Read the public address of Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit on his return from the official visit to the United States of America.

This autumn CMI will host a mini-series of lectures on the social and political role of rights and legal institutions in Latin America.

Remarks by U.S. President Obama in a Ministerial Meeting on Sudan.

Forskingsdagane, UiB og CMI inviterar til samtale mellom forskarar i Bergen ressurssenter for internasjonal utvikling. Tema idag er: Blant krigarar, strategar og vanlege folk - forsking i konfliktområde.

What is the relationship between the change in the structure of land ownership and the dynamics of armed conflict in the Columbian Pacific, and how is it related to the planting and exploitation of palm oil?

Sudan's North and South must take political action to define their mutual boundary if they hope to avoid future complications, including a return to conflict.

the workshop will examine why Lebanon becomes trapped in externally driven cycles of regional and international political conflict and what the international community can do to break the cycle of violence.

Leading international scholars meet to discuss the transformation of Muslim identities and the production of new representations and imaginations of Islam and Muslims in Ethiopia.

How do different models of ownership over natural resources affect poverty levels and social conflicts in Latin America? Who stand to gain and who stand to lose from nationalizing natural resources? And what do "natural resources" really mean for different groups in society?

With the report UNPAID DEBT, ECOS calls upon the oil companies Lundin Petroleum from Sweden, Petronas from Malaysia and Austria's OMV and their home governments to account for the injustices suffered by the victims of the oil wars in Block 5A.

Born in a territory between North and South Sudan, politically speaking the author is from the North. However, like many Sudanese women, the author feels that being a Sudanese woman is what is important for her. It is as a Sudanese woman that she feels she has the liberty to speak about Sudanese women - regardless of their political and geographic affiliations.

May 6, 2010 An independent review by six leading human rights and Sudan advocacy groups reveals that the Sudanese peace processes for Darfur and Southern Sudan show no significant progress. They are at best stagnating and at worst backsliding toward complete failure and a return to full-scale, national war.

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has granted 15 million NOK to fund a three-year research and capacity building programme between CMI and the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) focusing on Inclusive Growth and Good Governance.

Nairobi/Brussels, 28 April 2010: To make an end of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) once and for all, national armies, the UN and civilians need to pool intelligence and coordinate their efforts in new and creative ways.

Exile has been present in Latin America since colonial times. After independence from Spain and Portugal, Latin American nation states have actively used exile as a regulatory political mechanism preferable to prison or execution, in dealing with opposition that various governments have been unable to assimilate into their political systems.

On 20th May 2007, fighting broke out between the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and a new militia group calling itself Fatah al-Islam based in Nahr el-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli, North Lebanon. After 15-weeks of intense bombardment, the camp was reduced to rubble and more than 30,000 residents made homeless. Despite plans to rebuild the ruined camp, the displaced families live under dire conditions and face an uncertain future.

The aim of this seminar is to take stock of the situation in Guatemala regarding poverty, security and indigenous rights and analyze the root causes of the disappointing developments following the signing of the peace accords in 1996.

President Karzai has announced that a peace jirga will be held in May this year to discuss ways out of the conflict and President Obama has earlier announced that American forces will start to withdraw in July next year. What does this mean for Afghanistan's future? What are the implications for progressive reforms in Afghanistan? Aziz Hakimi, an Afghan political analyst based in Kabul, and CMI researcher Torunn Wimpelmann Chaudhary present and discusses with chair Astri Suhrke.

Aslak Jangård Orre disputerer torsdag 6. mai 2010 for PhD-graden ved Universitetet i Bergen. Funnene sår alvorlig tvil om de styrende partienes demokratiske sinnelag og deres evne til å fremme utvikling til det beste for landenes befolkning. Norske interesser i disse landene - hovedsakling bistand i Mosambik og oljeindustri i Angola - bør i særlig grad ta inn over seg problemene ved styresettet.

Is Obama's foreign policy towards Latin America any different than that of Bush? Is Venezuela's economy going down the drain? What does the development of left-leaning governments in Latin America mean for the future of the continent? And is the US re-militarizing Latin America?

Why do some high courts hold political branches to account and others not? What explains the judiciary´s strong or weak defense of rights? And what role are courts playing -or not playing- in strengthening democracy in Latin America and Africa?

Søndag 11. april skal det avholdes valg i Sudan. For første gang i sudansk historie stiller en kvinne som presidentkandidat. Valgkommisjonen nektet henne å delta. Men sudansk høyesterett besluttet at Fatima Abdel Mahmoud likevel kan stille som utfordrer til den omstridte Omar al-Bashir. I tillegg er det vedtatt at alle nasjonale og regionale parlamenter i Sudan skal ha minst 25% kvinnelige representanter. Er kvinnekampen i Sudan vunnet?

