Building a post-war justice system in Afghanistan

This paper examines key dimensions of justice in post–war Afghanistan. These areshari'a(Islamic law), traditional institutions of informal justice (jirga), the Afghan interim legal framework, and human rights principles. It is argued that despite their apparent incompatibility, these various dimensions of justice could be integrated within a coherent framework of a new justice system in post–war Afghanistan –– a framework that would promote interaction between local institutions of informal justice and a district level court of justice, on the one hand, and between these two and a proposed human rights unit, on the other. On the basis of this analysis, an experimental model of a system of justice is proposed, which integrates local jirga and human rights units into the existing formal justice (based on shari'a and positive law) and law–enforcement institutions. This experimental model provides a multi–dimensional framework that both reflects the cultural and religious values of Afghan society, and at the same time, has the capacity to draw on human rights principles. It is maintained that the model has the capacity to deliver justice expeditiously and in cost–effective ways; it also has a strong potential to act as a channel of communication between ordinary people and a modern participatory state in post–war Afghanistan. However, in order to test the applicability of this model in the real world, it needs first to be thoroughly discussed among Afghan and international legal experts as well as among ordinary Afghan people, and then piloted in selected districts in Afghanistan.     

An empirical test of techniques of neutralization regarding polluting behaviors in rural Iran

Crime, Law and Social Change - Environmental pollution is regarded as a major environmental crime in most countries; Iran is no exception. This study examines water and soil polluting behavior...     

Predicting How Well Adolescents Get Along with Peers and Teachers: A Machine Learning Approach

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - How well adolescents get along with others such as peers and teachers is an important aspect of adolescent development. Current research on adolescent...     

Role of e-commerce and resource utilization for sustainable business development: goal of economic recovery after Covid-19

Economic Change and Restructuring - This study seeks to granularly document the fundamental aspects of the pandemic and its effect on the global scale and environmental steadiness. Structural...     

Parallel Systems and Human Resource Management in India's Public Health Services: A View from the Front Lines

There is building evidence in India that the delivery of health services suffers both from an actual shortfall in trained health professionals and from unsatisfactory results of existing service providers working in the public and private sectors. This study focuses on the public sector and examines de facto institutional and governance arrangements that may give rise to well‐documented provider behaviors such as absenteeism that can adversely affect service delivery processes and outcomes. We analyze four human resource management (HRM) subsystems: postings, transfers, promotions and disciplinary practices from the perspective of front‐line workers—physicians working in rural healthcare facilities operated by two state governments. We sampled physicians in one “post‐reform” state that has instituted HRM reforms and one “pre‐reform” state that has not. The findings are based on both quantitative and qualitative measurements. The results show that formal rules are undermined by a parallel modus operandi in which desirable posts are often determined by political connections and side payments. The evidence suggests an institutional environment in which formal rules of accountability are trumped by a parallel set of accountabilities. These systems appear so entrenched that reforms have borne no significant effect. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hybrid Hegemonic Masculinity of the EU before and after the Arab Spring: A Gender Analysis of Euro-Mediterranean Security Relations

In the academic literature on EU–southern Mediterranean relations, a focal point of neglect has been the gendered dimension of Euro-Mediterranean relations. This article argues that the Euro-Mediterranean space has been formed within the gendered global West/non-West relations with the purpose of promoting the West's security interests. Euro-Mediterranean security relations, thus, embody a gendered power hierarchy between the hybrid hegemonic masculinity of the EU (bourgeois-rational and citizen-warrior) and the subordinate (both feminized and hypermasculinized) southern neighbourhood. In addition, it shows that following the Arab Spring the EU has been determined to maintain the status quo by reconstructing these gendered power relations. This gender analysis contributes to the literature on Euro-Mediterranean relations through its specific focus on the (re)construction processes of gendered identities within the West/non-West context in tandem with the EU's competing notions of security.