Amnesty for War Crimes in Angola; Principled for a Day?

In April 2012, Angola celebrated ten years of a peace deal which contained an amnesty law. The Angolan government has over the past ten years demonstrated to be unwilling to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes. Potential war criminals currently (still) take important positions in the Angolan government or live as well known public figures in-and outside Angola. The author analyses that especially a lack of domestic interest in doing justice and third countries' interests in Angola's oil reserves might serve as an explanation why up to this moment no justice has been done. The Angolan case illustrates how international actors may react by taking a 'one-day principled position' when it comes to calling for prosecution. Potentially hampering fragile peace negotiations, critique on the blanket nature of the amnesty is before and immediately after the peace process voiced, not to be repeated anytime, anyplace, anywhere. © 2012 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden

Institutions, Partnerships and Institutional Change

One of the goals of the Partnership Resource Centre (PRC) is to execute evidence-based research and further develop a theoretical framework on the linkages between partnerships and value chain development (ECSAD 2009). Within the PRC Trajectory on Global Value Chains, this goal was specifi ed into the explicit objective to improve public knowledge of how partnerships shape or organise the process of inclusion of smallholders and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in (global) value chains, resulting in more local sustainable competitiveness. The global value chains trajectory takes as point of departure the multi tude of institutional constraints that prevent primary producers and SMEs from exploiting local and foreign market opportunities. Apart from adverse climate conditions, limitations in infrastructure, and health and education issues, market-oriented activities are hampered by the lack of an appropriate institutional business environment. Especially the rural poor often have no proper access to, for instance, credit, technology, or land titles, while their market prospects are insecure (Markelova et al 2009; Poulton et al 2006). Value chain partnerships are increasingly considered to be useful vehicles to tackle these limitations, evidenced in the active promotion of particularly bi-partite partnerships between companies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The synergy derived from partnership cooperation can overcome failures resulting from unilateral action by actors confined within one of the societal sectors (Kolk et al 2008). By addressing the institutional business environment, partnerships can play a pivotal role in enhancing the chances for primary producers and SMEs to turn themselves into viable suppliers of local or global value chains (Bitzer et al 2011) in support of sustainable, local economic development

Case management, identity controls and screening on national security and 1F exclusion:A comparative study on Syrian asylum seekers in five European countries

This report discusses how five European countries (Belgium, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden) have organized the identification, registration and decision-making in relation to asylum applications made by Syrian nationals, and the screening of Syrian nationals with regard to possible national security and 1F exclusion aspects, in the period 2014-2017. For the study, interviews have been conducted with representatives of immigration authorities and aliens police agencies, as well as representatives of intelligence and security services and representatives of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). In addition, the research entailed a review of available academic literature, relevant rules and regulations and available formal and informal policy documents. The armed conflict in Syria that erupted in 2011 has produced a vast number of forced migrants and is one of the driving factors behind the high influx of asylum seekers in Europe since 2014. The high influx impacted all countries studied in the context of this research, albeit in different degrees. The high influx came as a surprise to all of the focus countries, because of its suddenness and its magnitude. The challenges that bureaucracies were confronted with were manifold. This report presents an overview of these challenges and responses to these challenges in the five focus countries, on three main themes: organisational capacity and management; establishment of identity and decision-making; and screening on national security and 1F exclusion. The report ends with a number of conclusions, reflections and recommendations that follow from the findings