23 Post conflict Resolution

Rohini Sen

Learning Outcome

Students will be introduced to the concept of post-conflict resolution. They will be able to understand the elements and challenges to post-conflict resolution, the role of the government and various stakeholders in post-conflict resolution.

I. Introduction

Countries in post-conflict situations face complex problems. They are multi-faceted and vary due to different historical root causes of conflict. Further, they are set in different political, social and geographical contexts. This compounds the problem further. Therefore, the strategies to address these challenges and effectively support a country on the path to recovery are diverse. It is important to look at post-conflict reconstruction in a country-specific manner. However, some values and principles are universally shared. In order to ensure that the process of post-conflict resolution is a successful endeavour, it is important to ensure – Focused and committed leadership, security, solid government structures providing basic services, building people’s trust and legitimacy, information dissemination, sound civic dialogue, mediation and community participation.

It is crucial that reconciliation processes are given utmost importance. When ignored, they can created humanitarian or political and economic conditions that can create a long-term impact on the growth and stability of the State and its people.

II. Elements and Challenges of Post Conflict Reconstruction (PCR)

Here is a brief overview of the challenges that States face during post-conflict reconstruction:

Legitimacy Trust and Authority of the State

During post-conflict situations, the public faith in the government is low. This leads to societal and economic disintegration on a national and even regional level. One of the pertinent problems that governments face at this point is to build trust and regain legitimacy of their populace. Therefore, governments must ensure rule of law and security, re-establishing and strengthening credible public administration institutions.

Political Will for Transparency and Accountability

Post-conflict situations are prone to corruption. The lack of a stable government destroys the fabric of transparency and accountability. It is important to have a common vision and ethos of governance in the new group. Further, when the members of the new group were earlier a part of the warring groups, it often leads to factionalism. This distorts the notion of having a common vision and working towards a national goal.

Rule of Law

When the legitimacy of the State is questioned, it is hard to uphold the principles of the rule of law. In such situations, there is a need to re-build the judicial infrastructure from scratch. Some of the more severe challenges may lie in rebuilding the physical infrastructure and capacities of the staff. Further, establishing authority and enforce the legal and regulatory framework may also take time.

Social Capital and Social Cohesion

Activities to re-build social cohesion are vulnerable to being destroyed due to the prevalence of sectarian groups overriding national interest. This dearth of social cohesion can nullify the entire process of post-conflict reconstruction. Apart from civilians in the home state, there are several other groups that undergo severe damage in this process. These groups include, internally displaced people, returning refugees, unsupported youth, child soldiers/ex-combatants, etc. As a part of the reconstruction process, it is important that the State undertakes measures to make the society inclusive.

Economic Reconstruction and Service Delivery Structures

Along with the peace restoration and reconstruction of stable institutions, the governments also have to focus on getting the economy back on track. This means, rigorous economic reforms and restructuring programmes in areas of social welfare such as poverty alleviation and health care.

War and parallel economies continue to thrive during ceasefire. The state has to retake regulatory right after the violence ends. Otherwise, these parallel economies, will take over and deny the State access to substantial revenues. Not only this, absence of State regulatory control will mean that natural resources will be exploited for selfish interests. This will further destabilise efforts to achieve sustainable peace and development.

Security and Cross-border Movements

Production and distribution of basic differences will be affected by the continuing insecurity and violence. This, compounded with the lack institutional authorities and failure in the security sector lead to continuing mistrust of the population in public authorities. This situation, at its best can lead to a State lacking legitimacy. At its worst, it can lead to the eruption of unresolved conflicts and violence.

Conflicts spilling across borders

Conflicts spilling across borders are an additional source of continued post-conflict disintegration. These conflicts include, illegal traffic of small arms, light weapons and anti-personnel mines. The Government has to devise strategies to regulate movements across borders. This will discourage illicit traffic and promote legal and safe movements.

III. Role of the Government and Post-Conflict Governance

Public Administration

In situations involving massive reconstruction of the economy and the society, it is crucial that the public administration “must be capable of the management and implementation of the whole set of government activities dealing with the implementation of the law, regulations and decisions of the government and the management related to the provision of public services.”

The post-conflict society is riddled with complexities. Public Administration is an important tool to manage these drastic changes. At the heart of efficient public administration is effective public service. One of the key government strategies, then, would be to build a public service on the basis of a merit and incentive-based system.

Legislative Power and Rule of Law

Rule of law: The legislative and judiciary are inter-linked. Parliaments have a fundamental role to play in the peacebuilding process. They legislate on a plethora of human rights issues and address post-conflict security concerns. It contributes to peacebuilding by restoring trust in the legislative power. In post-conflict realities, therefore, the legal framework, judicial institutions and the penal system need to be re-established to ensure the rule of law.

