Postwar Governance: Human Rights and Peacebuilding in Côte d'Ivoire

After a ten-year divisive political crisis (2002–11) that ended in deadly civil war in 2011, the newly established government of Côte d'Ivoire has been implementing a reconstruction program to rebuild a peaceful postwar democratic society. This paper critically analyzes the Ivorian case to show that the postwar process to create democratic institutions and sustainable peace has not overcome the ethnic-based ideology that grasped the whole society. The state has made remarkable economic and social progress to rise up from its recent tragic past by bringing back peace and order. However, although cloaked in reports of success, postwar Côte d'Ivoire is mired in failures of disarmament and reconciliation, ongoing violations of human rights, retaliation, and divisive ethnic-based governance.