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The document highlights the disproportionate risks faced by women environmental and human rights defenders (WEHRDs) in Africa, including gender-based violence, criminalization, and digital attacks. It notes a significant gap in data collection, where official statistics underrepresent the scale of violence against women compared to men. The report identifies the extractive industry, poaching, and state security forces as primary sources of threats, particularly in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Kenya. It argues that WEHRDs face unique intersectional vulnerabilities based on race, class, and disability, and calls for flexible, long-term funding and gender-sensitive legal and psychosocial support to protect these activists.

The document provides an educational overview of REDD+, explaining its goal of providing financial incentives to developing countries to reduce carbon emissions by protecting forests. It details the debate over reference levels and funding mechanisms—specifically carbon markets versus a dedicated REDD+ fund—while highlighting significant risks to Indigenous peoples, such as forced evictions and the devaluation of non-monetary forest values. The guide compares the safeguards of UN-REDD and the World Bank, noting that UN-REDD's standards are generally stronger, though implementation remains a concern.

The handbook provides a comprehensive guide for African environmental and land rights defenders (ELRDs), detailing the threats they face—including SLAPP suits and gender-based violence—and the legal avenues available for redress. It outlines the roles of the African Commission and African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, as well as sub-regional courts like the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice. The document emphasizes the vulnerability of women, youth, and Indigenous communities, and provides a directory of emergency funds and support organizations.

The document examines the African Union's (AU) unprecedented attempt to use military compellence against the government of Burundi in December 2015. After diplomatic efforts and targeted sanctions failed to stop violence against civilians, the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) issued an ultimatum threatening a non-consensual military intervention under Article 4(h) of the AU Constitutive Act. The authors argue that this threat failed to materialise due to the Burundian government's strategic use of its status as a troop-contributing country, a lack of unity among AU member states, and a regional culture of autocracy where neighbouring leaders were reluctant to challenge the extension of presidential term limits.

The authors present a dataset of 357 armed conflict episodes (1946–2006) to track post-conflict justice (PCJ) processes. PCJ is defined as any process initiated within five years of a conflict's end to address wrongdoings. The dataset identifies six primary tools: trials, truth commissions, reparations, amnesties, purges, and exiles. Preliminary analysis shows that the choice of justice mechanism is influenced by conflict intensity, incompatibility (territorial vs. government control), and the type of termination (victory vs. bargained solution). For instance, trials are more frequent after decisive victories, while amnesties are more common after bargained solutions and in high-intensity civil wars.

The study finds that women living near ASM sites in Eastern DRC are more likely to experience both intimate partner sexual violence and sexual violence by others. This risk is particularly acute for women in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Maniema living near mines controlled by armed actors.

The research argues that external states often intervene in civil wars to pursue objectives separate from those of internal combatants, which makes conflicts harder to resolve. Using Cox regressions on data from 1945 to 2004, the author finds that 'independent interventions' significantly increase war duration compared to 'non-independent' interventions. This is attributed to the introduction of additional demands that shrink the bargaining range, the difficulty of updating beliefs in multi-party conflicts, and the lower costs of fighting for external states compared to domestic actors.

The report finds that 2025 was the third most violent year since 1989, with 245,000 battle-related deaths. It highlights a record high of 65 state-based conflicts and a concerning doubling of international conflicts to eight in 2025. While non-state conflicts decreased slightly, one-sided violence surged to 76,500 fatalities, primarily driven by massacres in Sudan.

The document describes the DIADATA dataset, which lists diamond occurrences worldwide, including geographic coordinates, geological forms, and dates of discovery and production. It details the data collection process from academic, governmental, and industry sources, and explains the coding structure for variables such as geological form (primary, secondary, or marine) and production status. Additionally, it describes a 'compact version' of the dataset where sites within 50 km are aggregated into multipoints to reduce missing temporal data. The document includes detailed country profiles for 53 countries, outlining their diamond discovery and production histories.

The authors analyze how violence spreads in space and time during civil wars, distinguishing between relocation diffusion (shifting violence) and escalation diffusion (expanding violence). Using a modified joint count statistic and Monte Carlo simulations on ACLED event data from Bosnia, Kosovo, Burundi, and Rwanda, the study finds that violence typically expands in scope, supporting the theory that irregular warfare lacks demarcated front lines.

The research examines the determinants of external state support for rebel groups using a new dataset of 403 organizations. It argues that support is not merely a function of the civil war's general characteristics but depends on the specific attributes of the rebel group and the international relations of the target state. The findings indicate that moderately strong groups with transnational constituencies are most likely to receive aid, particularly when the target state is involved in an international rivalry or receives its own external support. Conversely, very strong or very weak groups, and those in democratic states, are less likely to be supported.

