Making rights real? Minority and gender provisions and power-sharing arrangements

Power-sharing arrangements have lasting effects on societies where they are put in place, as they can not only allocate access to power to particular groups in the short to medium term but also shape the legal and institutional landscape of the post-conflict country. There are potential risks thus to the protection of human rights inherent in power-sharing arrangements. First, those given the most significant benefits in power-sharing arrangements are usually the protagonists to the conflict, who may have committed serious human rights abuses and will resist accountability for past abuses as well as the legislation of human rights protections. However, it is also possible that power-sharing arrangements will include provisions which may help to promote human rights, such as those setting aside seats in executive cabinets or legislatures, or posts in security forces, or autonomous regions, for minority groups or indigenous people, or all but the final type of provision for women. In principle, such provisions can help to secure greater representation of traditionally underrepresented groups, who in turn might be in a position to promote greater protection of the rights of those groups. This article considers the possible effects, positive and negative, of power-sharing arrangements on rights of women, minorities and indigenous people.