Voting for Peace

Voting for Peace
Author: Terrence Lyons
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2010-12-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815721099

Elections have been used as a mechanism to institutionalize a new political order following internal conflict in Cambodia, El Salvador, Angola, Mozambique, Bosnia, and now Liberia. This book analyzes the Liberian transition and the July 1997 elections in order to better understand the relationship between war termination and transitions to democracy and the role post-conflict elections play in promoting both of these goals. The Liberian elections represented the final stage of a seven-year, West African-led peace process. An overwhelming majority voted for former factional leader Charles Taylor in the belief that if Taylor did not win, war would erupt again. The Liberian transition demonstrates that post-conflict elections may play an important role in a process of war termination. In many cases, it may be necessary to move forward with war termination and "imperfect" elections in the short run and pursue goals relating to democratization after the new government has been put in place. This study uses a detailed examination of the difficult Liberian case to highlight the more general challenges of helping countries make the transition from civil conflict and authoritarian rule to peace and democracy. Studies in Foreign Policy

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Author: Pamela Scully
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Total Pages: 99
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 082144560X

In this timely addition to the Ohio Short Histories of Africa series, Pamela Scully takes us from the 1938 birth of Nobel Peace Prize winner and two-time Liberian president Ellen Johnson through the Ebola epidemic of 2014–15. Charting her childhood and adolescence, the book covers Sirleaf’s relationship with her indigenous grandmother and urban parents, her early marriage, her years studying in the United States, and her career in international development and finance, where she developed her skill as a technocrat. The later chapters cover her years in and out of formal Liberian politics, her support for women’s rights, and the Ebola outbreak. Sirleaf’s story speaks to many of the key themes of the twenty-first century. Among these are the growing power of women in the arenas of international politics and human rights; the ravaging civil wars in which sexual violence is used as a weapon; and the challenges of transitional justice in building postconflict societies. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is an astute examination of the life of a pioneering feminist politician.

The Law Reports of the Special Court for Sierra Leone

The Law Reports of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
Author: Charles Chernor Jalloh
Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
Total Pages: 4969
Release: 2016-03-11
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004221689

The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established through signature of a bilateral treaty between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone in early 2002, making it the third modern ad hoc international criminal tribunal. The tribunal has tried various persons, including former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor, for allegedly bearing "greatest responsibility" for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the latter half of the Sierra Leonean armed conflict. It completed its work in December 2013. A new Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone, based in Freetown and with offices in The Hague, has been created to carry out its essential “residual” functions. This volume, which consists of three books and a CD-ROM and is edited by two legal experts on the Sierra Leone court, presents, for the first time in a single place, a comprehensive collection of all the interlocutory decisions and final trial and appeals judgments issued by the court in the case Prosecutor v. Charles Ghankay Taylor. The Taylor case is the jewel in the crown of the SCSL, as it was the first ever trial and conviction of a former African head of state for crimes committed in a neighboring state. It is also one of a handful of such significant cases in international criminal law. The Taylor Law Report contains the full text of all substantive judicial decisions, including the majority, separate and concurring as well as dissenting opinions and probably the longest trial judgment ever issued by an international criminal court. It additionally provides relevant information for a better understanding of the case, such as the indictments, a list of admitted exhibits and a list of documents on the case file. This book set, which is the third in a series of edited law reports that follows volume 1 (on Prosecutor v. Brima, Kamara and Kanu – the so-called “AFRC case” published in November 2012) and volume 2 (Prosecutor v. Norman, Fofana and Kondewa – the “CDF case” published in March 2014) seeks to capture the entire jurisprudential legacy of the tribunal, fills the gap for a single and authoritative reference source of the tribunal’s jurisprudence. These law reports, the last volumes of which will be published in 2015 and 2016, are intended for national and international judges, lawyers, academics, students and other researchers as well as transitional justice practitioners in courts, tribunals and truth commissions as well as anyone seeking an accurate record of the trials conducted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. N.B.: The hardback copy of this title contains a CD-ROM with the scanned decisions that are reproduced in the book and the trial transcripts. The e-book version does not. Buy the complete set of 4 volumes (10 books in total) with a discount see isbn 978-90-04-22161-1. The complete set consists of: Volume 1 isbn 9789004189119 (2 books) Volume 2 isbn 9789004221635 (2 books) Volume 3 isbn 9789004221673 (3 books) Volume 4 isbn 9789004221659 (3 books)

Electoral Authoritarianism

Electoral Authoritarianism
Author: Andreas Schedler
Publisher: L. Rienner Publishers
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2006
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Today, electoral authoritarianism represents the most common form of political regime in the developing world - and the one we know least about. Filling in the lacuna, this book presents cutting-edge research on the internal dynamics of electoral authoritarian regimes.

Citizenship Law in Africa

Citizenship Law in Africa
Author: Bronwen Manby
Publisher: African Minds
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2012-07-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1936133296

Few African countries provide for an explicit right to a nationality. Laws and practices governing citizenship leave hundreds of thousands of people in Africa without a country to which they belong. Statelessness and discriminatory citizenship practices underlie and exacerbate tensions in many regions of the continent, according to this report by the Open Society Institute. Citizenship Law in Africa is a comparative study by the Open Society Justice Initiative and Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project. It describes the often arbitrary, discriminatory, and contradictory citizenship laws that exist from state to state, and recommends ways that African countries can bring their citizenship laws in line with international legal norms. The report covers topics such as citizenship by descent, citizenship by naturalization, gender discrimination in citizenship law, dual citizenship, and the right to identity documents and passports. It describes how stateless Africans are systematically exposed to human rights abuses: they can neither vote nor stand for public office; they cannot enroll their children in school, travel freely, or own property; they cannot work for the government.--Publisher description.

Elections Today

Elections Today
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 28
Release: 1999-06
Genre:
ISBN:

News from the world of elections.

Electoral System Design

Electoral System Design
Author: Andrew Reynolds
Publisher: Stockholm : International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2005
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Publisher Description

Postconflict Elections, Democratization, and International Assistance

Postconflict Elections, Democratization, and International Assistance
Author: Krishna Kumar
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
Total Pages: 286
Release: 1998
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781555877781

The third in a series of publications coming out of the ongoing evaluation studies at USAID's Center for Development Information and Evaluation. Based on the hypothesis that elections in a postconflict setting are fundamentally different from those organized under normal circumstances, 13 contributions examine the planning, organization, conduct, and execution of such elections; the critical roles played by international donors; and the longer-term outcomes, particularly their impact on political and social reconciliation. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Oxford Handbook of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

The Oxford Handbook of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations
Author: Joachim Koops
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 1031
Release: 2015-07-09
Genre: Law
ISBN: 019150954X

The Oxford Handbook on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations presents an innovative, authoritative, and accessible examination and critique of the United Nations peacekeeping operations. Since the late 1940s, but particularly since the end of the cold war, peacekeeping has been a central part of the core activities of the United Nations and a major process in global security governance and the management of international relations in general. The volume will present a chronological analysis, designed to provide a comprehensive perspective that highlights the evolution of UN peacekeeping and offers a detailed picture of how the decisions of UN bureaucrats and national governments on the set-up and design of particular UN missions were, and remain, influenced by the impact of preceding operations. The volume will bring together leading scholars and senior practitioners in order to provide overviews and analyses of all 65 peacekeeping operations that have been carried out by the United Nations since 1948. As with all Oxford Handbooks, the volume will be agenda-setting in importance, providing the authoritative point of reference for all those working throughout international relations and beyond.