The Role of Civil Society in Peace Building in Somalia

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue XI, November 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

The Role of Civil Society in Peace Building in Somalia

Abdiwahid Ali Ahmed¹, Dr. Lecturer Başak özoral^2
1Master Student, Institute Social Science, Department of African Studies and International Relations, Istanbul Commerce University, Istanbul, Turkey
² Lecturer Political Science And International Relations Undergraduate Program , Department of African Studies and International Relations, Istanbul Commerce University, Istanbul, Turkey 

ABSTRACT:- The transformation of the international system from a bipolar system to unipolar system during the 1990s substantively ended interstate wars on one hand but also saw the emergence of intrastate conflicts. The internal dynamics of these intrastate conflicts increased the complexities of peacebuilding efforts as issues of international law such as state sovereignty deterred the direct intervention of states in the internal affairs of other states. Consequently, practitioners in peace building have had to rely on alternative mechanisms such as civil societies as viable partners in conflict resolution. Although civil societies have been extensively explored in peace initiatives in other parts of the world, research on civil societies in Somalia remains limited. This thesis therefore adopts an in-depth qualitative analysis of the role of civil societies in Somalia’s peace-building initiatives. The thesis lays emphasis on thematic areas including protection of civilians from violence; monitoring of conflict; advocacy for human rights; inter-group social cohesion; socialization to peace values and democracy; facilitation of open dialogue; and as entry points for peace building.

KEYWORDS : Somalia, Civil Society, Peace-building, Conflict

1. INTRODUCTION

The experience of European invasion, occupation and partition of Africa during the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference (Foster et al., 1988; Duthie, 2011; De Leon, 1986) paved way for the full colonization of Africa with the exception of Liberia and Ethiopia. The subsequent decolonization of the continent several decades later during the mid-twentieth century resulted in more civil wars than civil societies. Decades of colonial oppression and suppression did not nurture a socio-political culture that tends to institute change through a legitimising force (people)or by peaceful mechanisms such as debates, contestation or deliberation. Instead, Africa’s post-colonial independence was a climate of political violence and chaos that in some instances, albeit unfortunate, resulted in genocides. According to PRIO armed conflict database, approximately 65% of all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa experienced conflict between 1946 and 2010 (Uppsala Conflict Data, 2020). Majority of these conflicts being civil wars (Cheibub& Hays, 2017; Nyadera et al., 2019). The international community through multilateral institutions such as the UNhave attempted to deploy peacekeeping missions to rebuild conflict ridden areas, several peace operations have been initiated in the present and past (Adebajo & Landsberg, 2000; Bove & Ruggeri, 2016; Johnson, 2017). More often, peacekeeping missions are followed by peace-building initiatives aimed are restoring a resemblance of normalcy and during the state reconstruction processes. However, the performance of the overall performance of peacekeeping missions in peace-building were not comprehensive enough. The dissatisfaction with the peacekeeping missions as the only mechanism in peace-building therefore gave rise to the emergence of civil societies peace-building processes. Whereas civil societies are often associated as modern phenomenon, the idea traces its root to the classical era of philosophers such as Aristotle, John Locke and Jürgen Habermas. Increasingly, civil societies have evolved as viable frameworks to check the excess use of power by states to oppress civilians by curtailing human rights and freedoms. As entities constituted of different actors operating independently from the state, civil societies tend to have different ideologies and approaches to peace-building from states. Moreover, despite this diversity and divergence in peace-building approaches from

Read More