Inside Track

The dilemma of balancing peace and justice in situations where an end to violent intra-state conflict is being sought has become a regular feature in international affairs. The demands of justice and the enforcement of human rights are not easily reconciled with the political and strategic concerns of peacemaking. The pursuit of one is often perceived to be possible only at the expense of the other.

In contrast, Michelle Parlevliet argues that justice and peace are inextricably linked, and that the fields of human rights and conflict management are complementary rather than contradictory. Insufficient recognition of the extensive links between the two fields undermines efforts in securing peace, justice and reconciliation.

Parlevliet examines the relationship between human rights and conflict management through six propositions that have multiple implications for conflict prevention, peacemaking and human rights protection.

1. Human rights abuses are both symptoms and causes of violent conflict.

2. A sustained denial of human rights is a structural cause of high-intensity conflict.

3. Institutionalised respect for human rights and structural accommodation of diversity is a primary form of conflict prevention.

4. For the effective and sustainable resolution of intra-state conflict, the prescriptive approach of human rights actors must be combined with the facilitative approach of conflict resolution practitioners.

5. Whereas human rights and justice per se are non-negotiable, the application and interpretation of rights and justice are negotiable in the context of a negotiated settlement.

6. Conflict management can function as an alternative to litigation in dealing with rights-related conflicts.

Drawing extensively on academic research and work done by the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Parlevliet argues for increased dialogue between human rights actors and conflict management practitioners. She demonstrates how insights and practices from each field can benefit the other. Peacemaking and peacebuilding processes can only be effective and sustainable in the long term if they take into account human rights concerns. Not only do human rights issues lie at the root of many conflicts (thus making rights protection paramount to conflict prevention), but human rights standards also provide the normative and legislative framework within which conflict should be managed.

Conflict management, on the other hand, can contribute to efforts to assert and realize human rights. Its emphasis on co-operative and constructive approaches to conflict can assist in facilitating buy-in from parties, institutions and individuals resistant to human rights for various reasons. Interest-based methods for resolving conflict, such as mediation and negotiation, could also offer alternatives to human rights actors in dealing with rights-related conflict, thus expanding the range of methods available to them beyond litigation.

Parlevliet’s arguments for linking human rights and conflict management are both principled and pragmatic in nature. Her discussion of the six propositions is one of the first more comprehensive examinations of the relationship between human rights and conflict management. As such, it will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in both fields, as well as policy makers in governmental institutions and international organisations concerned with preventing violence, addressing structural causes of conflict and protecting human rights.

In much of my recent work I have been involved in the complex relationship between human rights and conflict management. It arose in the relationship between international war crimes prosecutions and peace negotiations. It arose also in the relationship between the demands for independence by the Kosovar Albanians and negotiating peace for the wider region. And, of course, it was a crucial question in South Africa in the relationship between prosecutions and amnesties. In this Occasional Paper, Michelle Parlevliet explores this important and much neglected relationship. She does so with intelligence and a full appreciation of the relevant moral and legal issues. I hope this paper receives the attention it deserves and that it will stimulate further debate of the subject.

Justice Richard Goldstone, Judge, Constitutional Court, South Africa

Failure to see the links between human rights violations and violent conflict can cause both human rights advocates and conflict resolution practitioners to adopt approaches that undermine their core objectives. Scholarship that bridges the two disciplines is badly needed; work that embraces a theoretical perspective and that speaks directly to practitioners in both fields is needed even more. Parlevliet has achieved both, and in doing so has advanced our understanding of what it will take to build a more peaceful, rights-respecting world.

Dr. Ellen Lutz, Director, Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Fletcher School of Diplomacy

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