Human rights

Rights, conflict and fragile states

There are complex relationships between rights and violent conflict, and between rights and fragile states. There is currently considerable donor interest in this area, but work remains exploratory. Where groups are socially excluded through persistent denial of their rights, evidence suggests this can act as a cause of violent conflict. In turn, conflicts cause denials of all kinds of human rights.

DFID defines fragile states as those where the government cannot or will not deliver core functions to the majority of its people, including the poor. This tends to involve multiple failures to fulfil the state's internationally defined obligations to protect and promote rights. Many states experiencing violent conflict could be defined as fragile states, compounding the impact on human rights. It is important to note that once violent conflicts begin, humanitarian law applies, and human rights law may be restricted.

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Where is a good place to start?

The UN Secretary General proposed in 2004 an agenda for international cooperation which combines security, development and human rights together, based on arguments about their interdependence.

United Nations, 2004, 'A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility', Report of the Secretary-General's High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, United Nations, New York
The changes that have taken place in the world since the Millennium Declaration demand that consensus be revitalised on key challenges and priorities. What are these and how can they best be achieved? This report, by United Nations Secretariat, suggests that security, development and human rights must be advanced together, otherwise none will succeed. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be met by 2015, but only if all governments dramatically increase their efforts.
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Rights denials, exclusion and the causes of conflict

Some analyses of the causes of violent conflict point to the role played by exclusion and inequalities. The exclusion of certain groups from economic, social and political life can increase the incentives for these groups to engage in violence. Some explanations for the causes of conflict focus on the role of grievances. Grievances can become particularly severe in contexts of social exclusion.

This paper advocates for greater attention to the situation of minority rights – in order to assess the potential for conflict and to design conflict prevention strategies.  Highlighting the events in Darfur, it argues that the systematic violation of minority rights by the Government of Sudan contributed to violent conflict in the region.

Srinivasan, S., 2006, 'Minority Rights, Early Warning and Conflict Prevention: Lessons from Darfur', Minority Rights Group International, London
What lessons can we learn from international engagement in the conflict in Darfur? This paper from Minority Rights International analyses events in the terms of structural and operational conflict prevention. It argues that the catalogue of political and institutional failures before and during the civil war indicates a need to address minority rights issues at every stage of conflict prevention. Institutional improvements in conflict prevention and early warning mechanisms will help avoid repeating the mistakes of Darfur in the future.
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This chapter on eastern Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo during the 1990s explains how the denial of citizenship and land rights for particular groups led to an extreme lack of human security and contributed to the onset of conflict in the region.

Mamdani, M, 2001, 'Tutsi Power in Rwanda and the Citizenship Crisis in Eastern Congo', Chapter 8 in When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda , James Currey, Oxford
How can the invasion of Congo by the Rwandan Popular Front (RPF) be understood as an outcome of the citizenship crisis on both sides of the Rwanda-Congo border? This chapter, from the book ‘When Victims Turn Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda’, tackles this question and traces the history of the Kinyarwanda-speaking minority in the Kivu region of Congo and their struggle for citizenship rights.
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This document suggests that rights-based approaches can counter social exclusion that can lead to conflict.

Archibald S. and Richards P., 2002, 'Seeds and Rights: New Approaches to Post-war Agricultural Rehabilitation in Sierra Leone', Disasters, December, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 356-367(12)
Can more equitable seed distribution contribute to fostering a culture of human rights as well as lead to agricultural rehabilitation? This study, by researchers from the aid agency CARE and Wageningen University, assesses seeds-and-tools programmes in 19 villages devastated during the civil war in central Sierra Leone. In these cases the targeting and distribution methods used by aid agencies denied assistance to those people it was intended for, exacerbating grievances and the threat of social disorder. An alternative, more inclusive, rights-based approach to seed distribution could lead to greater social inclusion and facilitate conflict resolution.
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Security, rights and development

The lack of personal security for individuals represents a series of human rights denials and violations. At the same time, measures to promote security of people and states must be based in adherence to international human rights standards.

The UN Secretary General is promoting an agenda for international cooperation which combines security, development and human rights, based on arguments about their interdependence.

United Nations Secretary General, 2004, 'A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility', Report of the Secretary-General's High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, United Nations, New York
The changes that have taken place in the world since the Millennium Declaration demand that consensus be revitalised on key challenges and priorities. What are these and how can they best be achieved? This report, by United Nations Secretariat, suggests that security, development and human rights must be advanced together, otherwise none will succeed. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be met by 2015, but only if all governments dramatically increase their efforts.
Access full text: available online

Rights in fragile states

Fragile states are defined by DFID as those where the government cannot or will not deliver core functions to the majority of its people, including the poor. This covers a wide range of contexts, but often involves a combination of weak administrative capacity and territorial reach, lack of state control over the use of violence, and the lack of accountability to populations, particularly poor or marginalised people. Therefore high levels of human rights violations or denials are likely, due to the failure of governments to fulfil their international human rights obligations to protect and promote rights. The fragile states agenda is a relatively new one, and little has been written so far on how rights should best be protected. This may be partly because of the wide range of types of fragile state, and the variety of implications for rights.

Stewart, F. and Brown, G., 2009, ‘Fragile States’, CRISE Working Paper no. 51, Centre for Research on Inequality, Security and Ethnicity, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
What constitutes a fragile state and how can the concept be operationalised for development policy? This working paper from the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security, and Ethnicity proposes a three-pronged definition of fragility: states may be fragile because they lack authority, fail to provide services or lack legitimacy. Reversing these interrelated dimensions of fragility requires a tailored, comprehensive and long-term approach based on careful contextual analysis.
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In 2005, DFID supported the ODI's Rights in Action group to hold a series of seminars to explore the operational value of human rights for poverty reduction.  One of the seminars focused on promoting human rights in fragile and conflict environments.  The background paper and the meeting report are both available from the ODI website.

What other resources are available on the GSDRC?

Topic guides:

• Conflict causes and dynamics
• Fragile states
• Transitional justice

Use the site search at the top of this page if you wish to look for wider resources on rights, conflict and fragile states.

Additional information resources

General resources on access to justice:

• Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity
• ODI seminar on rights in post-conflict and fragile settings
• Women, War, Peace (UNIFEM)
• Stop Violence Against Women (STOPVAW)

The following organisations provide information on rights violations in all states, including states that could be defined as fragile and conflict-affected states:

• Amnesty International
• Human Rights Watch

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