Access to justice: Equitable access to justice is the key to lasting reconciliation. This is often absent in many conflict and in conflict situations. However, the imperatives of justice can often clash with that of reconciliation. In a fragile situation, it is not possible to put leaders on trial.

Legal and constitutional frameworks: Peace-building and governance hinges on legal and constitutional frameworks. This is constructed through a process of inclusive participation. While short-term needs have to be met through an interim constitution, the rewards of inclusive participation will be worth the time once the situation is conducive for a full freedom of expression.

Economic Reconstruction and development

Sustainable long-term reconstruction is dependent on the reconstruction of stable socio-economic governance. The two priorities in a post-conflict society is to regulate ownership and combat the basis of war and parallel economies. The creation of jobs through public works programs and stimulation of micro and small enterprises are crucial. In an economy where there is already a severe drop in the revenue, re-integrating ex-combatants, refugees and internally displaced people into the economy will amount to further economic damage.

In the post-conflict societies, resources are scarce. Economic policies and institutions must be formulated in a manner that address the issue of scarcity. Further, these policies must encourage capacity building for people. International actors should encourage governments to promote private sector development, creation of economic opportunities for business operation and development as well as entrepreneurship training and policy. They should also help governments establish sustainable partnerships with the private sector.

IV. Role of regional actors

The international communities, as well as regional actors, play a crucial role in the immediate aftermath of a conflict. However, they face challenges such as lack of coordination and an unclear leadership role on security issues. External funding and technical assistance must be sequenced and provided on a long-term basis. It should also focus on developing national capacity from the outset so that governments are prompted to mobilize resources domestically. Paradoxically, the most aid is available early on when crisis or post-conflict governments’ absorptive capacity is weakest. When governments actually develop capacity, aid often dries up. External donors also need to strike a balance between the need for ensuring accountability and the necessity of collaborating effectively with national actors.

International actors may be needed to deliver emergency and relief aid in humanitarian operations during and in the immediate aftermath of crisis and to provide the foundation for long-term development. To prevent a further destabilization of post-conflict societies, rapid responses and a quick transition from planning to implementation are needed. However, the international presence often overwhelms vulnerable countries emerging from conflict with imposed priorities or inadequate responses. Hence, it is important to ensure that first phase support measures are also a product of joint consultation and are as flexible and un-bureaucratic as possible. One big challenge for the international community is the initial dilemma to cooperate with government institutions that are not fully democratically legitimized and at the same time help them strengthen and transform and become accountable and legitimate.

It is indisputable that continuing significant external technical and financial assistance is critical to sustainable post-conflict recovery. International support can play a particularly valuable role in creating national capacity for the implementation of post-conflict strategies and programs. In addition to short-term relief and recovery needs, post-conflict assistance should also target the large-scale development of leadership skills and capabilities within the civil service to work inclusively in making and implementing policies and decisions. Additionally, the sequencing of reconstruction measures at all 21levels and across all sectors (security, political-administrative, socio-economic) in post-conflict settings is decisive for a sustainable long-term development.

International Actors

The international community needs local knowledge, networks, and support which are ultimately the only sustainable foundation for reconstruction. It is crucial for the international community to identify, cooperate, and support from the very beginning with main drivers of change – individuals and key institutional partners – for post-conflict reconstruction. However, relying too strongly on civil society actors creates the potential danger of substituting and delegitimizing state organizations and thus potentially undermining long-term efforts to strengthen them.

Local, National and Regional Actors

Local, national and regional institutions, structures and processes are the key dynamic and sustainable factor that can provide internal, culturally-appropriate guidance and eventually take over and implement emergency as well as longer-term reconstruction activities within all sectors of society. Relying on local knowledge and networks, and then building the capacities of public officials in policy design and implementation are crucial steps in the aftermath of a crisis or conflict. Handing over decision-making on domestic economic issues to international organizations cannot compensate this. Adequate training measures, establishing appropriate incentives and reviewing all external strategies with national/regional/local necessities are key elements to make external interventions a success and support for long-term development.

Regional organizations can have an important role to play in post-conflict environments and can be a useful adjunct to the work of inter-governmental or bi-lateral partners. Regional counterparts can provide more acceptable support that is seen as neutral (in everything from brokers of peace agreements to peacekeeping troops to election monitors.) Their in-depth knowledge of the sub-region and political influence on governments and their opposition can often produce agreements or effect difficult decisions that other external actors have difficulty achieving.

V. CASE STUDY

Romania

The establishment of credible governance and public administration institutions and systems is a critical determinant of sustainable recovery and development. Restoring the public service, and especially doing so in an inclusive, transparent and comprehensive way that injects desirable traditional public service values, is especially difficult in post-conflict or crisis situations. Due to the profound disruptions and transformations of post-communist societies, their experiences can be relevant and inspiring for states and societies in post-conflict situations. Romania, whose prior state was most repressive and whose transition started after a violent “revolution,” has perhaps faced the most difficult decade of transition to democracy and peace in the region. It has travelled the farthest and taken many steps in the right direction. However, most Romanian citizens still do not actively participate in governance processes.

