Per la Pau / Peace in Progress

The loss of the monopoly by the State over mass means of violence: a multifaceted, confirmed and concerning trend

This edition of Per la Pau/Peace in Progress focuses on the relationship between business and violent conflict and, more generally speaking, the ties between companies and the state of peace and human rights in the world, an issue ICIP has dealt with in the past and will continue to address. We are doing so, moreover, in a context marked by two news stories published in August. The first, the growth in weapons sales by the United States, which in 2011 reached 66.3 billion dollars, three quarters of the world’s total (85.3 billion), much higher than Russia, the second largest exporter at 4.8 billion (The New York Times, 26 August 2012, based on data from the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan institution part of the Library of Congress).

Mauricio Lazala, Deputy Director of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre

Mauricio Lazala, lawyer specialising in human rights, has since last year been the Deputy Director of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, an independent non-governmental organisation that works to encourage companies to respect human rights. We talk to him about the abuses committed by the private sector in conflict areas and also about good business practices, which do exist.

Cyber-space: a battlefield without regulation

10 years of the International Criminal Court: expectations fulfilled?

The Shadow World

Andrew Feinstein. The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. Farrar, 2011.

Andrew Feinstein was a member of the African National Congress until it refused to investigate a corruption case related to an arms sale to South Africa. Following this experience, he has investigated the behind-the-scenes of the global arms trade and this is exactly what he explains in this book. After an exhaustive search of declassified documents, Feinstein details the specific connections among politicians, arms manufacturers, arms dealers and armies around the world.

El tiempo es ahora

El tiempo es ahora. ¿Es posible una memoria incluyente de las víctimas en el ámbito local? Experiencias y desafíos. Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos Argituz, 2012.

The report El Tiempo es ahora (“The Time is Now”), published by the Argituz association, provides an analysis of the possibilities of constructing an inclusive memory for the victims of terrorism and politically motivated violence, as a consequence of the violent conflict in the Basque Country.