Fundación Ciudad Política: liderar el desarrollo de la
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XXIV Italian Political Science Association Conference

IUAV University, Venice
16 - 18 September 2010

Section 8 – International Relations

Panel on “Humanitarian action, human rights and peace missions”

During the last twenty years, interposition missions for controlling truces and cease-fires, and interrupting aggression and violence among states, have been promoted by the UN Security Council. Moreover, many peace missions have been deployed to countries affected by civil conflicts, as well as institutional weakness and failure. The frequent employment of peacekeeping missions contributed not only to make these missions the main tool of management of peace and international security, but also to change significantly the purposes and methods of the missions, and make them more effective. In other terms, a specific approach to conflict management and humanitarian intervention has been developed by international organizations as security actors, and this approach created room for the action of other actors, namely NGOs, in crisis and conflict management.

This political innovation is improving the building up process of State responsibility towards human rights violations and refugees and victims’ needs. It is contributing, however, to enlarge the gap between the military and civilian dimension within the humanitarian action, causing theoretical discussions and logistical controversies, especially on field, among different actors working on the same territories and on the same issues.

This panel aims at promoting a broader discussion about these issues. Therefore, papers f ocused on theoretical considerations as well as case studies analysis are welcome. Papers can be given in English. If interested, please send a short abstract (max. 250 words) to dirrera@unict.itThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dr Daniela Irrera, PhD
University of Catania - Department of Political Studies
Via Vittorio Emanuele 49 - 95131 Catania - ITALY
tel. +39 095 7347 256 fax. +39 095 7347 205
dirrera@unict.it