Understanding Peace: Internal and External Harmony

Concepts of Peace

• Peace has diverse meanings across religion, philosophy, politics, military, and history.
• It describes a state of harmony between individuals or groups, especially in personal relations
• Peace involves an agreement to end hostilities and avoid future conflict.

Types of Peace

• Peace is multidimensional, encompassing inner, outer, positive, and negative aspects.

Internal Peace

• Internal peace, also known as "inner peace" or "peace of mind or soul," involves mental and emotional tranquility.
• It arises from the absence of suffering, worry, anxiety, greed, hatred, or other emotional disturbances.
• Internal peace is essential as it forms a foundation for broader peace within society and the world.

External Peace

• External peace refers to peace in society, among states, and throughout the world.
• It is characterized by peaceful coexistence between people and with nature.
• Absence of war, disorder, social injustice, insecurity, human rights violations, riots, and terrorism are elements of external peace
• Social harmony, justice, equality, friendship, public order, security, and respect for human rights are elements of external peace

Positive Peace

• Positive peace is a true, lasting peace built on justice for all.
• It involves attitudes, institutions, and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies.
• The concept eliminates root causes of war, violence, and injustice through conscious efforts to build equitable societies.
• Well-developed positive peace meets citizens’ needs, reduces grievances, and resolves conflicts without violence.
• Efforts emphasize non-violent dispute resolution, social equality, economic equity, ecological balance, citizen protection, meeting basic needs, civil peace with constitutional means, and eliminating indirect violence.
• Conflict resolution is practised to build peaceful interpersonal relationships.

Negative Peace

• Negative peace is peace without justice, offering a false sense of peace at the cost of justice.
• It is the absence of direct violence or the fear of violence.
• While conflict may not be overt, tension simmers beneath the surface because conflicts are unaddressed.
• Efforts involve managing interpersonal and organizational conflicts to control violence
• Reducing war incidence by eliminating extreme dangers and using crisis management, strategic deterrence, and arms control are factors
• It addresses immediate symptoms of war, conditions, and the use/effects of force and weapons.

Impacts of Absence of Peace

• The absence of peace has profound consequences for human life and society.

Security Impacts

• Absence of peace leads to direct and structural violence, as well as destruction, and is inherent in the exclusion of the poor.
• In the absence of peace, people are denied the right to participate.
• This denail creates painful relationships between the government and the members of society who are denied the right to participate which creates a chain of violent conflict.

Creates Continuous Social and Political Disharmony

• It has long-term effects that include the erosion of social cohesion and unity.
• People in uncertain situations develop feelings of helplessness and enmity at individual, group, and community levels.
• Attitudes destroy national unity, cohesion, reconciliation, solidarity, and consciousness.
• Results in in-groups vs. out-groups and accusations.
• Lack of participation in government leads to bloody feuds, civil war, instability, and factionalism.

Failure to Accommodate Cultural Diversity

• Cultural diversity will be at risk when there is no peace
• Ethnic, tribal, or cultural groups compete for power and resources.
• Struggle for power and resource domination results in political leaders and government officials becoming more tribal
• Inter-tribal oppression becomes common
• Present day protracted internal conflicts create antagonism between groups.

Undermine Socio-Economic Developments

• Sustainable development cannot be achieved if peace is absent.
• Violent conflict diverts resources from health, education, investment, and social services to military expenditure.
• Absence increases violence experiences, weapon accumulation for crime, traumatic experiences, social stress, erosion of trust and social injustice.

Grave Human Rights Violations

• Absence of peace leads to weak government institutions that are not equipped to deal with uncertainties and power struggles and protect human rights.
• Women and children are especially vulnerable to sexual violence and displacement.
• Conflict affected countries are deprived of their rights to dignity and development.
• Impoverished, unable to attend school, and denied access to health services.

The Notion of Peace Building

• Stopping fighting only is not enough to ensure long-term peace as ongoing work is required to address conflict and create lasting solutions to violence

Defining Peace Building

• Peace building ensures peace through encouraging parties to interact and discuss issues
• Focusing on long-term support and establishing socio-economic and cultural institutions addresses conflict and sustains stability.
• Integration of alienated groups through equitable access to decision-making, resources, and information.
• Creates an environment to resolve differences peacefully, prevent violence, reconcile opponents, create rule of law. increases tolerance, protects human rights, reforms justice, promotes justice.

