Unrepresented Nations And Peoples Organization Yearbook Volume 3 1997

An essential reference for anyone involved in international affairs, the UNPO Yearbook is the only publication giving access to the material, situations and policies of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization and its diverse membership. Created by the members themselves in 1991, the UNPO provides a platform for those nations, peoples and minorities not represented in established international forums such as the United Nations. The mission of the organization is to assist its members in advancing their interests effectively through nonviolent means, including diplomacy, use of the UN and other international procedures for the protection of human rights, the exploration of legal options in defending their rights and the development of public awareness and opinion. With a revised member Report format and expanded index, as well as key Conference and Mission reports, the third edition of the UNPO Yearbook is an accessible and valuable tool for researchers, diplomats and policy-makers alike.

Now in its second year of annual publication, the UNPO Yearbook contains important information about the current state of affairs of the 50 Members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO). UNPO was created in 1991, by the members themselves, in order to provide a platform for those nations, minorities and peoples who are not represented in established international forums such as the United Nations. The mission of UNPO is to assist these people to advance their interests effectively through non-violent means, including diplomacy, through the use of the United Nations and other international procedures for the protection of human rights, through development of public opinion and through the exploration of legal options to defend their rights. The number of UNPO Members has grown rapidly since its founding and today the 50 Members represent over 100 million people. The UNPO Yearbook provides a comprehensive overview of the 1996 activities of UNPO, a review of the history and current positions of UNPO Members, a selection of key UNPO documents and annual information, as well as 1996 Conference and Mission Reports. An essential reference work for anyone involved in current international affairs, the UNPO Yearbook is the only publication which gives access to the material of the UNPO and its Members. The UNPO Yearbook for 1996 represents a considerable body of information providing a record of the changes and developments relating to UNPO and to the activities of its Members during the past year.

This book explores the role of actors in determining transitional justice in peacebuilding contexts. In recent decades, transitional justice mechanisms and processes have been introduced to a variety of settings, becoming widely regarded as essential elements in the ‘peacebuilding toolbox’. While it has increasingly been suggested that transitional justice is imposed by neo-imperial actors with little regard for the needs and cultures of local populations, evidence suggests that dismissing these policies as neo-imperial or neo-liberal impositions would result in grossly overlooking their dynamics, which involve a whole range of relevant actors operating at multiple levels. This book interrogates this theme through empirical analysis of three sites of peacebuilding that have seen extensive international involvement: Kosovo, East Timor and Afghanistan. It proposes a novel framework for analysing and approaching transitional justice in peacebuilding that disaggregates three broad sets of actors operating at different levels in relevant processes: external actors (international and regional levels), transitional justice promoters (local, national, international and transnational levels), and transitional regimes (national and local levels). The book argues that transitional justice in peacebuilding must be conceived of as actor-contingent and malleable due to the significance of agency and (inter)actions of key categories of actors throughout peacebuilding transition. This book will be of interest to students and practitioners of transitional justice, peacebuilding, law, and International Relations.

The dispute between Georgia and Abkhazia is not a conflict of equals. In international conflicts, adversaries may differ de facto on the ground, in terms of population, territory and capability, among other things. As internationally recognized states, however, they have equal de jure status, and fears that inviting the other side to the negotiating tablemight be construed as recognition, for example, rarely intrude. The question of status does pose problems, however, when a conflict is being fought between a recognized state and an unrecognized entity, and these problems may contribute to increase the intractability of such conflicts.This study explores how and to what extent the difference in status between a sovereign state and an unrecognized entity hinders conflict resolution activities. Based on intensive fieldwork and unedited negotiation material, the book provides an in-depth analysis of the negotiations, informal dialogues and grassroots activities that took place in Abkhazia and Georgia between 1989 and 2008.