This monograph provides a contemporary analysis of the frictions between peacemaking and international human rights law based on the cases of postconflict power-sharing in Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In this context it evaluates the long-standing debate in the United Nations and human rights bodies about the 'imperfect peace'. Written from a practitioner–scholarly viewpoint and drawing from new authentic sources, the book describes the mechanisms used in peace agreements and post-conflict constitutions for managing ethnic or religious diversity, explains their legal limits under international human rights law, and provides a conceptual framework for analysing the nexus between law and peacemaking. The book argues that the relationship between the content of peace agreements and post-conflict constitutions, their negotiation process and the element of time, needs to be untangled to better understand the legal limits of statebuilding in the aftermath of armed conflict. It is a key resource for scholars in human rights law and peace and conflict studies, advisers in peace processes, constitution-makers, and peace mediators.

 

Table Of Contents



1. Introduction

I. State Transitions, Power-Sharing and International Law

II. Closing the Gap

III. Methodology and Scope

2. Power-Sharing in Theory and Practice: Concepts, Mechanisms and Legal Challenges

I. Ethnic and Religious Diversity as a Challenge for International Law

II. Democracy Theory and the Perspective of Conflict Resolution

III. Mechanisms

IV. The Legal Debate

V. Conclusion: The Necessity and Challenges of Bridging Interdisciplinary Perspectives

3. Power-Sharing on Trial: Sejdic and Finci v Bosnia and Herzegovina

I. Bosnia and Herzegovina between Transition and Transformation

II. Relevant Decisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Constitutional Court (1997–2009)

III. ECtHR Definition of Ethnic-Racial Discrimination in Sejdic and Finci

IV. Justifying Human Rights Restrictions

V. Post-trial Developments and Constitutional Reform Process

VI. Conclusion

4. Through the Lens of Human Rights Committees: Lebanese Political Confessionalism and Transitional Mechanism

I. State Stability, Sectarian Traditions and Socio-Political Change

II. Reports Submitted by Lebanon to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

III. Debate in the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

IV. Analysis: Confessionalism and Non-Discrimination

V. Transitional Power-Sharing, Unity Governments, Proportions of High-Level Posts and the Right to Participation

VI. Proportionality and Time Limitations

VII. Conclusion

5. On the Law of Peace: Parameters, Challenges and Limits

I. The Quest for Absolute Limitations in Peacemaking

II. Peremptory Norms and Peacemaking

III. A Conceptual Model for Reflections about the Law of Peace Debate

IV. Open Questions and Future Research Agenda

V. Concluding Remarks