War, Peace, Terrorism, and Conflict Resolution

A protester in Ukraine swings a metal chain during clashes - a taste of things to come? Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

submitted by Mikayla McDonald

From South America to South Asia, a new age of unrest is in full swing as industrial civilisation transitions to post-carbon reality

theguardian.com - by Nafeez Ahmed - February 28, 2014

If anyone had hoped that the Arab Spring and Occupy protests a few years back were one-off episodes that would soon give way to more stability, they have another thing coming. The hope was that ongoing economic recovery would return to pre-crash levels of growth, alleviating the grievances fueling the fires of civil unrest, stoked by years of recession. . .

. . . The recent cases illustrate not just an explicit link between civil unrest and an increasingly volatile global food system, but also the root of this problem in the increasing unsustainability of our chronic civilisational addiction to fossil fuels. . .

. . . Of course, the elephant in the room is climate change.

Protesters lit tires aflame during clashes with riot police in Kiev. It was unclear if they would accept the president’s concessions. Volodymyr Shuvayev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

nytimes.com - by David M. Herszenhorn - January 25, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine — In a striking concession aimed at defusing Ukraine’s civil uprising and preserving his own grip on power, President Viktor F. Yanukovych on Saturday offered to install opposition leaders in top posts in a reshaped government, but they swiftly rebuffed the offer to the delight of thousands of protesters on the street craving a fuller victory in the days ahead.

un.org

Who is responsible for protecting people from gross violations of human rights?

Emergence of the concept

Debating the right to "humanitarian intervention" (1990s)

Following the tragedies in Rwanda and the Balkans in the 1990s, the international community began to seriously debate how to react effectively when citizens’ human rights are grossly and systematically violated. The question at the heart of the matter was whether States have unconditional sovereignty over their affairs or whether the international community has the right to intervene in a country for humanitarian purposes.

In his Millennium Report of 2000, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan, recalling the failures of the Security Council to act in a decisive manner in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, put forward a challenge to Member States: "If humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica, to gross and systematic violation of human rights that offend every precept of our common humanity?"

A police vehicle, which fell 50 feet to the ground, is pushed off a bridge by protesters Wednesday.

The Obama administration issued a statement that it 'strongly condemns' the crackdown. Egyptian expats in New York fretted over the tragedy unfolding in their homeland — and cursed the Muslim Brotherhood.

nydailynews.com - by Nicholas Wells and Corky Siemaszko - August 15, 2013

Egypt’s military-backed leader declared a state of emergency Wednesday after at least 525 people were killed in bloody clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The worst of the chaos was in Cairo, where fierce street battles raged and Muslim Brotherhood members, determined to restore Morsi to power, at one point occupied the Finance Ministry and took hostages.

In one of the most savage incidents, Morsi backers pushed an armored police van off a bridge, sending it plunging 50 feet and scattering the cops like rag dolls when it hit the ground.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)