Elections in Dangerous Places

About 50 invitees from US government, multilateral organizations, democracy support institutions, embassies, and universities attended a panel discussion on October 25 in Washington, D.C. marking the launch of the book, Elections in Dangerous Places, published by The North-South Institute (NSI).

The panel, on the role of elections in conflict situations, was co-hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and NSI. It was moderated by Tom Carothers, a Carnegie Vice-President and democracy expert.

Panelists included Francesc Vendrell, a former UN and EU Special Representative to Afghanistan; Ben Reilly, an election expert from the Australian National University; Susanne Mueller, a Kenya expert; and David Gillies, the editor of the work, and a former NSI principal researcher.

The elections book, which is a product of NSI's work on fragile and conflict-afflicted states, shows how flawed elections can act as democracy in reverse and diminish political legitimacy and stable governance.

Authors of the various chapters challenge the centrality and timing of elections as a key pillar of reconstruction at a war's end. They underline the dangers in rushing elections, compromising principles, and lowering the bar for what constitutes free and fair elections in situations of conflict.

The book was put out by McGill-Queens University Press (MQUP) in August. It can be purchased through MQUP, or at many leading bookstores.

Joseph Ingram, the president of NSI, explained that the book has come out at just the right time, noting that "the title (of the book), the timing, and the content of this book couldn't be more appropriate given current events in North Africa and the Middle East."

"Having personally lived through elections in a couple of post-conflict/fragile states I find the analyses presented in this book and the perspective it presents to be a sobering wake-up call to those who continue to subscribe to the view that elections are the panacea to post-conflict and fragile state development. Not so fast!"

 African Women on the Thin Blue Line

How do you build lasting peace once war is over? NSI's publication, African Women on the Thin Blue Line: Gender Sensitive Police Reform in Liberia and Southern Sudan, explores how women in civil society and their female counterparts in the police are experiencing police reform processes in two conflict-affected African contexts: Liberia and Southern Sudan.

The book, available electronically, highlights the challenges of fully integrating a gender perspective into police reform as well as the many opportunities and strengths of such an approach.

The work was edited by senior researcher Jennifer Salahub. It includes two case-studies which focus on the perspectives of Liberian and Southern Sudanese women. Policy recommendations are featured at the end of the book and draw on the perspectives of women.

For the last four years, The North-South Institute (NSI) and the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) have conducted annual global online surveys of civil society engagement with regard to the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

In 2005, civil society organizations around the world reviewed the lessons learned and the progress made over the preceding five-year period.

Through our most recent global survey, more than 400 groups provided a wealth of information about their work on the MDGs and their assessment of progress.

ISBN 1-896770-69-X (In French, Nous les Peuples 2005 — Se mobiliser pour le changement : Messages de la société civile - ISBN 1-986770-70-3)

To read the 2005 eight-page summary, click here> We the Peoples – Civil Society and the global agenda: from evaluation to action. (February 2005)

The 2005 eight-page summary is also available in: French, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, Russian and Chinese