Indigenous Conflict Resolution Mechanisms

• Conflicts arise from differences in interest and prejudice
• When conflicts occur between groups, societies adopt their own indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms to solve conflicts

Defining Indigenous Conflict Resolution Mechanisms

• Grassroots and community-based mechanisms for solving internal and external conflicts
• Thesetake into account individuals, groups and communities according to their customary set of practices that are present in all communities
• Age old practices and social systems play roles in societal relationships
• Deep-rooted and contained in the customs, culture, and traditions of the society

Context Specific

• Each institution has unique structure for resolving conflicts with variance between societies, regions, and communities
• No single general principle or procedure for mechanisms, instead approaches are specific to context

Voluntary and Consensual Proceedings:

• Require voluntary participation from parties to reach agreement
• Relies on social pressure and exclusion for non-compliance.

Accepted and Flexible Norms, Rules and Values:

• Delivers justice in accordance with accepted norms and values with flexible rules and evidence adapted to cases.

Negotiation and Compromise:

• Resolution comes through parties trying to solve the case amicably.
• Both parties accept responsibility for dispute and agree to the decision for reconciliation.

Dynamism and Responsiveness to Change:

• Mechanisms evolve over time becoming more formalized through interactions with formal and international pressures.

Restoration and Maintenance of Peaceful Co-Existence:

• Indigenous systems restore harmony between conflicting members.

Forgiveness and Compensation:

• Institutions require loser or wrongdoer to ask for forgiveness and/or pay compensation instead of physical punishment for reconciliation.

Indigenous Conflict Resolution Mechanisms in Ethiopia

• Ethiopia has over 80 ethnic groups with different languages, cultures, values, norms and religions
• Diverse societies have indigenous conflict mechanisms and have developed unique political, economic, social, and judicial systems.
• Systems respond to offences, civil cases, blood feuds
• Such as; The “Makabanna" in Afar, "Shimagille" in Amhara, “Bayto” in Tigray, “Jarsumma” in Oromo, “Sera” in Sidama, Halaba, Hadiya and Kembata, “Xeer” in Somali, “Korefinie” in the Gamo, “Ye Joka” in Gurage
• Mechanisms are associated with the cultural values, are legitimate by the community and led by influential elders/leaders of the community who act as facilitators/negotiators
• Religions and family members also serve as actors, and rituals have symbolic and practical significance.

The Roles of Indigenous Social Institutions in Ensuring Sustainable Peace

• Sustainable peace is a shared concern
• African indigenous social institutions serve as governance, conflict resolution, security and defined social, economic and political functions.

Building Community Cohesion

• Institutions promote community values and togetherness enhancing solidarity.
• Accomodate wide societal participation for judicial process, rely on consensus
• They promote virtue of peace, solidarity, harmonious living, respect, honesty which creates a conflict resolutions through mutual exchange.
• They impose sanctions on those that contravene their customs and traditions

Restoration of Order and Relationships

• Aims at restoring order and harmony with guarantee to guarantee cooperation and is geared towards the future
• Reestablishing harmony implies reintegrating deviant members emphasizing good relations.

Addressing the Psycho-Social and Spiritual Dimensions of Conflicts and Sustainability of Peace

• Deals with spiritual aspects, feelings, and communication for reconciliation
• Inclusive with healing through traditional healers for mental rehabilitation.

Providing for Inclusion and Participation

• All parties are responsible for conflict and solution achieved by consensus.
• The aim is a win-win outcome which aligns to custom.

Ensuring Accessibility to the Community

• Quickly resolve conflict by reaching consensus which risks social harmony.
• Examines past relationships as key to sustained solutions.

As people live in groups

• Conflicts occur between them regarding interests and values
• African societies have indigenous conflict resolution that solves any kind of conflict
• Grass roots and community based focus offer quick response and save public money.

Federalism in Ethiopia

• Federalism is a system where power is split between federal and regional governments
• Devolution is transferring power to the region in the federation
• Division of powers avoid monopolies
• Experts says federalism is where the functions of government are shared between regional and central governance which means each side can make major deicisons

Types of Federalism

• Federal systems divide power between the federal government and the states. However laws differ
• Federal legislatures apply to all states
• In con-federal arrangements, the central government has no direct authority over citizens' life
• In federations, the government has authority by legislating rules and laws
• Enforcement is essential to build political and economic structure

Dual Federalism

• Divides government between state and national
• State governments have their own powers and government cannot intervene
• State governments control aspects of individual citizens wheras the national government has authority over relations within states.

