Peace and human rights : a comparative analysis on the role of human rights in Norwegian peace processes in Sudan.

Abstract

This paper studies the issue of the role of human rights in Norwegian peace processes in the conflict between Northern and Southern Sudan. It is a comparative analysis between the Norwegian actors – the government and two NGOs. The aim is to see how the different Norwegian actors focus on human rights when they are building peace in Sudan, and if there are any clear differences between the government and the NGOs.

The long civil war between Northern and Southern Sudan came to and end in 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Norwegian actors, both state and NGOs, have played an important part before, during and after the signing of the agreement. Despite of the successful signing of CPA there are still difficulties in the Sudan. Several scholars argue that human rights are important and necessary in a society in order for peace to be sustainable. It is therefore interesting to see how the focus on human rights is for the Norwegian actors in Sudan. This issue will be studied in relation to the actors focus on human rights and the actors focus on peace.

Human rights are important for all the actors when they are working towards creating peace in Sudan. The differences are however in how much they focus on these rights, and how they focus on them. The two actors from the government focus more on the state-level, whereas the two NGOs focus more on the ground level. The main explanation for this is that the different Norwegian actors have different roles and therefore different focus.