This experience has shown that the process of transforming the public service and society requires a radical transformation of a mix of mentalities inherited from the values and norms implanted by the prior system. The transformation of the institutional landscape and the legal framework has proceeded faster than the change of mentalities which were still influenced by a lack of trust in public institutions, cynicism, unfulfilled high expectations, uneven access to resources and overwhelming socio-economic problems, poor knowledge of rights, and fragile democratic skills.

Romania’s public sector has been both the object of and vehicle of reform in restructuring and modernizing the State. Concerted efforts and accomplishments in this regard have had a noticeable impact in maintaining a certain level of public hope for a better future of Romania, in contributing to rebuilding the people’s trust in government, in professionalizing a culture of transparency and accountability in Government’s activities and objectives, and in fostering participation in policy-making decisions. Some of the notable steps include:

• The establishment of the Ministry of Public Administration in 2001 including the Ministry of Interior and Administration Reform which oversees the National Agency of Civil Servants whose mission is to develop a professional, stable and politically unbiased body of civil servants;
• Instituting laws for local public administration injecting the principle of ‘consulting the citizens in solving the local problems of common interest and accordingly making meetings of all local councils open to the public;
• Increasing government dialogue with civil society through a special government Department of Co-operation with Non-Governmental Organizations and State Secretary for Social Dialogue and a Department for Interethnic Relations;
• Legal measures for assuring transparency in recruiting civil service positions, insuring the neutrality of civil servants, and civil servant wealth declarations;
• Rules and codes of conduct guiding the behaviour of public servants and the development of a network of public ethic officers;
• New institutional mechanisms for social dialogue between employers, trade unions and governments and for mediation in case of disputes;
• The establishment of a Council for National Minorities to defend ethnic minority rights and legislation to ensure education in minority languages; and
• Ensuring representation of all ethnic minorities in the Romanian Parliament either through voting or by ensured representation of each of nearly 20 minorities.

Despite these efforts and increased visibility of integrity and participatory measures more needs to be done. Training on public policy-making and negotiations should become mandatory for government employees, helping them to realize the value of civil society input. Finally, there is a need to find ways of raising the morale of citizens. Public education needs to pay more attention to teaching the value and importance of citizen participation.

Bosnia & Herzegovina

After the war in Bosnia Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, which cost this small country more that 100,000 victims, the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed in December 1995,giving special powers to the institution called the Office of the High Representative (OHR), representing the international community in Bosnia Herzegovina, and being the ultimate power in the country. The country was divided into two entities – Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina. The Head of State in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a three-member Presidency, one Bosniac and one Croat, each directly elected from the territory of the Federation, and one Serb directly elected from the territory of the Republika Srpska.

One of the biggest challenges the country faced after Dayton was to restore the functions of a democratic state, and an ethnically balanced (between the major ethnic groups – Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks), merit-based public service. All areas of public policies, public administration and the public service, underlie strict regulations with regards to equal ethnic representation of these three major ethnic groups.

The main areas of institutional reform in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina were the transformation of the civil service, as well as the police and the judiciary. Based on 2002 legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, all civil servants were subject to review processes by the Civil Service Agency. The review ensured a control to find out whether they were appointed in accordance with the Law on Public Administration, and if they fulfilled requirements of this law, in regards to the transparency and efficiency of processes such as hiring, promotion, retention, and rotation. In 2003, the three Prime ministers (State level, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska), signed a joint statement promising a reform of the public administration institutions and the public service. The objectives of this statement were: (1) to make public administration cost-effective and well organized, (2) to guarantee that public funds were spent efficiently and transparently, (3) to ensure that the civil service was professional and representative of its citizens, (4) to achieve a quality-driven and citizens-friendly public service and public administration in accordance with EU best practices. International institutions and the Government of Bosnia Herzegovina supervised these reform efforts.

Reference

1. Restoring Governance in Crisis and Post-Conflict Countries: UNDP/UNDESA, “The challenges of Restoring Governance in Crisis and Post-Conflict Countries” page 21
2. Governance Strategies for Post-Conflict Reconstruction: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan028332.pdf
3. Laura A. Dickinson, The Promise of Hybrid Courts, The American Journal of International Law, April 2003 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3100105?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
4. Lilian A. Barria, Steven D. Roper, How effective are the international criminal tribunals? An analysis of the ICTY and the ICTR, The International Journal of Human Rights http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13642980500170782#.VSp9UJQkGvM