Good governance: an antidote to terror?

Published: 24 Sep 2013

Kenya has paid an excruciatingly heavy price for its regional position in the struggle against Islamic militants. The horror of what has just taken place in Nairobi’s exclusive Westgate shopping mall is both hard to comprehend and dreadfully predictable. It is hard to comprehend for lots of reasons, not least the cruelty of what has…

Tanzania must learn to be a good neighbour: the perspective from Uganda

Published: 16 Sep 2013

Just when we thought that our neighbour, Tanzania, was about to rethink its current policy of expelling other nationals from its soil, another problem came up. The latest news coming out of Tanzania is that some 25,000 Burundians were summarily rounded up and told to go back to Burundi. In addition, apparently 10,000 teachers from…

The Responsibility to Protect: What is the way forward for implementation?

Published: 16 Sep 2013

As the General Assembly came together last week to engage in an informal dialogue on the latest report of the UN Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect: State Responsibility and Prevention, the ongoing commission of genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes (known collectively as “atrocity crimes”) in Syria, Sudan and the Democratic…

Denial of citizenship rights and the link to atrocity crimes: Calling for greater recognition to be made of the need for inclusive approaches to citizenship

Published: 11 Sep 2013

Today, the UN General Assembly is having a dialogue to discuss the Secretary-General’s latest report on the implementation of the responsibility to protect – otherwise known as R2P. The idea behind the responsibility to protect – which effectively affirms the responsibility of states to protect populations within their borders from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes…

Citizenship Rights and the Prevention of Atrocity Crimes: Contributions to the General Assembly dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect: State Responsibility and Prevention

Published: 1 Sep 2013

The adoption of the responsibility to protect as part of the World Summit outcome document represented a historic commitment to protecting populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity (“atrocity crimes”). By affirming the responsibility of states to protect populations within their borders, and by affirming the right of the international community…