10 Sep 2008: ISS Seminar, Pretoria: Post-Conflict Criminality: A Critical Challenge to Peacebuilding in Liberia

ISS Seminar:  Post-Conflict Criminality: A Critical Challenge to Peacebuilding in Liberia, Pretoria, 10 September 2008

 

The seminar is organised under the auspices of the ISS Training for Peace (TfP) Programme


Since August 1990 when ECOWAS first deployed the ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in the wake of Charles Taylor’s invasion of the country, Liberia has played host to varied UN peace support operations. Both ECOWAS and the UN, which first deployed the meagre UN Observer Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), and the 15,000-strong UN Mission in Liberia since 2003, have separately and/or jointly deployed various peace support forces to help maintain peace and ensure security and order in Liberia.


However, even in the face of the seeming return of a semblance of law and order in post-conflict Liberia, the UN continues to maintain its peacekeeping presence in the country for fear of the possibility that the premature drawdown of the UN Mission Liberia will cause the unravelling of the gains of the peacekeeping deployments. Why is this so?


Among a number of reasons for the continued presence of UNMIL, post-conflict criminality exacerbated by unemployment continues to flourish in post-conflict Liberia in spite of UNMIL’s presence.


The seminar follows a field research trip to Liberia by a Team of Researchers from the African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA) and aims at providing a critical account of the recorded increases of criminality in post-conflict Liberia. The speaker, Thembani Mbadlanyana, will share some perspectives on the nature and scope of criminality, based on the field research trip to Liberia.


Chair:                  Dr. David Zounmenou, Senior Researcher, ISS
Speaker:             Thembani Mbadlanyana, Junior Researcher, Training for Peace Programme, ISS
Discussant:       Judy Smith-Höhn (ISS Senior Researcher and PhD Candidate, Leipzig University)
Date:                    Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Time:                   10:00-11:30 hrs (Tea from 09:30)
Venue:                ISS Conference Room, Block C, Brooklyn Court, 361 Veale Street, New Muckleneuk


(Parking in Brooklyn Mall and at ABSA Court)


RSVP:  Ms Pertunia Mothiba; E-mail:   [email protected]; Tel (012) 3469500 Fax (012) 460-0997/8

 

Seminar Documentation and Resources