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Dialectically peace has
two sides in our global
context, i.e., internal
and external. The
internal context of
peace for a country is
its domestic political,
economic and
administrative
stratification evolved
either on equality or
inequality, justice or
injustice and respect or
disrespect for human
rights, especially those
of women and religious
and ethnic minorities.
So far as South Asia is
concerned,
unfortunately, it does
not present any good
examples. For instance,
Pakistan, the second
largest country of the
geographic block, has
till now only deepened
conflicts among and
subdued voices of
different social, ethnic
or political groups of
its citizens. The
establishment of this
country has deliberately
turned the collective
wisdom and strengths of
its people into ora of
endless insecurity and
mistrust. This
insecurity and mistrust
eventually has sidelined
people from the
mainstream politics,
armed them and enabled
the establishment to
exploit the national
resources without any
moral compunction.
Similarly, the other
South Asian countries
also follow this trend.
South Asia Partnership
Pakistan has been
actively involved in
South-South cooperation
campaigns for peace,
security and human
rights in South Asia. It
has been a front runner
for several networks,
peace campaigns and
regional forums;
South Asia Small Arms
Network (SASA Net)
SASA Net is an
initiative for promotion
of peace and tolerance
in the South Asian
region. Since it kicked
off five years ago has
been actively pursuing
South Asian societies
and states to expunge
small arms industry,
control illicit trade of
guns, promote regional
and global cooperation
and change social,
political and economic
policies in the interest
of the people. It
continues to register
the concerns of the
common citizens and the
civil society towards
conventional and nuclear
weapons, pressurize the
member states to
dismantle their
nuclear-bomb facilities
and use the resources
saved thus for the
wellbeing of their
citizens....
details
South Asia Peace
Alliance (SAPA)
To expand the struggle
for making South Asian
countries
socio-politically
tolerant, South Asian
Peace Alliance (SAPA)
came into existence on
April 2006. SAPA is
commissioned to work on
five thematic thrusts.
As far as its
programmatic structure
is concerned, there is
one organization mainly
responsible for one
thematic thrust. Each
member organization
however also has to
extend its support to
other members for
complementing their
efforts and giving SAPA
a wholistic shape. SAPA
is therefore a
distinguished body
because of its ability
to allow its members to
act independently as
well as
interdependently....
details
Regional Initiative for
the Rights to
Sustainable Livelihood
and Enabling Environment
for Social and Political
Participation
“Regional Initiative for
the Rights to
Sustainable Livelihood
and Enabling Environment
for Social and Political
Participation” has been
yet another matter of
deep interest to SAP-PK.
This project is a
regional initiative of
the Consortium of
Humanitarian Agencies
(CHA). The Consortium
was formed in 1997,
aiming to advocate and
assist in materializing
SAARC Social Charter. It
is therefore another
significant opportunity
for SAP-PK to be part of
the process of
synergies’ development
on issues of human
rights, particularly of
women, peasants and
workers, not only at the
national but also the
regional level. CHA is
working exclusively on
livelihood, violence
against women, human
rights, child labor and
issue of mainstreaming
of the physically
challenged out of an
exhaustive list of areas
as enshrined in the
SAARC Social Charter...
details
South Asian People's
Summit
“Where there is no
vision, the people
perish.”
There is a
tide in the affairs of
nations and regions, but
when governments seem
reluctant to take it at
the flood, the people
may have to seize the
moment and reassert
their vision for the
future. The South Asian
People’s Summit 2000 at
Colombo embodied the
determination of its
organizers that though
the regimes in the
region were
dilly-dallying over
holding the SAARC
summit, the people were
ready to step into the
breach.
However well-intended,
the plans and projects
of the powers-that-be
may not match the needs
and priorities of civil
society and it is up to
the representatives of
various sections,
associations and
professional groups and
NGOs to alert the
authorities that a
change in focus is
urgent.
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