ISCI is a cross-disciplinary research centre working to further our understanding of state crime: organisational deviance violating human rights

ISCI REPORT LAUNCH: Building Peace in Permanent War: Terrorist listing and conflict transformation

The International State Crime Initiative and the Transnational Institute are pleased to announce they will be hosting the report launch of

‘Building Peace in Permanent War: Terrorist Listing & Conflict Transformation’

 Tuesday, 24 February 2015 at 17.45

G.O. Jones Lecture Theatre, G.O. Jones Physics Building, Queen Mary University of London

The full report can be viewed here. The report was also discussed by Robert Fisk (Middle East Correspondent, The Independent) on Sunday 15th February 2015 in an article published on The Independent’s website. View the full article here

 

OVERVIEW

How do global counterterrorism laws impact on peacebuilders and the potential for the lasting transformation of armed conflicts? Building Peace in Permanent War: Terrorist Listing & Conflict Transformation by Louise Boon-Kuo, Ben Hayes, Vicki Sentas, and Gavin Sullivan addresses this complex issue. The report combines legal and political analysis with in-depth case studies drawing on the testimony of diverse actors engaged in conflict transformation. The study focuses on the use of laws banning ‘terrorist organisations’ in the management of conflict with Al-Shabaab in Somalia, Hamas in the Occupied Palestinian territories, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey. The report argues that terrorist listing places peacebuilding at the frontline of contemporary security practice and is profoundly affecting the types of peacebuilding that are possible. It documents the diverse risk management strategies that peacebuilders are developing in response to growing legal uncertainties, as well as how terrorist listing is excluding civil society from peace processes. The report raises difficult challenges for peacebuilders and explores some of the complexities of working to build peace in times of permanent war.

 

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

  • Professor Valsamis Mitsilegas, Head of Department of Law, Queen Mary University of London

 

CHAIR

  • ​Professor Penny Green, International State Crime Initiative and Queen Mary University of London

 

SPEAKERS PANEL

  • ​Professor Michael Semple, Queen’s University Belfast, scholar and practitioner in conflict resolution in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
  • ​Dr Véronique Dudouet, Director for the ‘Agents of change for inclusive conflict transformation’ programme, Berghof Foundation
  • Dr Gavin Sullivan, University of Amsterdam (report co-author)
  • Dr Vicki Sentas, University of New South Wales (report co-author)

 

The event will also be followed by a drinks reception. The full report can be viewed here.