Asia

On Wednesday, June 2, the long-announced Peace Jirga starts in Kabul. 1600 delegates from all over Afghanistan will come together to discuss whether and how peace can be achieved. People are unsure what to expect from a gathering on which even a day before it is happening neither participants nor agenda have been made public. More easy than to know who will be attending the Jirga is to know who will not be there: The armed opposition has not been invited, the political opposition declares its boycott and women have only reluctantly been included.  

Dynamic growth due to the global fight against climate change has made China the world's number one producer of solar cells. 98 per centof all solar cells were exported. Not even 1 per cent was used in China itself. But Wang Sicheng of the Energy Research Institute is convinced that the focus of the Chinese solar energy industry will gradually shift from foreign to domestic markets.

Interview with Supinya Klangnarong, Media-rights advocate and researcher, about the crisis in Thailand, the polarisation of Thai society and the mistakes of government, and protesters.

The aim of our projects in Asia is to support the democratisation of the region and promote the recognition of human rights. Our work also focuses on promoting environmental sustainability and social justice.

Political scientist Dariha Erketaeva works for the Danish humanitarian organization DanChurchAid and lives in Bishkek at the moment. For boell.de she answered some questions via e-mail about the present situation in Kyrgyzstan, the interim government and the differences between north and south of the central asian country.

In February, one day before the end of the Afghan parliament’s winter break President Karzai passed a presidential decree that limited the role of the international community in the upcoming elections to being a sponsor and also brought a number of other changes to the electoral process. Now the representatives of the people defied his blunt attempt to change the rules of political participation without any consultation.

Despite real changes for the Afghan people, especially women continue to suffer from human rights abuses in many areas of life. This policy paper focuses on progress and shortcomings in the area of womens rights and their participation in society, followed by a number of recommendations on how to further improve the condition of women in Afghanistan.

On 11th February 2010, the Heinrich Boell Foundation organised an expert round table discussion to inaugurate the release of their new publication “Pakistan – Reality, Denial and the Complexity of its State”. Two authors who published articles in the book were invited from Pakistan to Berlin to present and discuss their work.

In many parts of Afghanistan, non-state institutions remain relevant to security and stability, despite repeated and concerted state-led attempts from the late 19th century onward to expand its administrative influence, including control over the provision of security and the administration of justice. This policy brief examines the historical background of tribal contracts, to what extent they still play a role in local governance today, and what implications can be drawn for the current promotion of community governance arrangements.

An interview with Shanthie Mariet D’Souza (Associate Fellow at IDSA, Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS),National University of Singapore (NUS).