3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of female ex-combatants in Sierra Leone.(2009-09-08T06:27:37Z) Lema, Joan WinfredThis thesis sets out to explore the processes of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of female ex-combatants in Sierra Leone within the context of post-conflict peace building. International and local stakeholders including the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), the National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilisation Reintegration (NCDDR) and World Bank were responsible for DDR. The DDR of female adult combatants and girl soldiers was essential as part of the broader strategies to prevent the reoccurrence of violence and creating conditions for sustainable peace and development. It was aimed at transforming female ex-combatants into a civilian status congruent with peace after eleven years of horrific civil war in Sierra Leone that involved rebel forces, principally the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), and the government‘s Civil Defence Forces (CDF). The DDR process has been criticized in that female ex-combatants were often invisible and their needs disregarded. This study investigates the role of women in post-conflict peace building efforts, specifically DDR in Sierra Leone. Its nub is to critically assess the design, implementation and impact of the DDR of female ex-combatants. It focuses particularly on how female combatants are affected by current gender, security and international relations discourses. It assesses the progress made by the relevant international and local institutions in implementing international policies and guidelines on the DDR of female ex-combatants, in Sierra Leone; draws wider conclusions about achievements made and suggests lessons that may be applicable widely.Item Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration, Repatriation and Resettlement (DDRRR) in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa(2006-10-26T10:43:08Z) Dzineza, GwinyayiIn the past three decades several African countries including Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa witnessed the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of troops, repatriation and resettlement of ex-combatants, refugees and/or internally displaced people (DDRRR) in a post-conflict setting. DDRRR processes affect and are affected by post-conflict peace building. However, current research on how DDRRR and peace building are intertwined and how DDRRR contributes to post-conflict peace building is still in its infancy. This thesis is a comparative study of how the nature of armed conflict, conflict terminating peace agreements and the conceptual, political, socio-economic and institutional frameworks under which DDRRR occurred influenced and impacted on the process in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. The three countries experienced different but novel DDRRR processes. Britain and the Commonwealth played a pivotal role in Zimbabwe’s conflict termination and immediate post-liberation struggle DDRRR. In Namibia, DDRRR was implemented under a United Nations peacekeeping context. DDRRR was internally originated, locally owned and state-managed in South Africa from the early 1990s to the present. This was an accompaniment, and also a result, of a negotiated transition to democracy following no serious military engagement. Zimbabwe’s DDRRR was implemented during the Cold war era unlike in Namibia and South Africa. The study intersects these contextually different DDRRR case studies. It analyses the country-specific DDRRR programmes and strategies and evaluates their differential contribution to the broader peace building and reconstruction process. The thesis will then isolate applicable and practical determinants for successful post-conflict DDRRR for posterity based on a comparative examination of the three distinct cases.