The Need for Peace Building and Reconciliation in Post-TPLF Ethiopia (PDF)

Academic Paper from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict, Security, Haramaya University, language: English, abstract: This paper attempts to see the need for peace building and reconciliation in post-TPLF Ethiopia. It employed qualitative research approach. It draws heavily on secondary sources, including books, journals, researches and reports of various institutions. The facts collected are analyzed thematically, trans-active approach as alternative explanations. Ethiopia needs a peace-building rule to improve coordination and effectiveness of its interventions in promoting peace and human security. The constitution, sectoral policy pronouncements, international conventions and policy frameworks which the country has ratified, contain bits and pieces of policy pronouncements on peace-building.

In most post-conflict situations, there are major divisions throughout impacted societies, manifested in ethnic, political, economic, social, and religious rifts. The consequent psycho-social impacts that invariably result from protracted civil divergences are often more harmful than the physical damage shaped by the conflicts itself. Conflict is pervasive in every society, so the term post-conflict in this instance indicates the period after a formal dictatorial party in coalition is fired out by long-term protest.

The high-profile reconciliation initiatives with which we are familiar tend to be national-level, top-down approaches: truth commissions, legal processes and reform, national reparation programs, public apologies, etc. These initiatives can only take place once there is a recognized state-wide system of governance with sufficiently broad legitimacy that such initiatives can be carried out under its auspices. In conclusion for reconciliation activities to have any meaning, structural issues leading to conflict must also be addressed. There must be a harmonization of objectives between economic, political and psycho-social interventions. Peace building is increasingly institutionalized across the international landscape.