The Role of Civil Society
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THE PERSPECTIVES CAPACITY FROM TO AFRICA, ASIA, PROTECT: THE AMERICAS AND EUROPE THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY JULY 2005 THE FUND FOR PEACE The Fund for Peace The Capacity to Protect: The Role of Civil Society by Patrica Taft Jason Ladnier July 2005 The report was produced with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada and the Carnegie Corporation of New York THE FUND FOR PEACE Published by The Fund for Peace 1701 K Street, NW - 11th Floor Washington, DC 20006 USA www.fundforpeace.org Copyright 2005 - The Fund for Peace THE FUND FOR PEACE TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreward 1 Executive Summary 3 Africa 7 Americas 20 Asia 28 Europe 40 Workshop Participants 53 THE FUND FOR PEACE FOREWORD FOREWORD This report contains the findings of the most Europe. They included: the West Africa Network extensive research conducted globally on the use for Peacebuilding (WANEP) in Ghana, the Nairobi of force in humanitarian intervention and the Peace Initiatives (NPI) in Kenya, the Institute for emerging norm of the responsibility to protect Security Studies (ISS) in South Africa, the Latin civilians. These are central issues of our time. They American Faculty for Social Sciences (FLACSO) will be the focus of attention in various summit in Chile, the Institute for Strategic and Development meetings this year and, undoubtedly, for years to Studies (ISDS) in the Philippines and the Institute come. for Transitional Democracy and International Security (ITDIS) in Hungary. The Fund for Peace The Fund for Peace collected its data through engaged a total of over 300 individuals and hundreds hundreds of interviews in the field and six civil of organizations in this worldwide effort. society workshops. The workshops were held in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Chile, the Philippines The Fund for Peace intends to widely disseminate and Hungary. They followed four regionally- the findings from these research missions and civil specific conferences convened in the United States. society conferences and to extend the debate in The entire project was conducted from 2001-2005. the future with new research on the Middle East. The research focused on examining how policy We also will share the knowledge and insights makers, opinion leaders and officials from regional derived from this work with the United Nations organizations in Africa, the Americas, Asia and and other regional and subregional organizations. Europe think and act when confronted with violent Furthermore, we will make recommendations to internal conflicts in their own neighborhoods that policy makers on specific actions that can be taken are threatening civilians on a large scale. to strengthen international responses to peace and stability operations, regardless of where they take The Fund for Peace believes that the question of place. protecting civilians is not the responsibility of the United Nations alone. We believe that there needs This project was led by Jason Ladnier, Patricia Taft to be a new architecture of international response and, in its first two years, Mary Locke. We would to protect civilians that involves responsible actors like to thank Major General (U.S. ret.) William L. at all levels, from the UN to regional and subregional Nash, Ambassador Chan Heng Chee (Singapore), organizations and from nation states to civil society. Ambassador Cheick Oumar Diarrah (Mali), Creating norms on how that architecture will be Ambassador Paul Heinbecker (Canada), designed, and providing multiple actors with the Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdes (Chile) and capabilities to act, is one of the biggest challenges Ambassdor Joris M. Vos (The Netherlands) who we face in the early 21st century as new atrocities, co-chaired the conferences which took place at collapsed states and humanitarian crises arise. Airlie House in Virginia from 2001-2003. The Fund for Peace would also like to thank our advisory This project was conducted in partnership with local group on this project. organizations in Africa, the Americas, Asia and 1 THE FUND FOR PEACE FOREWORD The Fund for Peace further wishes to thank the Finally, the Fund for Peace wishes to acknowledge United Nations and its representatives, the many and thank the primary funders of this project: the officials from the governments and regional bodies Governments of the Netherlands and Canada and on the four continents where we conducted our the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Additional research, and all of our partner organizations and support was recieved from the Stanley Foundation, NGO representatives that lent so much of their the Ford Foundation, and the Saskasawa time, insights and expertise to this project. We would Foundation. In particular, we want to acknowledge also like to thank the United States Departments the importance of the Canadian government’s of State and Defense and the Office of the pioneering work on The Responsibility to Protect, Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. a standard that is rightly emerging as the central We would further like to thank the many individuals organizing concept in UN peacekeeping reforms. at the United States Institute of Peace who assisted It has contributed greatly to the awareness and us in identifying organizations and people on the willingness of the international community to do four continents who were highly relevant to our more to prevent and reduce the loss of civilian lives work. in weak and failing states. 2 THE FUND FOR PEACE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY While long recognized as a crucial element in a Participants were asked to discuss the criteria for gauging the health of the democratic structures of military intervention to stop mass civilian casualties a country, civil society also has an important role and relate their experiences in engaging national, to play in ensuring the protection of civilians caught regional and international organizations in their up in internal wars. Over the past two decades, work. They were also asked to define the main internal wars and state collapse have claimed the security threats in the region and assess the impact lives of millions of innocent victims in Africa, the of conflict on vulnerable groups. Finally, participants Americas, Asia and Europe. From Africa, a were asked to evaluate critically how they could continent that has seen the highest incidence of improve their capacities to protect and promote warfare, to Europe, where the bloody implosion of human security and enhance their efforts to work the Former Yugoslavia caught the world by surprise, across ethnic, religious, and national boundaries. civil society has been faced with the challenges of engaging governments and regional bodies in an Human Security effort to protect civilians. Although the experiences and views of civil society In many cases, internal wars and state collapse organizations varied regionally based on historical have had wider regional implications, causing and cultural factors, there were themes common instability in neighboring countries that led to further to all four regions. It was also stressed, at each warfare. In these instances, civil society found itself conference, that the term “military intervention for further confronted by the challenges of networking humanitarian purposes” had to be very carefully across national borders to face common threats. defined. The US-led invasion of Iraq, later justified Additionally, a lack of outside donor funding and on humanitarian reasons, and the resulting civilian coordination strategies have repeatedly hampered casualties made many participants highly skeptical efforts of civil society organizations to better of using the phrase. It also led participants to debate address the issue of civilian protection. Overall, the concept and various interpretations of human outside of the United States and Western Europe, security which, in all four regions, is defined very civil society remains a weakly developed sector. broadly. In all four regions, there exists a strong need for civil society to be empowered to better address Human security, participants stressed, must be seen threats to civilians at the national and regional as part of a continuum of security needs if it is to levels. be properly addressed. Particularly in Latin America and Asia, participants stated that human In recognition of this need, the Fund for Peace security is viewed quite separately from security and regional partner organizations in Africa, the achieved through military intervention. Both regions Americas, Asia, and Europe, convened six were subject in the past to outside military workshops on the role of civil society in early interventions that caused massive civilian casualties. warning, humanitarian intervention and post-conflict There is a reluctance to tie the concept of security, peacebuilding from October 2003 to January 2005. achieved through military means, to development 3 THE FUND FOR PEACE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY or human rights. Participants felt that Western populations at risk, participants felt that their input countries tend to view human security as a prior to an intervention was critical. Particularly in condition that must be “established or restored” Africa and Europe, participants recounted how lack rather than promoted across all sectors over time. of consultation contributed to inaccurate military A participant from Latin America noted that the planning resulting in the deaths and injuries of U.S., in particular, tends to see human