Peace Without Justice


Book Description

Popkin analyzes the role of international actors, notably the United States and the United Nations, and the contributions and limitations of international assistance in efforts to establish accountability and reform the justice system in El Salvador. The author discusses the essential role of civil society in attempts to establish accountability and an effective justice system for all, and looks at the reasons for and the consequences of the limited role played by Salvadorean civil society. She also addresses the challenges facing democratic reform efforts in the context of a postwar crime wave. Peace Without Justice grew out of Margaret Popkin's extensive experience working as a human rights advocate in El Salvador during the armed conflict and interviews with a variety of Salvadorans and others involved in justice reform and in negotiating and implementing the peace accords.




International Handbook of Human Rights


Book Description

This collection of essays on the current human rights climate in 19 countries includes Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Israel, Poland, the USA, and USSR, and represents a variety of regimes, cultural traditions, and geographical areas. . . . For analysis of the facts this volume excels. A well-crafted introduction describes current debate about human rights theory and practice, traces the development of human rights instruments, and discusses problems of implementation. Strongly recommended. Library Journal The bulk of the scholarly literature on human rights deals with international law and politics. In contrast, this volume offers nineteen case studies of national human rights practices. Although international factors cannot be ignored, most human rights violations are perpetrated by states against their own citizens; the principal causes of the respect for and violation of human rights lie in national social and political structures.




The El Mozote Massacre


Book Description

"Through fieldwork among the surprisingly numerous survivors, the author reconstructs the recent social structure, culture, and history of the northeastern Salvadoran village of Segundo Montes before, during, and after the infamous massacre. She tries toplace anthropology squarely into political issues, but also focuses on the people's oral testimonies more than on her own ethnography, especially resisting the easy/total categorization of the survivors as victims"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v.57.




The United Nations Mission in El Salvador


Book Description

The United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL) is the result of dialogue and negotiation between the Salvadorian Government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). It constitutes the first UN attempt to mediate the settlement of an non-international armed conflict. This work studies the benefits and disadvantages intrinsic to a political body in monitoring the respect for international humanitarian law, and analyzes new requirements demanded by the enlargement of the functions of the UN. The analysis is based on the reports of the ONUSAL, prepared during its peace-making phase, and focuses on the question of the extent to which the mission succeeded in assuring a better protection of the norms of humanitarian law. The work is based on a Ph.D. thesis originally written in French. Tathiana Flores Acuña received her doctorate from the European University Institute in Florence in 1994. She now works for the Organization of American States in Costa Rica.




The United Nations Mission in ElSalvador


Book Description

The United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL) is the result of dialogue and negotiation between the Salvadorian Government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). It constitutes the first UN attempt to mediate the settlement of an non-international armed conflict. This work studies the benefits and disadvantages intrinsic to a political body in monitoring the respect for international humanitarian law, and analyzes new requirements demanded by the enlargement of the functions of the UN. The analysis is based on the reports of the ONUSAL, prepared during its peace-making phase, and focuses on the question of the extent to which the mission succeeded in assuring a better protection of the norms of humanitarian law. The work is based on a Ph.D. thesis originally written in French. Tathiana Flores Acuña received her doctorate from the European University Institute in Florence in 1994. She now works for the Organization of American States in Costa Rica.




The Salvador Option


Book Description

El Salvador's civil war between the Salvadoran government and Marxist guerrillas erupted into full force in early 1981 and endured for eleven bloody years. Unwilling to tolerate an advance of Soviet and Cuban-backed communism in its geopolitical backyard, the US provided over six billion dollars in military and economic aid to the Salvadoran government. El Salvador was a deeply controversial issue in American society and divided Congress and the public into left and right. Relying on thousands of archival documents as well as interviews with participants on both sides of the war, The Salvador Option offers a thorough and fair-minded interpretation of the available evidence. If success is defined narrowly, there is little question that the Salvador Option achieved its Cold War strategic objectives of checking communism. Much more difficult, however, is to determine what human price this 'success' entailed - a toll suffered almost entirely by Salvadorans in this brutal civil war.




Caught in the Crossfire


Book Description

The puzzle of revolution in the Third World -- Theories of revolution : the evolution of the field -- Dependent development and the crisis of rural stability -- Mobilizing peasant social movements -- The response of the state : reform or repression? -- State repression and the escalation of revolutionary violence -- Win, lose, or draw : how civil wars end -- Reform, repression, and revolution in El Salvador -- Peruvian land reform the rise of Sendero Luminoso -- The future of revolutions in the countryside : globalization, democratization, and peacekeeping.




Human Rights in the Americas


Book Description

The existence of human rights helps secure the peace, deter aggression, promote the rule of law, combat crime and corruption, and prevent humanitarian crises. These human rights include freedom from torture, freedom of expression, press freedom, women's rights, children's rights, and the protection of minorities. This book surveys the countries of the Americas and is augmented by a current bibliography and useful indexes by subject, title and author.




The Protection Racket State


Book Description

A chilling examination into why states kill.




From Popular to Insurgent Intellectuals


Book Description

From Popular to Insurgent Intellectuals explains how a group of Catholic lay catechists educated in liberation theology came to take up arms and participate on the side of the rebel FMLN during El Salvador’s revolutionary war (1980-92). In the process they became transformed from popular intellectuals to insurgent intellectuals who put their organizational and cognitive skills at the service of a collective effort to create a more egalitarian and democratic society. The book highlights the key roles that peasant catechists in northern Morazán played in disseminating liberation theology before the war and supporting the FMLN during it—as quartermasters, political activists, and musicians, among other roles. Throughout, From Popular to Insurgent Intellectuals highlights the dialectical nature of relations between Catholic priests and urban revolutionaries, among others, in which the latter learned from the former and vice-versa. Peasant catechists proved capable at making independent decisions based on assessment of their needs and did not simply follow the dictates of those with superior authority, and played an important role for the duration of the twelve-year military conflict.