The research demonstrates that states experiencing civil wars are significantly more likely to be involved in militarized interstate disputes (MIDs). Using data from 1946 to 2001, the authors find that this 'civil peace' effect is comparable in magnitude to the 'democratic peace' effect. Analysis of over 400 MIDs reveals that the increased risk is driven by states attempting to influence the outcome of civil wars through direct intervention, externalization (such as cross-border counter-insurgency), and unintended spillovers, rather than by opportunistic attacks on weakened states or diversionary wars to consolidate domestic power.

The study finds no general statistical relationship between forest resources and the onset or duration of civil wars at the national level. While some disaggregated results suggest that proximity to the coast may prolong conflicts in forested zones, the authors conclude that the perceived link between forests and conflict is largely driven by a few specific cases, such as Burma, rather than a global pattern.

The research argues that civil war dynamics are best understood as dyadic interactions between governments and specific rebel groups rather than through aggregate national characteristics. Using new data on non-state actors, the authors find that militarily strong rebels tend to fight shorter wars and are more likely to achieve decisive victories or concessions. Conversely, conflicts are prolonged when rebels are militarily weak but maintain territorial control in the periphery, as they can evade government repression without being strong enough to force a settlement. The study also indicates that the availability of legal political wings for rebels shortens conflict duration, and that the likelihood of government victory decreases significantly as a conflict persists.

The author examines the challenges of gathering data on sexual violence in war, noting that it is often used as a political tool to demoralize enemies and reinforce masculinity. The text highlights historical examples from Nanking, Berlin, Rwanda, and Bosnia to illustrate the systemic nature of these crimes. It argues that current data collection is hindered by victim stigma, lack of uniform definitions, and poor baseline data. To move from 'overview to insight,' the author suggests that researchers must analyze how sexual violence interacts with national and gender identities, noting that victims who view themselves as 'ethnic victims' often find more social support than those who view themselves as 'female victims.'

The research identifies significant relational turbulence among South African peacekeepers returning from missions in the DRC, Darfur/Sudan, and Burundi. Key challenges include strained relationships with children, financial conflicts, and the struggle to renegotiate household boundaries within a patriarchal societal context. While soldiers receive institutional resilience training, their families often lack similar support, exacerbating the difficulty of reintegration.

The authors present the Non-State Actors (NSA) in Civil Wars dataset, covering internal armed conflicts from 1945 to 2011. The dataset shifts the unit of analysis from country-years to state-rebel group dyad spells, allowing researchers to examine the specific characteristics of opposition forces rather than just macro-level state variables. Key indicators include rebel strength relative to the government, territorial control, organizational structure (such as the presence of political wings), and external support from states or non-state actors. Descriptive statistics from the dataset show that while over 85% of rebel groups are weaker than their governments, nearly half are at least equal in their specific capacities to mobilize support, procure arms, and fight. The dataset is designed to be compatible with the Uppsala Conflict Data Project (UCDP) Dyadic Dataset to facilitate data aggregation across different research projects.

The author argues that the Government of Rwanda (GoR) is an active shaper of gender equality norms rather than a passive adopter. By analyzing national policy documents, the paper identifies two primary 'problem representations': gender inequality as a result of women's exclusion from the formal economy and as a consequence of citizens having the 'wrong mindset.' The author concludes that the GoR has repurposed these norms to serve a broader nationalist agenda, framing gender equality as a tool for sustainable economic development and the creation of a modern, loyal Rwandan citizen, thereby shifting the meaning of the norms away from the transformation of gendered power relations.

The document provides a comprehensive overview of global conflict trends from 1989 to 2019, noting a record high of 54 state-based conflicts in 2019. It highlights the significant role of the Islamic State (IS) in driving recent conflict increases and the prevalence of internationalized civil conflicts. While battle-related deaths have generally decreased over the last 20 years, specific hotspots in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia remain deadly. The paper also analyzes the decline in peace agreements since 2015 and the persistence of non-state conflicts, particularly violent drug cartel activity in Latin America and communal violence in Africa.

The paper analyzes conflict dynamics in Africa from 1989 to 2019, noting a record high of 25 state-based conflicts in 2019, many of which are low-intensity or involve the Islamic State. While Africa faces rising non-state conflicts and one-sided violence, it also leads other regions in the number of definitive ceasefires and peace agreements. The study further details the growth of UN peacekeeping operations in the region from 1994 to 2018, highlighting a significant increase in troop deployment peaking in 2010.