“What good is it to teach these women how to read and write French or use a computer? These are women who are used to carrying heavy loads into town. What good will this education you speak of, do for them?” – a statement by a Congolese lawyer to the author.
In countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where only a few years ago entire communities were massacred and to this day, brutally violent rapes still occur, women have not only borne the brunt of war, but have been widely excluded from the process of reclaiming their own communities for peace. While the issue of conflict-rape is highly sensationalized and NGO representatives and politicians make flimsy commitments to address it, the realities facing women in post-war settings remains largely unchanged. There is a disparity between what is touted by reporting organizations and heralded in the Western media and the reality on the ground. It is clear that the activities and promises of international bodies and personalities have both failed to put an end to these atrocities, and to effectively engage women in the peace-building process.
Read More…
This month a new flotilla is scheduled to set sail to Gaza. As will be recalled, in May 2010 a violent confrontation at sea between Israeli naval forces and pro-Palestinian activists led to the death of nine people and many more injured; before a Turkish vessel aiming at breaking the Israeli blockade of Gaza was escorted to a port. As a consequence, relations between Israel and Turkey dramatically soured and Israelis standing in the international community further eroded. Judging by the rhetoric of the parties involved today another collision seems imminent, with more flotillas forthcoming in the future.
As scholars of conflict resolution, we believe that such situations call for constructive adaptation on the part of those involved. To that end we propose the IDF take initiative and create the first ever Conflict Resolution Commando unit.
Read More…
For the better part of 2011, I have, due to much self-interest, bugged Roi Ben-Yehuda to write a piece for Unrest. Roi is a colleague and a fantastic writer who even when I firmly disagree with him, still manages to push the boundaries of my own assumptions about the meaning, purpose, and practice of conflict resolution. You can imagine my excitement then when Roi proposed publishing a piece he had co-written with Andrea Bartoli, world-renowned scholar, practitioner, and now Dean of The School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. You can also imagine my, shall we call it surprise, when I read the following article on the creation and deployment of conflict resolution commandos (or CRCs). Were they serious? I felt like I had walked in on the middle of a joke and was about to make Unrest the butt of it by publishing a piece that sits uncomfortably between deadly seriousness and total absurdity.
Read More…
