Articles EXCLUSIVELY written for sustainablesecurity.org
Issues:Climate change, Competition over resources, Global militarisation, Marginalisation
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Posted on 17/11/10
WEF examines the Risks of Global Marginalisation
Issue:Marginalisation
A new report from the World Economic Forum highlights the increasing importance of marginalisation as a security issue over the coming decades. The seventh edition of the WEF’s Global Risks report describes what they see as the ‘seeds of dystopia’ threatening both social and political stability across the world.
Image source: ectopic (ibandera).
Read more »Posted on 17/01/12
Stories of harassment, violence and discrimination: migrant experiences between India, Nepal and Bangladesh
Issue:Marginalisation
A recently published Project Briefing from the Overseas Development Institute reports on the findings of a study examining the experience of Nepalese and Bangladeshi migrants in India. This vulnerable group of people face marginalisation on many different levels, having been compelled to emigrate in the first place because of economic hardship; and facing job-, wage-, and housing-insecurity on arrival because of their ambiguous legal status. Fear of disclosure or of being identified by their accents prevents migrants not only from taking a stand against exploitation, but also from forming networks within the host communities, thereby compounding the other forms of insecurity. In addition, migrants are often marginalised on their return home: "There is a common belief that women who Migrate to india engage voluntarily in commercial sex work once there," while husbands left behind suffer from the stigma surrounding their wives' supposed profession. The briefing concludes with recommendations for mitigating insecurity experienced by this group, who would otherwise be at permanent risk of violence and exploitation.
To read the full briefing, click here
Image Source: FriskoDude
Read more »Posted on 11/01/12
South Sudan: Conflict is 'fact of life'
Issues:Competition over resources, Global militarisation
In a radio interview for the BBC, Dr Sara Pantuliano of the Overseas Development Institute highlights a tribal conflict in Jonglei State that has grown particularly violent. The conflict between the Murle and Luo-Nuer groups has traditionally centred on cattle-raiding (cattle being a vital element of the region's economy for centuries), but recently it has taken on the character of a 'military assault' along ethnic lines. Dr Pantuliano attributes this change to both the sheer number of weapons flooding the region, and to the anonymity and consequent remoteness of modern warfare. Compounding these factors is the diminished status of chiefs and elders and the effectiveness of the traditional checks and balances that they enforce, compromised as they have been by the protracted civil wars of the past.
Article Source: BBC
Image Source: Oxfam International
Read more »Posted on 4/01/12
Land, livelihoods and identities: Inter-community conflicts in East Africa
Issues:Competition over resources, Marginalisation
In a report published in December 2011, Minority Rights Group International highlights the problems facing minority groups, specifically in an area covering Kenya, Uganda and Jonglei State in South Sudan. Competition over resources has increased the potential for confrontation not only with local dominant ethnic groups, but also with the state and international corporations, thereby increasing the liklihood of different forms of conflict on different levels. Progressive legal protections are often not enforced because of a disconnect at state-level between legislation and law-enforcement, which only exacerbates existing problems caused by long-standing discrimination. Moreover, conflict involving already marginalised people adversely affects the women and children in these groups in particular, which in turn re-impacts on the community because of the traditional roles that women play in family cohesion and as food producers.
Many problems arise not simply because people belonging to minority groups are themselves marginalised, but also their community and governance structures which previously had been successful in mediating conflict such as (in an East African context) cattle raiding. Marginalisation not only discriminates against individuals because of their backgrounds or beliefs but also rides roughshod over communal organisation and mediation, leaving groups unable to adapt to change or protect their interests when threatened by more powerful entities.
To read the full report and press release, click here
Image Source: Leonie_x
Read more »Posted on 31/12/11
Holding Libya Together: Security Challenges after Qadhafi
Issue:Global militarisation
The structure of Libyan society under the Qadhafi regime, as well as during its demise and aftermath, was and remains peculiarly fragmented. The former dictator deliberately kept state institutions weak (in particular the army) in order to prevent the formation of an organised opposition and to create a cult of leadership centred on himself and his family. The consequence for the nature of the uprising was that rebel forces were fragmented, their control over the country was acquired piecemeal, and the internationally recognised National Transitional Council has had tenuous legitimacy outside its base in Benghazi and the east.
Now that the regime has fallen, the process of rebuilding should be underway; but Libya has many autonomous, disconnected and heavily armed militias, all of whom have independent claims on their country's liberation as well as the fire power to back those claims. A Crisis Group Report from December 2011 examines the tricky path that the authorities must navigate in order to successfully disarm, demobilise and reintegrate into society Libya's rebel fighters, without plunging the country back into violence. Many of the young men who took up arms and joined the rebellion found in it a dignity long denied them by lack of economic and employment opportunities. So while the number of weapons in circulation must be dramatically reduced, the status that they bestow needs to be met by other means.
Article Source: Crisis Group. To read the full Report, click here
Image Source: United Nations
Read more »Posted on 30/12/11
