Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution: Africa — Regional Strategies for the Prevention of Displacement and Protection of Displaced Persons: The Cases of the OAU, ECOWAS, SADC, and IGAD

This Article seeks to examine the preparedness of certain African regional actors to protect displaced persons in times of armed conflict, and to prescribe formulas to strengthen the capabilities of such actors. The objective is to assess the conflict maintenance capacities of African regional actors and their partners to provide physical and legal protection to displaced persons in times of armed conflict, and likewise to recommend strategies to increase protection

Changing Counterspeech

A cornerstone of First Amendment doctrine is that counterspeech — speech that responds to speech, including disfavored, unpopular, or offensive speech — is preferable to government censorship or speech regulation. The counterspeech doctrine is often invoked to justify overturning or limiting legislation, regulation, or other government action. Counterspeech forms part of the rationale for the marketplace of ideas that the First Amendment is arguably designed to promote. Yet critics assert that counterspeech is hardly an effective remedy for the harms caused by hate speech and other offensive words that are expressed in American society, given the realities of how speech is expressed. While increases in speech may be beneficial, limits on attention, structural inequalities, and the chilling effects that hate speech can create for counterspeakers can inhibit effective counterspeech from thriving. This Article examines the evolution of the counterspeech doctrine throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and how academics, advocates, and the public have engaged with its premises and arguments since its popularization in First Amendment doctrine. It argues that the shifting justifications for counterspeech and the lack of clarity regarding its dynamics and defenses explains the growing criticisms and disapprobation of the doctrine. Yet counterspeech is also one of the most settled free speech doctrines — so much so that it has influence beyond the bounds of First Amendment-covered entities. The Article begins by discussing how the Supreme Court initially formulated counterspeech in relation to its philosophical origins, and its development and evolution into a core doctrinal tenet. The Article then analyzes critiques of counterspeech that have proliferated as it has ascended to doctrinal permanence. The Article concludes by evaluating how counterspeech has become central to speech regulation in venues that are not subject to the First Amendment, and how our understanding of counterspeech should shift away from treating it as a cure-all to disfavored speech

Understanding the Intersectionalities of Sexual Violence Reporting: A Comparative Analysis of Police Capacity, Sexual Violence, and Alternative Reporting Methods in the Eastern and Northern Capes of South Africa

Why is sexual violence more pervasive in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa than in the Northern Cape Province? Most research surrounding sexual violence in South Africa attempts to answer why rape happens, but doesn’t attempt to understand why individuals choose to report sexual violence crimes to police. This paper looks at three variables—chieftaincy and regional identity, physical space, and medical clinics—to explain why people do or do not turn towards the police to report rape. The tradition of chieftaincy in the Eastern Cape was constitutionalized with the rise of the African National Congress. Customary law is still used in this region, but is sexist, so women choose to report to the police. The Northern Cape doesn’t have a tradition of chieftaincy, but developed a Black Consciousness Movement during Apartheid that became obsolete when democracy was installed. Coloureds in the Northern Cape have become disillusioned with the ANC, and don’t trust the police because they are an extension of the government. In the Eastern Cape, informal townships are pervasive. Police have resorted to arbitrary violence in attempts to regulate and manage crime. In the Northern Cape there are formal settlements, which are easier to manage. However, the legacy of racist policing still persists, and the Northern Cape also experiences police brutality. This influences how individuals in both provinces perceive police, increasing mistrust of the police and the creation of community alternatives. Medical facilities in the Northern and Eastern Capes don’t have the resources to address sexual violence victims. Practitioners in the Eastern Cape do not perceive rape to be a serious crime, which has significant implications for how rapes are dealt with. Sexual violence is not unique to South Africa. The ways in which police and other institutions such as medical facilities intersect are important to understand, and should work together to stop sexual violence. Further, the brutal ways communities in South Africa are regulated and managed by police suggests a failure in Western policing that should be questioned, and further challenged

Managing inequality: the political ecology of a small-scale fishery, Mweru-Luapula, Zambia

This paper starts from the perspective on resource management approaches as based upon a body of environmental knowledge. By analysing fisheries management in Mweru-Luapula, Zambia, we argue that this body of environmental knowledge has (i) remained largely unchanged throughout the recent shift to co-management and (ii) is to a great extent based upon general paradigmatic conventions with regard to common property regimes. We therefore simultaneously studied the historical trajectories of both resource management as the political ecology of Mweru-Luapula’s fishing economy. Using a relational perspective – by looking at interaction of the local fishing economy with external developments, but also by examining socioeconomic relations between individual actors – this study exposes constraints and incentives within the local fishing economy that are not absorbed in the current co-management regime. These findings challenge both policy goals as community-based resource management itself. We therefore argue that governance of small-scale fisheries – in order to close the gap between locally based understandings, policy and legislation – should always be built upon all dimensions (social, economic, ecological, political) that define a fisheries system

