Scienza e Pace
Science and Peace
The aim of this paper is to analyse the phenomenon of corruption in several ways. It distinguishes corruption from bad administration; it defines its main economical and social-cultural causes: it explores its main consequences on society, especially in economy, democracy and health. The paper takes as an example two different kinds of public policies with the same purpose to eradicate corruption: Singapore, pursuing an authoritarian policy, and Finland, basing its approach against corruption on popular participation and the spread of legality and individual responsibility. The participatory approach demands growing administrative transparency, giving the right to citizens to access public documents. Italian legislation against corruption will be addressed against this background. The increasing involvement of citizenship is a sign of a strong determination to eliminate corruption from the political system. What’s important is the introduction of monitoring communities that mainly operate controlling the correct use and development of assets confiscated from criminal organisations (for example, within the project ”Confiscati Bene”). The growth of the means to defeat this phenomenon and the diffusion of a new civic sense, that is inspired by the rules and individual responsibility will be presented in conclusion as the most efficient way to combat the corruption system.
Contemporary migratory flows take place within a conjuncture of fear and fight against human mobility seen as “external threat”: this view generally guides public debates and policies on individual rights and freedom of migrants. This paper addresses the legal treatment of migrants in Brazil from a historical perspective, showing a reduction in the population concentration and an imbalance between newcomers and Brazilians living abroad. The national regulation of migration flows, inspired by the main international sources of migrants' rights, has recently gone through a paradigm shift from security to solidarity. In a historic and unanimous vote, the new Migration Law has been approved, which instead of stressing exclusively the importance of border controls began to focus on welcoming foreigners. The executive branch's defensive reaction was automatic, with the issue of a decree regulating the law. The effects of this tension have invested the Judiciary, including some cases considered by the Supreme Federal Court. In the end, a brief comparison is made with the two main Western legal systems on immigration, in the United States and the European Union: the Brazilian trajectory shows some significant transformations experienced by the Constitutional State.
Since 2016, a Group of Governmental Experts on emerging technologies have been meeting in Geneva, to discuss the latest developments in the field of autonomous weapons. The peculiarity of these armaments is that not only they move around, without the assistance of a remote pilot, but that they can identify targets and even engage them, using lethal force, without the need to receive inputs, nor authorisations, from human operators. The possibility that machines take alone life and death decisions over humans raises several concerns, related in particular to their capacity to abide by International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Indeed, the application of IHL norms entails the ability to carry out complex evaluations, based on shifting factors, that appear too complex for robots, considering current technological advancements. Nevertheless, on the other hand, some characteristics of autonomous weapons make them the best option to minimise collateral damages. These contradictions originated a heated debate, which is still ongoing, regarding the advisability of a ban on autonomous weapons. This study aims at identifying the core issues linked with the employment of autonomous weapons, from an IHL perspective and at analysing the feasibility of possible solutions.
This paper analyses the role of intellectuals in the diffusion of the culture of violence that is spreading through contemporary society. It deals with thinkers who justify military intervention in order to protect human rights and civilians. The paper calls into question that positive goals (such as peace, democracy and human rights) could be achieved by using means which contradict and jeopardize those goals. It’s unlikely that free and democratic ways of live could flourish if they are imposed by armed violence. The rhetoric of “humanitarian wars” often describes its enemy as absolute, irrational and violent as possible, worthy of being blamed and sentenced to be destroyed ethically and, then, physically. Such rhetoric is often moved by political or economic interests: “values” risk therefore to be a strategy to move public opinion, rather than a piece for building a fair and peaceful society.
The article aims to define neutral peace as an analytical concept and a research-action tool through which to define the points that set up problems and conflicts inside the social system. The goal is to "neutralize" the violent (cultural and/or symbolic) elements that inhabit the cultural models that each society develops to organize relations between individuals, families, groups and institutions. The method is based on the interconnection between language and dialogue, essential elements in building the relationship with Others and where nonviolence and assertiveness, respect and reflection take shape, following the principle that education for peace must be set in "learning to criticize". Focusing on the endurance of mental patterns that characterize human action, the goal is to create a new culture, an “another world”, in which social interaction is based on empathy, positive tolerance and mutual exchange.
The United Nations continues to raise controversy, also in its capacity as a peacekeeping institution. A number of studies have reported serious abuses committed by peacekeeping personnel in the host countries, abuses that are contrary to the UN peacekeeping mission. This paper seeks to trace back the philosophical origins on which the ethical code of the UN peacekeepers is based. It is argued that the source of moral guidelines and duties for the UN peacekeepers is provided by human rights as captured by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The rationale of the human rights is in turn founded on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The latter has emerged as a part of Enlightenment tradition which has rejected Aristotelian view of the human condition, in particular Aristotelian virtue ethics and moral psychology. The consequences of this theoretical omission are considered in relation to the UN peacekeepers training and their misconduct during their service.
The article addresses the issue of attribution of conduct in the context of UN peacekeeping operations. In the absence of a Convention, the essential reference is the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations. Article 7 DARIO (Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations, Giorgio Gaja special rapporteur) states that responsibility for the conduct of an organ put at the disposal of an International Organization shall be attributed on the basis of the “effective control test”. This criterion has led to considerable difficulties in determining which subject – the Troup Contributing Nation or the UN – should be held legally responsible for an unlawful act committed during a peacekeeping operation. The analysis of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the Behrami and Saramati Cases, the judgments of the Dutch Courts in the HN v Netherlands case and in the Stiching mothers of Srebrenica case shows that the effective control test has been interpreted and applied in different ways. Therefore, it is needed to define an unambiguous interpretation of “effective control” that could be able to reflect the operations’ command and control structure, overcoming the peacekeeping forces’ institutional ambiguity.