Post-Conflict Peace-Building: Establishment of the Human Rights Ombudsman
In the post Cold War period, armed conflict continues to proliferate. Inter-state conflict, however, is the exception. Civil conflict — based on ethnic, religious, political and other differences — is common.1 War-torn societies suffer from a variety of domestic weaknesses, including state institutions that are flawed or have been destroyed, human rights abuses and breakdown in the rule of law. After the conflict ends, reconstruction of state and societal sectors needs to occur to prevent the state from slipping back into armed conflict. The concept of post-conflict peace-building developed in the 1990s, often associated with internationally-brokered peace agreements.2
From Danzig to East Timor and Beyond: The Role of International Territorial Administration
The United Nations is currently engaged in one of its most ambitious roles ever: the administration of two territories—Kosovo and East Timor. Attention has focused on the challenges raised by the performance of this role, such as international officials' need for new skills and experience. It has also focused on the problems caused by the context of administration, in which local governmental institutions must be constructed or reconstructed before they can be administered. However, a more profound question needs to be asked as well: why is the United Nations there at all? This piece analyzes the official reasons put forward to explain the deployment of international organizations in the administration of territory. It challenges the popular idea that the Kosovo and East Timor projects are unique. Actually, the involvement of international organizations in varying degrees of territorial administration has a long history, stretching back to the start of the League of Nations. Moreover, it includes at least three further current examples: the administration of camps housing refugees and internally displaced persons by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); the operation of material assistance programs by international organizations in various territories; and the conduct of governmental activities by the Office of the High Representative of the International Community (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I argue that the current projects are the latest manifestations of a policy institution that is used to serve two purposes rooted in certain ideas of international law. Valuable lessons for current and future projects can be learned from the way this institution has served these purposes in the past. The piece begins by briefly establishing how the international administration projects operate. Drawing on historical precedents, I then analyze the official justifications put forward for the projects, establishing what purposes the projects are supposedly set up to serve. I argue that these projects are framed in terms of a response to two problems, each related to administration in the territory concerned. In the first place, they attempt to address a perceived "sovereignty problem" regarding the identity of those local actors exercising administrative control. In the second place, they attempt to address a perceived "governance problem" regarding the conduct of governance by local actors. After a detailed analysis of the different circumstances in which these purposes have been invoked in relation to the institution, the relationship between the institution and three other international policy institutions is explained. This study focuses on international organizations, as such actors are understood in international law. As regards the administration of post-1945 Germany and Austria, I include the Allies within this definition, since the conventional view is that, although in certain respects control was divided between the individual members of the
The Free City of Danzig
HE accompanying map (foll. p. 328) shows the boundaries of the free city of Danzig as laid down in articles 28 and 100 of the treaty of peace with Germany. Article 28 gives the eastern boundary where it confines with East Prussia and the plebiscite area, and the other, the western boundary, where it borders on Poland. To appreciate properly the geographical considerations arising out of the creation of this new state some other clauses in the treaty must be taken into account. In determining the powers of the free city the peace conference has furnished us with an interesting example of the application of the idea embodied in the League of Nations, the covenant of which forms an integral part of the peace treaty. In applying that idea an honest attempt has been made to reconcile the conflicting claims of Poles and Germany in such a manner as to ensure so far as possible the common interests of both while paying due regard to conflicting sentiments. The Poles insisted on the necessity for economic reasons of having control of the entire course of the Vistula, and this has in a very large measure been granted by the treaty. The inhabitants of the free city area, being mainly German, were hostile to inclusion in the kingdom of Poland. Hence the creation of a new state with remarkable limitations of sovereignty. The case, however, is a comparatively simple one, and it may be hoped that the principle of the League of Nations may here be found to work satisfactorily. It ought to do so if mutual interest is kept in view by the states concerned, but this is a consideration too often set at naught by mutual antipathy, and if this should prove to be so in this instance, it would augur ill for the working of the League where it has to face larger and much more difficult problems. What are the limitations of sovereignty referred to? They are set forth in Article 104 of the treaty, which is here given entire:? " The Principal Allied and Associated Powers undertake to negotiate a Treaty between the Polish Government and the Free City of Danzig, which shall come into force at the same time as the establishment of the said Free City, with the following objects : "(1) To efFect the inclusion of the Free City of Danzig within the Polish Customs frontiers, and to establish a free area in the port; " (2) To ensure to Poland without any restriction the free use and