Suchergebnisse

Essay in a symposium on "The United Nations and Regional Challenges in Africa -- 50 Years After Dag Hammarskjold.". Adapted from the source document.

The conclusion of the 1998/99 transition to civil rule program had raised hopes of abatement of the several conflicts plaguing the Nigerian federation. However, more than three years later, the country is still wracked by various violent conflicts. The central issues in contemporary conflict manifestations revolve around the practice of federalism & the workings of the federal structure. There are no institutional mechanisms for mediating &/or resolving conflict. Given the multiethnic, multinational character of the state, a properly compacted constitution should serve as an instrument for addressing these problems. However, Nigeria's constitutional experience has not prepared it for this. The transition program provided the country with an opportunity to fashion a long-term, constitution-based approach to conflict resolution. The 1999 Constitution, however, failed the tests of acceptability, (1) through the process by which it was given (rather than negotiated), & (2) through its specific provisions on several contentious issues at the heart of the conflicts plaguing the state. These include citizenship, fiscal federalism, regional autonomy, & allocation of powers between the federal & state governments & between the executive & legislature/judiciary. Any long-term solution must rest on proper constitution engineering & fundamental restructuring of the federal estate without necessarily abrogating the state. Adapted from the source document.

Discusses failure of the 1999 Constitution due to process by which it was given, and due to its provisions on citizenship, fiscal federalism, regional autonomy, and allocation of powers between federal and state governments and between the executive and legislature/judiciary.

The ombudsman is an independent, nonpartisan third party who assists in grievance resolution. Ombudsmen have traditionally been found in government, but in the 1970s they spread to formal organizations in higher education. health and business. During the 1980s, the principal role of ombudsman. namely mediator, emerged; and apart from ombudsmanship, mediation appears to be playing a more prominent role in conflict resolution now that it did in the seventies. Mediators have become increasingly important in dealing with neighborhood disputes, and divorce mediation has taken the intimate concerns of the family out of the public arena, assigning responsibility to the disputants to work through their own problems. A few states have laws providing for mediation as an alternative to the court system, in child custody disputes, for example. As mediation becomes more widely accepted, professional associations are staking their claim to the role of mediator. The Family Mediation Association draws on members from a variety of disciplines. such as social work. The American Bar Association considers lawyers appropriate mediators in court related programs. In an effort to train professionals in skills of mediation and negotiation, Harvard Law School instituted a workshop on mediation into its curriculum in 1983, and now has a Program on Negotiation

I may have first thought about "just resolution of conflict" when I was a student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem many years ago. Those days I often heard on the radio--there was no TV in Israel at the time--and read about King Hussein's repeated calls for a "just and lasting Peace" in the Middle East. I have also noticed over the years that the same slogan has been repeated, not only by King Hussein, but also by other prominent and less prominent leaders in regard to other conflicts.(1) The notion of just resolution of conflict has attracted me more and more, especially over the years in regards to my study of Africa.

Conflict is a natural and inevitable part of our personal and social lives. In this volume Morton Deutsch, the distinguished social psychologist, explores the factors that determine whether the outcome of conflict will be fruitful or destructive. He examines conflict at the intrapsychic, interpersonal, and intergroup levels and formulates meaningful cross-level generalizations about the determination of conflict resolution