Advantages of Dual Federalism

• Protection of local jurisdictions
• Too much power is prevented
• Different states have varying laws regarding divorce, marriage, speed limits, etc
• State with less congestion might assign a higher speed limit

Disadvantages of Dual Federalism

• Ensures tension between the federal and state government
• Rising tensions between them may affect the development and wellbeing
• Reduced cooperation between government bodies and states
• More power causes states to drift apart

Cooperative Federalism

• Requires state and national states to power share
• Federal government give states funding to fund interstate highways
• States are allowed to manage the construction and maintain the goals as set

The Advantages of Cooperative Federalism

• The national and state governments work together to provide services in an efficient manner
• Complex problems arose which allows government involvement
• Both the state and federal governments have own set of powers
• People has a voice in their government and government's prevented from gaining too much power

The Disadvantages of Cooperative Federalism

• Cooperative Federalism may cause a decrease in state power of policy.

3 Key Features of Federalism

• Difficult to define as it always changes
• Divided between federal and the states
• Indirectly based on the dual principle with every federation on the desire to unite and to be autonomous.

Decentralized System of Government

• Units or local governments are subordinate to the centre
• The centre creates local government but the delegation is is subject to withdrawal
• In a federation, the division of power is guaranteed and the states are not creations of the government.

Written and Supreme Federal Government

• The division of power between the federal government and states is based on a written and supreme federal constitution.
• Constitutions are bargains at a particular time to serve or generations
• Written constitutions are necessary to record terms of the bargain with the constitution is binding.

Advantage and Disadvantage of Federalism

• Federalism is one form of government with more than one power. that means one federal government and local governments

Division of Powers

• In a federal system of government, Powers are divided between both the centre and the units.
• Can be distributed by stating the of what powers the authorities hold or what powers the states/units.

Separate Government

• Both the centre and the units must form separate governance.

Written Constitution

• Federal system must adhere to a written constitution which must be set out in a formal agreement.

Rigid Constitution

• It must be flexible while adhering to the spiritual spirit and not easily violated.

Special Judiciary

• Possibilites of constitional diputes may occur between the unit and the centre, thus leading to a tribunal of adjudicators of the law and any transgressions of the consitution by members of the govt and the state.

Better Understanding of Local Issues And Demands

• No true way for the central government to be aware of issues
• Local governments are fitted to face and resolve grass roots level issues.

Increasing Citizen Participation

• Increases citizen's participation in the governmental decision making at grass root level

Protection Against Tyranny

• dividing the power between the state and national government will reduce tyranny to occur.

More Efficiency

• States handle own problems with local solutions
• Cookie Cutter is trying to have one set of rules for an entire nation will only be effective in some states.

Conflict of Authority

• Greatest problem when two bodies of government cause problems

Regionalism Over Patriotism

• Country should be patriotic and citizens should show patriotism
• can out regions and divide what should be present overall in all the communities.

Lack of Accountability

• Government is being to release their responsibility will cause a large number of problems if thing go wrong with the responsibility

Inequalities Between States

• Regional inequalities between different states
• Spend more per captia than it could
• Different states will spend different captita for education.

Blockage of Nationalist Policies By States

• Fight against existence by challenging them in court
• Deliberately obstructing the national laws

The Features of Ethiopian Federalism

• Two levels of government between a state and federal government
• Structure of Ethiopia with power distribution for both sides.

Power Division Between States And The Federal Government

• Constitution regulates inter-government regulations
• Government explicitly list down the federal powers, the state powers

Bi-cameral Legislature

• Constitution provides two federal houses;
• House of people as supreme political organ
• House of Federation-upper house (The FDRE constitution article 45,53)

The House Of People's Representatives

• Highest authority of the government (article 53(3))
• Can legislate in all matters of the government( article (55) states)
• Take appropriate measures on any regional government that cannot be controlled

b) The House of The Federation

• Members represented on each nation
• For house to represent a group must shall a group one fifth out of one million population.