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41911. Fostering of Civil Society by Muslim Women’s NGO-s in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author:
Muhidin Mulalic
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bilgi
Institution:
Sakarya University (SAU)
Abstract:
The fostering of civil society is vital in multiethnic, multicultural, multi-religious and post-conflict societies such as that of BosniaHerzegovina. Therefore, this paper examines the role of Muslim women’s Non Government Organisations (NGOs) in fostering civil society in BosniaHerzegovina. In this regard, this paper puts in perspective the present role of Muslim women’s NGOs by providing the theoretical background and a survey of NGOs in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In order to determine the role and function of Muslim women’s NGOs, the author examines the main criteria of civil society functions such as control of political power, monitoring of political participation and elections, promoting anti-corruption awareness, advocating values of human rights, tolerance and understanding, offering civic training, promoting civic education and public issues through media, and promoting conflict resolution and inter-faith dialogue. By analyzing civil society functions this paper answers the question of Muslim women’s NGOs involvement in socio-political aspects of a democratic state and fostering of civil society in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The author uses an ethnographic methodology, written sources and interviews in analyzing two leading Muslim Women’s NGOs such as Nahla Education Center for Women and Kewser-Zehra Association of Muslim Women. The results of this paper indicate that although Muslim women’s NGOs in theory do not meet some of the criteria to be considered a civil society actor, especially those of a political and legal nature, they are, nonetheless, significantly involved through their various activities in sociopolitical aspects of the democratic state and, as such, they have contributed significantly towards fostering of civil society in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, Religion, NGOs, and State Building
Political Geography:
Europe and Bosnia and Herzegovina

41912. From going between to working together: Learning from structures and attitudes in South Africa’s transition

Author:
Jannie Malan
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal on Conflict Resolution
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
In the old South Africa, with its inhabitants divided into two worlds by an ideology-driven white minority, H.W. van der Merwe was one of the first white Afrikaners who took the risk of crossing the boundary which in the culture of his own group was upheld as divinely ordained. On account of the radical change in his socio-political convictions, and his resulting research and teaching, he was appointed as director of an institution aiming at improving intergroup relations through applied research and educational programmes. He also took the lead in founding an association for conflict intervention. His remarkable contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle and the eventual resolving of the white-black conflict was not only a structural one, however, but also an interrelated attitudinal one. His outreaching understanding and his courageous quest for justice and peace enabled him to bring adversaries together, and also to confront the unflinching guardians of apartheid. It behoves us, therefore, to celebrate his example and to emulate it in our current context. We may be grateful for the degree to which transition has already taken shape in the new South Africa, but so much remains to be done to minimise socio-cultural distances between sectors of fellow-South Africans. H.W.’s legacy may indeed help us to respect ‘them’ and ‘us’ where appropriate, but also to promote an ‘all of us’ orientation as far as fellow-humanly possible.
Topic:
Apartheid, Transitional Justice, Social Cohesion, and Transition
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

41913. Linking poverty and violence: The South African scenario

Author:
Ampie Muller
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal on Conflict Resolution
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
In present-day South Africa we are daily confronted with individual or group scenes of violence in townships and ‘shanty-towns’ where people live in poverty. Frequently, it involves people clamouring for the redemption of the promises made to them by politicians prior to the first democratic election in 1994 – promises of a wonderful ‘new South Africa’ that would meet their needs. In reality, their common experience is of a housing shortage, poor education, few jobs and very little prospect of alleviating their profound poverty. It seems as if in our country violence has become the power of the powerless. It would, of course, be entirely misleading to give the impression that violence is a phenomenon created by the ‘New South Africa’, for under the previous government we experienced violence on an enormous scale, in particular state-sponsored violence, and structural violence. But it was not accompanied with promises that this would become better. At present it is this gap between the ‘promised land’ and harsh reality that to a large extent seems to fuel the violence. This article will explore the possible and potential links between poverty and violence, in order to gain deeper insight into their intrinsic meaning and the circularity of linkage between the two.
Topic:
Poverty, Sociology, and Violence
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

41914. Violence as a form of communication: Making sense of violence in South Africa

Author:
Hugo van der Merwe
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal on Conflict Resolution
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
This article explores the meaning of violence in South African society against the backdrop of its violent past. Using a perspective suggested by H.W. van de Merwe* and Sue Williams in an article in 1987 – understanding violence as a form of communication – the article seeks to analyse how the persistence and scale of violence can be understood as a legacy of our past. This approach can also help foster spaces for more constructive engagement with those who resort to violence in the face of the society’s failure to provide effective channels for more constructive communication.
Topic:
Apartheid, Poverty, Communications, and Violence
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

41915. Mediation and conflict resolution in South and Southern Africa: A personal account of the past 30 years

Author:
Charles Nupen
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal on Conflict Resolution
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
This article is a personal account of my involvement with mediation and facilitation over the past 30 years. It does not purport to be a comprehensive or systematic account of the growing impact of these processes both in preventing and resolving conflict in our country and beyond. It therefore does not focus on organisations outside my own spheres of involvement, like the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes and the Centre for Conflict Resolution, whose important contributions I readily acknowledge. The insights and experiences reflected in the piece nevertheless point to an ever widening application of the processes across a range of disciplines and tell something of the rich contribution they have made to making South Africa a better, and safer, place.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Memoir, and Mediation
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

