Australian Transnational Union Solidarity through Union-Building in Timor-Leste

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-166
Author(s):  
Daniel Hannington-Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
State Building ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Macroeconomic Implications

Australian union support for the development of an organised labour movement in independent Timor-Leste has received scant attention. Looking to address this gap in the literature, this article focuses on the contributions of two individual activists between 2002 and 2003: Didge McDonald, from the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union; and the Maritime Union of Australia’s Michael Killick. Their role in the development of Timorese unions was a crucial counterweight to the exploitation of domestic workers by foreign businesses – a phenomenon expedited by the macroeconomic implications of the broader United Nations state-building mission. Considered through the prism of nation-building at the civil society level, Australian union assistance to Timor-Leste is presented as a valuable example of how cross-border partnerships following the model of New Labour Internationalism can help workers challenge the growing reach of transnational capital.

The Double Task: Nation- and State-Building in Timor-Leste

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Borgerhoff
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
State Building ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Arduous Task ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Cleavage Lines ◽  
Policy Fields

AbstractTimor-Leste has been facing the arduous task of building a viable nation-state since the country's 2002 restoration of independence. The dual challenge consists of interdependent efforts at nation-building and state-building. The author discusses both terms with regard to their relevance to public education and economic development. He raises the question of why nation-building and state-building experience rather contrary prioritisations in these functionally close policy fields. In the educational sector, government activities demonstrate Fretilin's orientation towards Portuguese-speaking countries. The introduction of Portuguese as an official language has accentuated existing lingual and generational cleavage lines. Economic policy in Timor-Leste, however, tends to be more pragmatic and less ideological. The article aims to make an innovative contribution to the interrelationship of nation-building and economic development by addressing important issues on the agenda such as the exploitation of oil, agriculture, tourism, the economic dependency on the former oppressor Indonesia, and foreign aid. The author argues that economic growth will eventually shape the future format of the East Timorese nation as either a new self-confident political player or a withdrawn peasant nation.

The Limits of U.N. Intervention in the Third World

1968 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest W. Lefever
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Third World ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
State Building ◽  
The Third ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
The Third World

The strangely unreal debate on the feasibility of United Nations intervention in Rhodesia or South Africa (to overthrow “colonialist” regimes) or in Vietnam (to stop or deescalate a war) would benefit from a more serious examination of the largest and most daring U.N. experiment on record. The Congo peacekeeping operation was unique, controversial and costly. The growing body of empirical data about this four-year operation provides a solid basis for understanding the severe limits of the United Nations as an instrument for political reform and crisis management in the Third World, to say nothing of the more difficult tasks of state-building and nation-building.

A Bifurcated Global Nuclear Order

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Thakur
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Nuclear Deterrence ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations

The very destructiveness of nuclear weapons makes them unusable for ethical and military reasons. The world has placed growing restrictions on the full range of nuclear programs and activities. But with the five NPT nuclear powers failing to eliminate nuclear arsenals, other countries acquiring the bomb, arms control efforts stalled, nuclear risks climbing, and growing awareness of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war, the United Nations adopted a new treaty to ban the bomb. Some technical anomalies between the 1968 and 2017 treaties will need to be harmonized and the nuclear-armed states’ rejection of the ban treaty means it will not eliminate any nuclear warheads. However, it will have a significant normative impact in stigmatizing the possession, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons and serve as a tool for civil society to mobilize domestic and world public opinion against the doctrine of nuclear deterrence.

Juvenile Justice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asha Bajpai
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
Alternative Care ◽  
Need Of Care ◽  
History Of

This chapter deals with those children in especially difficult circumstances that are vulnerable, marginalized, destitute, and neglected and deprived of their basic rights. It commences with a history of the Juvenile Justice legislation in India right from the Children’s Act of 1960s to the current Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. The barriers faced in the administration and implementation of the Juvenile Justice legislation throughout its evolution to its present stage is discussed in detail. How the law deals with children in need of care and protection and children in conflict with law are discussed in this chapter. Landmark judgements by courts and suggestions for further law reform are included. This chapter also contains international law relating to administration of juvenile justice, and United Nations guidelines in matters in matters involving child victims and witnesses of crime including UN Guidelines on Alternative Care of Children. Some civil society interventions are also included.

Civil Society in UN Peacebuilding Discourse

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura J. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Conceptual Domain ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

Chapter 5 outlines the ways in which civil society is largely associated with “women” and the “local,” as a spatial and conceptual domain, and how this has implications for how we understand political legitimacy and authority. The author argues that close analysis reveals a shift in the way in which the United Nations as a political entity conceives of civil society over time, from early engagement with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to the more contemporary articulation of civil society as consultant or even implementing partner. Contemporary UN peacebuilding discourse, however, constitutes civil society as a legitimating actor for UN peacebuilding practices, as civil society organizations are the bearers/owners of certain forms of (local) knowledge.

Consolidation of Statehood through Membership in the UN: Some Remarks on Kosovo, Democracy and International Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-349
Author(s):  
Iliriana Islami ◽  
Remzije Istrefi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
State Building ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Advisory Opinion ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
Building Process

Kosovo declared its independence on 17 February 2008. Subsequently, one of the aims of Kosovo’s foreign policy was to further consolidate this position and to justify Kosovo’s prospective membership in the United Nations. This article examines the issue of recognition, elucidating how Kosovo is different from other countries and comparing it with the case of the former Yugoslavia. Other aspects in the state-building process such as ‘building constitutionalism’ will be presented as a step toward justifying recognition and membership. Furthermore, the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 8 October 2008 will be presented as evidence of Kosovo’s strengthening international position in its quest for further recognition. Thus, the article will discuss and analyze the arguments in favor of Kosovo being admitted to the UN.

scholarly journals National narration and Politics of Memory in post-socialist Georgia

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-240
Author(s):  
Salome Dundua ◽  
Tamar Karaia ◽  
Zviad Abashidze
Keyword(s):  
Historical Memory ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
State Building ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Memory Politics ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Future State ◽  
Building Process ◽  
The Rose

Abstract The article is dedicated to analyse the politics of so called “historical memory” during the state-building and nation-building process in post-socialist Georgia After the Rose Revolution 2003, the new government that aimed at building the “new Georgia,” implementing radical changes in many key spheres, including institutions, readdressing the totalitarian past, faced number of problematic manifestations in political and cultural life in this post-Soviet country. The “politics of memory” became one of the key factors of reconstructing of “new, democratic, western Georgia”. This process can be evaluated as leading toward state nationalism. Analyzing the politics of memory, symbolism is the most notable attitude and that is why former President Mikheil Saakashvili used commemorative ceremonies continuously. The authors argue in favour of approach, that the so called “memory politics” is the integral part of one’s legitimacy building, but at the same time, it can be used as tool for reconsidering of Polity’s future and mobilization of population under the “citizenship” umbrella towards the strong loyalty to the actual and future state-building.

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