PA-X Peace Agreement Database Project
What?
This project offers substantial conceptual and empirical work, re-characterising the relationship of peace processes and peace agreements to political settlements. We are exploring the trade-offs between elite bargains and other forms of inclusion in peace agreements, and considering the implementation difficulties that may arise.
See here the prezi introducing PA-X, a Peace Agreement Access Tool.
How?
This project uses peace agreement analysis as a ‘mid-level’ methodology capable of showing both broad global trends, and providing qualitative detail for each country, conflict, peace process, and individual agreement. The project is developing PA-X, a ‘Peace Agreement Access’ Tool, which codes and maps all peace agreements (around 1500 documents across nearly 120 countries) since 1990, and concluding with 2016 in its first iteration. For each peace agreement, we are collecting the full text, translating the non-English agreements, and will be making them available to the public in a fully searchable database. Additionally, the agreement content is being coded into one of 140 categories, spanning such issues as power-sharing, the way in which agreements deal with human rights, minority rights, gender, violence, security problems, new political institutions, trade, business, and many others. The PA-X will allow users to access agreement provisions dealing with particular topics, with the ability to filter the information by region, conflict type, and other criteria. The database is also easily exportable as an .xslx file, in which the coding of the database content is available as a set of binary and categorical variables, which may then be used in large-N statistical research.
This dataset will be used to provide a large-N statistical picture of how peace agreements globally deal with issues of inclusion, poverty, development, and conflict resolution. The collected data allow for both qualitative and quantitative analysis of various issues related to conflict resolution, peace processes, effects of particular agreement provisions, relevance of type of agreement for post-conflict institutional structures and political, economic, and other outcomes. Some of the research being conducted as part of this project is answering the questions of whether agreements which have provisions on women deal differently with socio-economic rights and development, and whether power-sharing arrangements tend to neglect or recognize the participation of women? The data also support work on measuring ‘transformation’ of peace settlements in our Experimental Measurement Project.
We are working on designing the database so that it can be used in conjunction with other major conflict-related dataset, such as Correlates of War, Uppsala Conflict Data Program, The International Political Economy Data Resource, and others. This will allow us, and future users of the database, to explore the role of peace agreements, their types and contents, in determining the roots, outcomes, and consequences of conflict.
Why?
Assertions as to trade-offs in political negotiations over peace, are largely limited to once-off case studies. This project will provide broad comparative qualitative and quantitative data, across all peace processes. This data will enable claims about peace agreement terms to be tested, and to provide information as to how issues are dealt with over time. It will provide an evidentiary basis from which to revisit the interdisciplinary gap relating to how political settlements are understood to relate to peace-building.
When?
The database is nearly complete, but still under construction and undergoing validity and reliability checks by the PSRP team. We hope to be able to have it fully available to the interested public later this year. In the meantime, the Women and Peace Agreements Database (PA-X Women), which showcases some of the capabilities of the full database, is available HERE, with the relevant codebook HERE
Christine Bell, Chair of Constitutional Law, University of Edinburgh
Sanja Badanjak, University of Edinburgh
Robert Forster, University of Edinburgh
Astrid Jamar, University of Edinburgh
Jan Pospisil, University of Edinburgh
Laura Wise, University of Edinburgh
Advisors:
Catherine O’Rourke, Transitional Justice Institute
Sahla Aroussi, Coventry University
Cindy Daase, University of Konstanz
Key Publications:
- Women and Peace Agreements (PA-X) Database.
- Bell, C., & et.al. (2014). Interim Constitutions in Post-Conflict Settings (PSRP Report in Cooperation with IDEA). Stockholm: International IDEA.
- Bell, C. (2015). Text and Context: Evaluating Peace Agreements for their “Gender Perspective” (PSRP Report). Edinburgh: Global Justice Academy, University of Edinburgh.
- Bell, C. (2015). Unsettling Bargains? Power-sharing and the Inclusion of Women in Peace Negotiations. Edinburgh: Global Justice Academy, University of Edinburgh.
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Photo: Martina Bacigalupo/Vu
Details :
- Author : Harriet Cornell
- Category : Comparative, Peace Processes, Success and Failure
- Date : June 18, 2015
- Tags : data Gender Peace Agreements