41916. Public participation as participatory conflict resolution: Shortcomings and best practices at the local level in South Africa

Author:
Sifiso Mbuyisa
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal on Conflict Resolution
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
In South Africa the constitutional order brought about by the transition to democracy, and the subsequent policy and legislation frameworks, have enabled ordinary people to participate in governance and policy making. Yet, according to some studies, the importance of participation – agreed to by politicians, practised and promoted by academics – has yet to be translated into a lived reality at the local level. In this paper, I write about the debates on participation, its advantages, and disadvantages. This paper offers an additional resource to public participation practitioners and beneficiaries, aiding them in the use of negotiation, mediation, and generic conflict resolution approaches to resolve public participation stalemates, and in the process, to strengthen and legitimise those public participation processes. Drawing on the existing literature, I describe what works and why; I also point out the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. Ultimately, the objective is to share the complementary nature of conflict resolution and public participation, and show how – if they are combined effectively – public participation can be enhanced. While I strongly believe that the literature supports my contention that conflict resolution principles and practices are useful for fair and equitable public participation, I do not have authoritative empirical evidence to state this as fact. Nonetheless, I believe that the ‘best practices’ outlined in the paper are useful and valuable tools and should be implemented as far as possible.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Apartheid, Democracy, Ethnicity, Conflict, and Participation
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

41917. The mediator’s moral dilemma: An essay in memory of H.W. van der Merwe

Author:
Andries Odendaal
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal on Conflict Resolution
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
‘Today, with a democratic government in place, it is hard to remember how unpopular concepts such as negotiation and conflict resolution were even a decade ago.’ H.W. van der Merwe, who wrote this in 2000 (110), was referring to the situation during the 1970s and 1980s in South Africa. The then South African government and the liberation movements both shared a common distrust of ‘mediators’ or peacemakers. The government had banned the liberation movements. Establishing contact or facilitating dialogue with these movements was not only illegal, it was treason. The liberation movements similarly rejected peacemaking. The reigning slogan was ‘justice before peace’; and the dominant strategy non-collaboration and armed struggle. Would-be peacemakers, in their opinion, diluted their resolve to achieve victory. Possibly his greatest contribution to the field of mediation1 in South Africa was the manner in which H.W. van der Merwe established, in the face of this huge distaste for mediation, its validity and integrity. He was Director of the Centre for Intergroup Studies at the University of Cape Town from 1968 to 1992, the period in South African history when the struggle for the liberation of the black people of South Africa from colonialism and apartheid reached its climax. Under his leadership the Centre played a pioneering role not only in using, but justifying dialogue, facilitation and mediation as mechanisms to address the conflict. A trained sociologist, Van der Merwe rooted his case for mediation not only in sociological and political theory, but also in religious thought and practice. The latter was important because, at the time, the debate was as theological as it was political.
Topic:
Apartheid, Democracy, Mediation, Morality, and Quakers
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

41918. A just peace agreement, or just a peace agreement: Reflections on the work of H.W. van der Merwe

Author:
Vasu Gounden
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal on Conflict Resolution
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
H.W. van der Merwe can be considered one of the founding fathers of the conflict resolution field in South Africa. His role will always be that of the ‘unsung hero’. True to his Quaker religious background, he did not publicise his efforts to build reconciliation across the apartheid divide in South Africa, and the quiet dialogue he fostered between Afrikaners in South Africa and the then exiled African National Congress (ANC). I first met him in 1990 in Washington, D.C., where I was immediately moved by this quiet but passionate man. I then had the opportunity to work with him in 1991 and to learn about and debate his many well-developed ideas surrounding peace and justice. The relationship between peace and justice, both in the pursuit of peace agreements and more broadly in terms of fundamental questions about society, has long been a subject of rigorous academic and practical debate, one in which Professor Van der Merwe made landmark contributions. This debate is founded upon two specific dimensions: the interpretation of the relationship between peace and justice, and the interpretation of a mediator’s mandate in pursuing specific goals of peace and justice.
Topic:
Treaties and Agreements, Peace, and African National Congress
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

41919. ‘Sowing, cultivating, harvesting and spreading the seeds of peace’: In honour of H.W. van der Merwe

Author:
Valerie Dovey
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal on Conflict Resolution
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
This is a personal narrative. As it unfolds, I weave in some qualities that I believe characterised H.W. van der Merwe and his work as a pioneer in the development of peace studies and conflict resolution in South Africa. It is also a reflection on my association with H.W. and the influence this association has had on my own amazing journey in the field of peace education and conflict resolution.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Memoir, Mediation, and Narrative
Political Geography:
Africa

41920. Black Money Whitening Law: A Study From Bangladesh

Author:
Attiya Waris and Abdul Latif
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Tax avoidance and evasion are deeply entrenched in Bangladesh, where 37% of GDP comes from ‘black money’. In this country of massive tax evasion, black money is not seen as tax evasion. Instead, tax amnesties are offered to whiten black money in an attempt to raise funds that revenue collectors would otherwise have found difficult or impossible to capture. The evidence on which this policy brief builds was obtained through field research, interviews in particular.
Topic:
Economics, Tax Systems, Money, and Revenue Management
Political Geography:
Bangladesh and South Asia