Final Acts is a guide to questions of law, politics, physical preservation, and access regarding materials generated by truth commissions. For example, how do the records relate to the law that created the commission? Who owns the evidence? Are there political constraints on the preservation of, or access to, some records? Does the country have an institution professionally capable of maintaining the records? Final Acts also describes the truth commissions that have completed their work so far and the disposition, or in some cases the loss, of their records. More about this title can be found on the Wilson Center Press website. more

English; Africa Program Issue Briefing No. 1, July 2005. more

Experience has increasingly shown that the abundance of natural resources does not necessarily produce rapid development in countries where they are found. Instead, paradoxically, they all too often produce poverty, conflict and corruption whose consequences become increasingly widespread and impact development, not only in the country in question, but more broadly in an interconnected world. The rapidly globalizing world means that these consequences transcend boundaries and threaten stability of both the developed and developing world. It is therefore common sense that a search for the reversal of this disturbing trend becomes a global collective. more

Sudan faces multiple crises. The CPA, which ended the southern conflict, has not been fully implemented. International support has been patchy. Demarcation of the North/South border has again been postponed. Preparations for the southern and Abyei referenda, due to be held in January, are well behind schedule, as are the popular consultations in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, where state elections have been put off until November. Inter-tribal conflict troubles the South. more