Ethics and Legality – Website of Resolve Inc.
We were asked to determine the ethics and legality of a website pertaining to our topic for our final project. I am researching the use of foreign aid in developing countries and how, historically, foreign aid has been detrimental to the development of these nations. I have many resources that come from news articles, case studies, and field reports that are included in scholarly journals and well respected news sites. However, I am also looking at current use of foreign aid as a comparison to what the international community has used in the past. One of the resources I have chosen to use is a website from the research and lobbying group, Resolve Inc. This non-profit group researches issues surrounding the LRA and Joseph Kony in Uganda, DRo Congo, and Central African Republic.
The reason I have chosen Resolve’s website for this activity is because they have detailed policy reports that factor in all sorts of historical facts and current issues, as well as recommendations for future work done on an international scale by the US in regards to ending the LRA crisis. *DISCLAIMER* The opinions in this post are mine and only mine, and do not represent the organization Resolve, its affiliates, or anything related to their work. I do not work for the organization, and I am expressing these views for a class, so all information I post should be taken with a grain of salt. **
The policy reports found on Resolve’s site are useful for what I will be doing, as they cite reports from other organizations, information from field researchers both employed by Resolve and unaffiliated reporters, on the ground research both in the region and with the US Government. They also include facts and figures that show trends of foreign aid use from the UN, the US, and other parties.
Ethically, they are mostly unbiased. They focus on the issue that there is a man named Joseph Kony who is the leader of the LRA (a rebel group with no cause that abducts children to continue their reign of terror in rural areas of eastern Africa) and they push for his arrest and trial by the International Criminal Court. They are their own organization and are not a front for other groups in the US. They also make a point of reaching beyond political lines when working with Congress. They do not however push for the arrest of leaders like Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni, who are presidents of Rwanda and Uganda respectively, who are also guilty of war crimes and elections fraud, as well as allowing the LRA issue to perpetuate. This is not the mission of Resolve, however, as they are pushing for an end to the LRA, so ethically, Resolve should be well respected and received.
There are no legal issues that I see arising from the organization’s website as they either produce their own reports with their own photos and text, or they use publicly available media and cite any and all reports that are used in their own publications. They even cite their editors for their reports and I take this as a move of good faith.
This will be a valuable resource for this project as there is a lot of good information and links to other great sources. Plus, ethically and legally, this resource will be well respected.
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