Programmes
Under its “Regional Democratisation through Strengthening of Democracy” programme, SAHR has been involved in “Fact Finding and Advocacy” into two areas: (a) Serious violations of human rights (domestic); and (b) Protection of Religious Minorities.
Serious violations of human rights (domestic)
The activities consists of investigations into the root causes of human rights violations. Under this programme, fact-finding missions were undertaken to Nepal in April and December 2005.
Protection of Religious Minorities
To address the complex issues related to minority rights, SAHR set up an independent commission called the South Asian People’s Commission on Rights of Minorities (SAPCROM) in New Delhi, India in November 2003. The commission comprises ten eminent persons from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Initial preparatory meetings decided that a SAPCROM team comprising one member from each country would visit each of the member countries. At the end of their visit, each team would prepare a draft report and make preliminary recommendations based on their findings and interactions. Then, a final report drawing together the findings and recommendations in the draft reports would be published and disseminated to government, non-government, regional and international bodies.
SAPCROM missions have been conducted thus far in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.
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Projects
Roundtable on Human Rights
The objective of the roundtable was to formulate regional initiatives and policies on the emerging human rights challenges in the South Asian region and communicate them to the respective countries in the region.
Strengthening the Democratic Process in the Maldives
The long-term objective of the project is to strengthen the democratic process in the Maldives while the immediate objective is to assess the state of human rights in the country and the reform process underway.
The main activities comprise a fact-finding mission to the Maldives, a report of which will be presented at a seminar to be organized in Colombo.
The mission took place on 26-29 December 2005 and met with a number of actors and institutions in the country.
In March 2006, a seminar will be organized in Colombo to present the findings of the report to a wide audience comprising NGOs, human rights institutions, academia, think-tanks, government and intergovernmental organizations.
A comprehensive report – including the mission report, mission recommendations and papers/recommendations of the seminar - will also be published and distributed.
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