How russian intervention in syria redefined the right to protect in armed conflict

The use of military force to forestall humanitarian crisis remains a controversial issue in international law. This strategy is considered antithetical to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the host country. This legal quandary emanated in 1998 after NATO launched a series of airstrikes against the Yugoslavian forces under the doctrine of humanitarian intervention. This legal conundrum prompted the United Nations to craft  comprehensive legal principles to determine the parameters of foreign interventions in armed  conflict. The objective was realised in 2005 after the UN adopted the Right to Protect (R2P) as means of resolving humanitarian crisis. This doctrine intended to harmonise the foreign intervention in light of the shortcomings of unilateral humanitarian intervention. However, the abysmal failure in resolving the Libyan crisis exposed its soft underbelly as tool for perpetuating regime change against unpopular leaders. Subsequently, when Security Council  proposed similar remedy for Syrian conflict, Russia strenuously objected and advocated for a  political and diplomatic solution. This geopolitical gridlock prompted the divided council to adopt a  different scenario in dealing with the Syrian conflict with the west supporting the rebels while  Russia stood by Assad. This prompted Assad to appeal for assistance from Russia in counteracting  ISIS and rebel forces that threatened to depose his government. In 2017 President Putin  announced the success of the Russian intervention and called for peace talks among the various  warring factions. As such Russia had realised the humanitarian objective behind R2P while respecting the sovereignty of Syria

Chatham House Report: Changing Climate, Changing Diets: Pathways to Lower Meat Consumption

No abstract available

Sex, Privacy and Public Health in a Casual Encounters Culture

The regulation of sex and disease is a cultural and political flashpoint and recurring challenge that law\u27s antiquated arsenal has been hard- pressed to effectively address. Compelling data demonstrate the need for attention—for example, one in four women aged fourteen to nineteen is infected with at least one sexually transmitted disease ( STD ); managing STDs costs an estimated $15.9 billion annually; and syphilis, once near eradication, is on the rise again, as are the rates of HIV diagnosis among people aged fifteen to twenty-four. Public health officials on the front lines have called for paradigm changes to tackle the enormous challenge. Controversial proposals have circulated, such as mass HIV screening for everyone aged thirteen to sixty-four, STD testing in high schools, mandatory HIV screening, strict liability in tort for HIV transmission, and criminalizing first-time sex without a condom. [para] This Article argues that we should explore informational interventions beyond the cumbersome and costly regulatory regimes of criminal and tort law and the STD-surveillant state. The Article proposes devolving information and power currently centralized in the state to people in the marketplace for sex and romance to ameliorate the information deficit that impedes informed consent to risk exposure. Information can be both a carrot and a stick. Providing more reliable ways to verify STD status and seeding a healthier culture of verification can be encouragement to get tested to enhance self-advertising. Rather than criminalization, which comes at too great a cost and too late, preventative privacy-piercing can be an alternative approach to deter the small subset of serial STD spreaders

Investigating the impact of political-administrative interface on service delivery in Ndwedwe Local Municipality.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.This study focused on the relationship between politics and administration at a local government level. It used Ndwedwe local municipality in KwaZulu-Natal as a case study. The researcher developed interest in this municipality because it has been experiencing certain political instability with the changes of political leadership in every term of office and exodus of senior management leaving the municipality. The main issue being explored in this study was the impact of the political-administrative interface in the municipality, whether it exist or not. The study sought to explore if all role players, mainly political leadership and administrators understand their roles. For the purposes of the study, the researcher used quantitative research methodology, which has helped in diagnosing the complexity of the political-administrative interface. In chapter one, the researcher dealt with introduction and overview of the study. Chapter two focused on literature review, which entailed examining the existing knowledge and information in relation to the political-administrative interface in local government. Chapter three dealt with research methodology and design. Chapter four mainly focused on data collection and analysis. Chapter five discussed the findings, conclusions and recommendations. The researcher used snowball sampling and developed questionnaire with few key questions. The study involved 20 respondents, who includes politicians and administrators. Among the key findings is that while there is evidence of conflict between politicians and administrators in the municipality, there is however no structured interface in the municipality. Secondly, the issue of education level, mainly among councillors, who are the political leadership in the municipality is pointing to an urgent need to conduct in-going training to ensure that new councillors understand the complex regulations governing the local government sphere in South Africa. This understanding is critical in understanding the separation of roles between politicians and administration. Keywords: political-administration dichotomy interface in local government Ndwedwe Local Municipalit

Preliminary report on social psychological factors in long duration space flights: Review and directions for future research

Group dynamics, sociological and psychological factors are examined. Crew composition and compatibility are studied. Group dynamics analysis includes: leadership; cohesiveness; conformity; and conflict