of Aden is notorious as a haven for modern-day Blackbeards, the past year has also seen a dramatic upsurge in people smuggling, which has been costlier in human lives and far less reported in the international media. Conflict and climate are the driving forces.

Events & Announcements

Latest Publications

Cartels are illegal and costly. They inflate prices for consumers, exact an economic toll on countries and undermine the integrity of companies. Cartels can form in any sector, ranging from health care and transport, to construction and telecommunications. They leave no industry untouched or consumer unburdened. When companies engage in collusion by conspiring to fix prices, markets become inefficient and consumers bear unjustified price hikes that can reach up to 100 per cent. To effectively combat cartels, antitrust and anticorruption authorities should find new opportunities for collaboration and employ a host of tools that both create incentives for disclosure of cartel activity and apply severe penalties for those who continue to collude.

In many countries, crime prevention has traditionally been seen as the responsibility of the police. However, as a result of increasing innovation, research and experience throughout the world, it is now recognized that crime has multiple dimensions. Many other sectors of society have an impact on crime levels and therefore have a responsibility to act to help prevent crime. This tool is designed to assess crime prevention needs, identify areas for technical assistance, describe interventions that incorporate United Nations standards and norms on crime prevention, and provide further training on these issues. Its development is a step towards more integrated approaches to crime prevention. The tool is the newest component of the UNODC Criminal Justice Assessment Toolkit, whose overall purpose is to aid in assessing countries' needs in the areas of criminal justice and crime prevention so that appropriate and effective technical assistance can be provided.

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About Us
The Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies is a research centre of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Please visit the Centre’s website at www.rsis.edu.sg/nts/home.html, for more information or email us at NTS_Centre@ntu.edu.sg.

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