'Despite the absence of a final peace settlement, a dramatic improvement in security in war-ravaged northern Uganda is allowing displaced civilians to return home and has transformed the humanitarian operating environment. A transition is now under way from a relief effort led by international agencies to government-driven recovery. But that shift is generating new challenges for northern Ugandans and institutional confusion among the actors working to help them rebuild their lives. After decade more...

'The international community took an important step in deploying the UN and EUFOR mission to volatile and insecure eastern Chad. However, one year on, this mission is not capable of adequately protecting civilians and requires urgent reform. EUFOR has made many civilians feel safer, but as a military force is ill suited to an environment of lawlessness and banditry. A year on the policing elements of the mission are yet to be deployed. Finally, without a comprehensive political solution to the i more...

'Despite new peace agreements, continued conflict among and between armed militias and government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the last year has seen thousands of new internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the east of the country, many of whom have poured into camps seeking shelter and safety. This is a new development in DRC. Unlike Darfur and Uganda, IDPs in DRC have usually stayed with host families, returning intermittently to their homes, rather than fleeing to refuge more...

'In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, increasing violence has forced people to flee from their homes, and led to the deaths of almost 1,500 people a day.

Though no other conflict causes that kind of death rate, Oxfam’s workers hear similar stories of murder, rape, and displacement from men and women from Colombia to Sudan every day. Sixty years after the main Geneva Conventions enshrined civilians’ rights to protection, they are violated in every current conflict.'

'Irresponsible arms transfers are undermining many developing countries’ chances of achieving their Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. This paper shows new evidence of how this is happening in parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa – either by draining governments’ resources or by fuelling armed violence or conflict.

Either way, irresponsible arms transfers undermine governments’ development objectives and their citizens’ economic, social, and cultural rights.

Governme more...

Every day, governments around the world give authorisation for the export and transfer of weapons. These decisions affect the lives of millions of people. In some cases, these arms transfers undermine development, by fuelling conflict and armed violence, threatening peace-building efforts, or when they involve excessive unaccountable spending. Such spending can divert vital funds from public services such as education and health care, and when such spending takes place without accountability and more...

'This report examines the activities of the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) in Syria set up during the state of emergency in 1963. While the the SSSC was set up to prosecute those it deemed a threat to state security, this paper argues that in practice, the SSSC’s role has been to prosecute those whom the Syrian authorities do not approve of, in trials that lack basic due process guarantees.The report is based on information collected from defendants who have finished serving their sentenc more...

This is the first community-level participatory research endeavour with poor and excluded groups since the peace process. It focuses on grassroots experiences and understandings of governance and citizenship, and the implications thereof for state building in post-conflict Nepal.

Main findings:

· India that claims the distinction of being the world’s largest democracy provides a legal framework that is largely favourable to press freedom. Indian journalists take pride in their freedom and will defend it robustly in street protests or before the courts. The Constitution is on their side and guarantees free expression in Article 19, but on the condition that it does not conflict with the “sovereignty and integrity of India”. However journalists’ safety is preca more...

Research and information system (RIS) organized the high-level conference on financial crisis, global economic governance and development: responses of Asia and the global South, in New Delhi on February 2009. The main objective of the conference was to understand the impact of the global financial crisis on developing countries and discuss the policy responses by Asian countries and the global South at national, regional and global levels. Experts at the conference presented the national respon more...