This chapter highlights practices in the wider peacebuilding field that seek similar outcomes as UN peace operations or otherwise affect the background conditions necessary for their success. It treats South Sudan as an illustrative case study that uniquely reflects processes that shape and regulate sites of conflict, chronic emergency, and limited statehood across postcolonial sub-Saharan states. The author argues that, despite the ‘view from above’, South Sudan’s independence ultimately depended on two interconnected peacebuilding frameworks:…
repository
CSRF Research Repository
The CSRF Research Repository aims to support greater contextual knowledge for policy makers, programme managers, and implementers by providing a searchable repository of research, analysis, and resources, and providing periodic updates on new research and analysis.
This chapter provides an overview of the implementation of POC mandates in UN peace operations, drawing on Hilde Johnson’s experience from the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) between 2011 and 2014 as Special Representative and Head of Mission. UNMISS had a broad POC-mandate, covering both military, police and civilian components. The author will start with a focus on the capacity to protect through non-military means, and then move on to the capacity to provide…
The euphoric birth of South Sudan was celebrated around the world – a triumph for global justice and a sign that one of the world’s most devastating wars was finally over. But the party would not last; the Republic’s freedom-fighters soon plunged their new nation back into chaos, shattering the promise of liberation and exposing the hubris of their Western backers. An epic tale of paradise won and lost, A Rope from the Sky is…
After several months of political and diplomatic shuttling by mediators, South Sudan finally has a peace deal. Broadly, the new agreement recognises the evolution of the conflict and no longer considers the civil war as binary duel between the two protagonists but rather as involving many actors. It also accepts that Uganda and Sudan, the closest allies to the various conflict parties, play an instrumental role in realising a lasting and sustainable peace agreement. The…
Previous research on dehumanization has been conducted primarily in Western contexts, and outside of periods of ongoing and highly violent conflict. The present study, in contrast, examines grassroots-level dehumanization between South Sudan’s two largest ethnic groups—Dinka and Nuer—during an episode of extreme interethnic violence. Using a mixed-methods approach we study levels of dehumanization and how these attitudes are related to and structured around ongoing and/or very recent extreme violence. Whereas the results demonstrated mechanistic dehumanization…
Following the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the subsequent independence of South Sudan in 2011, many agro-pastoralist and pastoralist areas of the country have experienced an upsurge of livestock raiding, counter raiding and cycles of revenge killing. Eastern Lakes State, in contrast to its neighbor, Western Lakes State, is an exception. Since 2011, there has been a significant reduction in violent conflict between communities in the state. Peace is the Name of Our Cattle-Camp…
During war, geographies of economic and political power are often recast by shifting patterns of trade and population movements. This can present an opportunity for local leaders to reshape legal and moral logics to attract trade and people to areas under their control. But these shifts can also create ambiguities and tensions that extend into times of peace. Wartime Trade and the Reshaping of Power in South Sudan explores these dynamics by looking at the…
This study, conducted as part of the What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in Conflict and Humanitarian Crises programme funded by the UK government, explores how programmes and policies to prevent and respond to VAWG have been integrated and addressed within post-conflict state-building policy and programming; and how, in conflict-affected countries, VAWG is related to efforts to achieve peace and stability. It is hoped that the findings, conclusions and recommendations of…
South Sudan is characterised by mass, continued and repeated displacement. Against this backdrop, the January 2017 announcement of 32 states demarcated partly along ethnic lines spelt immediate concerns for returns and relocations. Occupation of land following displacement of local populations has further complicated the picture, as have government decisions to demarcate empty or occupied land for sale in some parts of the country. Providing aid in this context can pit humanitarian principles against one another….
The present report, submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 1612 (2005) and subsequent resolutions, is the second report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in South Sudan. It contains information on the six grave violations against children that occurred between 1 October 2014 and 30 June 2018, the context in which they took place and identifies, where possible, the perpetrators. The report documents alarming levels of all six grave violations against children committed…
Curious to broaden your search to Sudan?
Try our sister facility CSF