‘Without Education You Can Never Become President’: Teenage Pregnancy and Pseudo-empowerment in Post-Ebola Sierra Leone

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the emergence of ‘teenage pregnancy’ as a new policy focus in post-Ebola Sierra Leone and explores how Sierra Leoneans interpret the problem of ‘teenage pregnancy’. I argue that the new policy focus is not indicative of changing or new problems. Rather, ‘teenage pregnancy’ has created opportunities for donors and the Government of Sierra Leone to continue cooperation in gender politics. At the same time, Sierra Leoneans are clearly concerned about ‘teenage pregnancy’, and many agree with sensitization campaigns that responsibilize young women and girls while downplaying structural factors that render them vulnerable to arrangements involving transactional sex.     

Feminism in the Humanitarian Machine. Introduction to the Special Section on ‘The Politics of Intervention Against (Conflict-Related) Sexual and Gender-based Violence’

ABSTRACT

The prevention and mitigation of sexual and gender-based violence in (post-) conflict societies has become an important humanitarian activity. This introductory article examines the analytical discourses on these interventions, the institutionalization of SGBV expertise in international politics, and the emancipatory potential of anti-SGBV practices. It argues that the confluence of feminist professional activism and militarized humanitarian interventionism produced specific international activities against SGBV. As part of the institutionalization of gender themes in international politics, feminist emancipatory claims have been taken up by humanitarian organizations. The normal operating state of the humanitarian machine, however, undercuts its potential contribution to social transformation towards larger gender equality in (post-) conflict societies.     

Violence in the city that belongs to no one: urban distinctiveness and interconnected insecurities in Nairobi (Kenya)

ABSTRACT

Rapid urbanisation in the global South has prompted attention to the causes and dynamics of urban violence. Yet, much research tends to either analyse urban violence without attention to the broader conflict complexes of which it forms a part, neglecting linkages between different forms of urban violence and between urban and rural dynamics, or conversely study violence in cities without acknowledging the particularities of the urban context. In this article, we conceptualise urban violence, theorise how it is shaped by urban dynamics and explore its manifestations in Nairobi, Kenya. We find that while Nairobi is not uniquely violent inside Kenya, violence takes on distinct urban forms given city-level processes, and also that urban violence has led to policies that increase securitisation and militarisation of the city. Our analysis thus improves knowledge of how criminal and political violence is shaped by and shapes the stability of developing cities.     

社会整合与人民法庭的功能定位

随着乡村社会转型,乡民与国家、家庭、传统规范之间的纽带早已松懈,个人对社会保有的团结情感和道德责任感随之淡薄,乡村社会的整合问题将越来越突出.人民法庭的司法运作在修复国家与乡民之间的关系,加强社会整合方面的功能越来越重要.虽然不少研究对人民法庭能动的、便民的司法运行模式持否定态度,但若立足于整体分析的方法与视角,从人民法庭对乡村社会整合的功能意义出发却可以发现,这其实是人民法庭的功能性必要条件.     

海上保险中被保险人对保险人代位求偿权所负之义务

通过对被保险人对于代位求偿权所负义务性质的剖析,明确了被保险人仅负有不得损害保险人代位求偿权的消极义务。结合英美法的相关制度和判例并联系中国海上保险的司法实践,进一步阐述了被保险人所负义务的内涵。最后结合《中华人民共和国保险法》,对《中华人民共和国海商法》第253条进行检讨,提出对《中华人民共和国海商法》第253条的修改建议。     

Majoritarian values and women’s rights: police and judicial behavior in Tajikistan and Azerbaijan

This paper analyzes judicial and police behavior in dealing with cases of family violence and divorce in Tajikistan and Azerbaijan. Police and judges deliberately violate existing legal provisions to prevent women from divorcing or filing charges against their husbands in cases of domestic violence. While the law does not recognize religious marriages in Tajikistan, judges often rule to protect women’s living space after the dissolution of such unions. Drawing on rich interview and archival data, this behavior is explained by showing that judicial and police behavior reflects their biases, which in turn are a reflection of majoritarian norms in these countries. Since current laws are derived from Soviet codes, which were never internalized by the population, police and judges bend them to fit their understanding of social justice.     

A Youth Counter-Narrative on Trafficking and Smuggling from Africa to Europe

This article features the personal experiences of a young African woman victim of trafficking and smuggling from Nigeria to Italy. The aim of the article is to provide a counter-narrative on the phenomenon of human trafficking, by engaging with the youth’s lived experiences. The story forms part of a wider database of youth counter-narratives, gathered by the authors in different parts of the world (Italy, South Africa, and Ethiopia). The narrative will be discussed on the basis of four identified elements, and the reflection addresses them within the wider context of trafficking, smuggling, and human migration. The conclusion drawn is that the language of youth counter-narratives can represent a useful tool to address the complexity of social issues, in particular when they refer to lived experiences of youngsters who have been subjected to different forms of oppression and violence. It also represents a sort of liberation from cultural homogenisation, forcing the readers to engage with a “new humanism.”     

Two sides of the same coin: can campaigns generate support for both human rights and retributive violence?

ABSTRACT

Do framing strategies that are effective at encouraging pro-social behavior, such as participation in human rights campaigns, also mobilize support for violence within the same subjects? We use an experimental research design to examine individuals’ reactions to personal, humanizing narratives about past victimization. Participants are randomly assigned to one of eight treatment groups, which variously highlighted the humanity of the subject, the intensity of the past violence, and/or an evocative photograph of the subject that underscores her loss and vulnerability. We expect narratives that emphasize the subject’s humanity will encourage the audience to see the subject as innocent and as a victim, but also to feel angry about her experience. As a result, individuals will be more likely to defend the subject’s human rights, and to condone her use of retributive violence. We find that humanizing narratives lead respondents to simultaneously support a human rights appeal on the subject’s behalf and her use of retributive violence. Perceiving the subject in the narrative as innocent or as a victim mediates these effects, but anger often does not.     

暴力危及飞行安全罪

暴力危及飞行安全罪的直接结果是被施暴者人身伤亡,构成要件结果是危及飞行安全,侵犯客体是飞行安全,主观方面包括故意和过失。暴力包括一切足以危及飞行安全的暴力;在飞行中是指在空中飞行中,不包括在跑道上滑行或停止状态;严重后果是指危及飞行安全的严重后果,不包括直接结果。