CMI welcomes, Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Hart, who is the new Director of the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre (www.U4.no).

Excerpt from Literary Salon with Judge Albie Sachs at Bergen Resource Centre for International Development 15 March.

Parliamentary elections will be held in Angola on 5th September 2008. The first elections in the country since 1992. This publication gives a background, provides an overview of the political situation, the 'playing field', the election system and the opposition parties of Angola

Este relatório apresenta alguns resultados do trabalho de campo realizado em Outubro-Novembro de 2008 em Kalandula, província de Malange, sobre experiências recentes com os novos Conselhos de Auscultação e Concertação Social. Este relatório também discute os resultados à luz das declarações políticas e das experiências internacionais com instituições similares.

Siri Gloppen, Research Director at the Chr. Michelsen Institute, is the new Head of the Rafto Prize Committee.

Support to democracy building in developing countries increased after 1990. It is gradually seen less as a technical exercise and more as a challenging, politically sensitive area of cooperation.

Professor Göran Hyden explores the role political accountability plays in assessing development prospects in Africa.

Lebanon remains the hostage of regional geopolitics. Foreign powers manipulate the Lebanese factions because of the socio-economic conditions that have rendered the majority of the population completely dependent. Professor Fabrice Balanche explorescontemporary Beirut in this seminar.

In his new book Helge Rønning explores the role of the media in different parts of Africa plays in the political and social processes of change on the continent.

The story of a Kenyan whistle blower and Michela Wrong's latest book is a gripping account of both an individual caught on the horns of an excruciating moral dilemma and a continent at a turningpoint.

Alicia Ely Yamin, Joseph H. Flom Fellow on Global Health and Human Rights, and professor II at CMI, argues that using human rights approaches to effectively address maternal mortality challenges human rights paradigms as well as development practice.

Anne Sofie Roald har skrevet bok om det multikulturelle Sveriges utfordringer; om spenninger mellom assimilasjon og autonomi, mellom individuelle og kollektive kulturelle rettigheter.

How can we make peace without functioning state institutions? The starting point of this lecture is that existing scholarly and policymaking approaches to fragile states have been premised on an analysis of what these countries are not, namely that they do not possess capable and autonomous state institutions that can manage political conflicts.

Owen Logan, a photographer and research fellow at the University of Aberdeen, works with the "Lives in the Oil Industry" and with the CMI project Flammable Societies - Studies on the Socio-Economics of Oil and Gas.

"Africa must end the pathology of aid dependence in Africa." Yash Tandon proposes a strategy of increased national and regional 'self-reliance'.

This seminar will elaborate on the relationship between sharia and human rights. Is Islam compatible with human rights? What are the implications of the struggles of contemporary Islamic feminists and Muslim human rights activists on both the concept of sharia and human rights? What are the challenges and consequences?

Invited guests and local researchers lecture and dicuss citizenship from various perspectives and different approacehs to citizenship.

How did Kenya pull itself from the brink of crisis after the presidential elections? Are there any lessons in the power sharing arrangement that the Kenyan example offers to mediation processes in other conflict situations?

What threat do they pose to the stability of the Afghan and Pakistani state? What role do they play in international terrorism? Is there room for a negotiated settlement with these groups without abandoning democratization, development and basic human rights?

Utviklingsforskerne ved CMI, UiB og Unifob Global samles under ett tak. Vi inviterer til åpningen av Bergen ressurssenter for internasjonal utvikling. Åpningsuke: 12-16. oktober 2009

The discovery of oil or mineral resources has been associated with devastating political conflict and economic setbacks insted of sustainable economic growth and poverty alleviation. The Oslo conference is aimed at eliciting lessons learned from recent efforts to improve the management of natural resources in developing countries.

A travel through the richest oil countries in the world and an analysis of Caspian energy politics.

AusAID joined U4 and became the eigth partner agency of the U4 anti-corruption online resource centre.

Dr. Carlos Flores is the author of El Estado en Crisis: Crimen Organizado y Politicas (The State in Crisis: Organized Crime and Politics) and several articles about the evolution of drug trafficking in Mexico and the impact on state legitimacy and democracy.

Perspektiver etter karikaturstroden. Karikaturstriden i kjølvannet av Jyllandspostens Muhammed-tegninger skapte stor debatt om ytringsfriheten i mange verdenshjørner. Elisabeth Eide m.fl. har nå analysert mediedekningen av karikaturstriden i boken Transnational Media Events. The Mohammed Cartoons and the Imagined Clash of Civilizations. Vi vil diskutere hva vi har lært etter karikaturkontroversen.