This study examines the effectiveness of 11 counter-radicalisation policies presented by the European Union, Norway, and the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country in Spain. In order to do so, two tasks are carried out, where the first is to analyse the overlapping between the measures proposed in the policy documents and the contributing factors of the radicalisation phenomenon. The second task ...

A considerable amount of cases of sexual exploitation and abuse of children and women committed by the personnel of United Nations peace support operations have been brought to the attention of the public, especially in recent years. As multiple actors are involved in United Nations peace support operations, i.a. the United Nations itself and Troop Contributing States, the question of attribution ...

This study explores the motivations and rationale of the educated Kyrgyz women who start wearing hijabs upon reaching maturity. In addition, the study examines attitudes, views, and perspectives of different groups of the Kyrgyz population in Bishkek, the capital of the country. In doing so, it presents, analyzes and explores the Islamization process in Kyrgyzstan from different angles. The theoretical ...

Many current peace researchers claim that Peace Studies has fallen ill (some even say as an academic field it is dead). This thesis goes through the development of Peace Studies as a field. Further, it considers the different views on what it is and what it should be, in relation to other forms of internationally focused studies. From this it highlights some of the conflicting views and value-bases, ...

The dissertation attempts to tap into the experiences of torture survivors of Nepal. The objective of the research is to shed light on: who were tortured, how and why; what are the consequences of torture on them, and what are their coping strategies and expectations for reconciliation. To meet these objectives, the study relied upon the interviews of ten Nepalese torture survivors; and six related ...

The presented work investigates root causes behind contemporary ‘witch’ hunt in Tanzania and is based on a four months research in the region Shinyanga in Tanzania. For many years elderly women in Tanzania’s north-western region have been victims of brutal collective violence, accused of being ‘witches’. While some manage to flee, others are killed in their home villages. The perpetrator is the ...

The objective of this thesis is to map out the NGO-practitioners reflections on male and female survivors of sexual gender based violence (SGBV), in violent “peace” post conflict Gulu, Northern Uganda. To better understand how the NGO-practitioners make sense of sexual violence, perceive its survivors and how they address the survivors’ needs. The empirical data is analysed through a gender lens, ...

Western Sahara has been called “the last colony” of Africa. The territory was colonized by Spain in 1884. During the pan-Maghreb liberation period in the 1950s, the local population, Sahrawi people also joined the resistance against colonial powers. However, when Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania obtained own independence as nation-state, the “Maghrebian dream” ended. Western Sahara has not ...

In 2001 ended a 21 years long violent conflict between the Peruvian state and the Peruvian Communist Party (PCP). During the violent period were hundreds of women and men imprisoned for affiliation to the PCP. The PCP had a significant number of women participating in the violence, these women were present in all levels of the party. The PCP represented a higher level of female political participation ...

This thesis focusses on the perspectives of community level actors in Liberia regarding their efforts to pursue locally valued human security objectives. It utilizes a theoretical framework based on human security, the capabilities approach, and the Copenhagen school of securitization to evaluate local actor agency and how that agency is impacted by imbalanced power relations with national and ...