Asia

The Armed Forces Special Powers Bill was passed by both the Houses of Parliament and it received the assent of the President on 11th September, 1958. On 8th September 2010 guests and resource persons from different organisations, the armed forces and men and women from all over India working on peace and conflict issues, discussed ideas and visions of peace building and the highly controversial and sensitive topic of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Find out more about the conference on the website of our office in New Delhi (India).

Environmental protection is a hot discussed topic in industrialized countries, especially in Europe, whereas in developing countries such as Afghanistan this issue is not very popular due to poverty, war and the daily struggle to survive.

Since women and children are both vulnerable groups in our country, I will mostly focus on and consider these two groups. They face problems by any new evolution and changes in the country, Taliban regime is a clear example of it. If I get the chance to be a parliamentarian I would like to establish an advocacy group to lobby for women and children rights.

"A legitimated government comes from its parliament transparency”. I would like to focus on passage and approval of new and updated laws according to Afghan context. In addition I want to establish an active group who can transparently observe government work and fill the gaps present in some current laws of Afghanistan.

Media in democracies is often referred to as"the fourth pillar of power", and rightfully so. Ideally, this is what they do: Exerting control over politics by reporting on what they see and learn on what is happening. To be part of a decision making process, citizens need to be informed on all aspects relevant to them. What the media finds out and reports about might, however, differ from the image politicians want to give. In this case, hardly anybody is self-critical enough to admit flaws in his or her policy but rather blames it on the media.

The publication is an edited collection of short essays by Indian authors on economic structures, relations and principles that are needed to serve the goals of sustainable economic and human development, poverty eradication, social justice, and empowerment of the most vulnerable segments of society: women.

The AIHRC, as an active member of the Governance cluster, is assertive and supportive of the priorities on Rule of Law, Justice and Human Rights. All of these priorities are inter-related that each of them effect the achievement of other. Achieving these priority objectives will, definitely, have positive impact on promotion of human rights and civil responsibilities, and finally, it furthers trust between the citizens and government.

We women need peace more than anybody else, because we lose more than men in war. War rubs us of the little rights we have fought for over the long years as well as of the economic, political, social and cultural opportunities. At the same time, we believe that achieving a lasting peace is impossible without realisation of justice, good governance, rule of law and respect for human rights.

The Kabul conference is an important milestone for the Afghan government. With the biggest event ever hosted by Afghanistan, it will be a demonstration of the capabilities the government has developed over the last years. If the conference is not disturbed by major security incidents, this indeed will encourage other countries confidence in Afghan sovereignty and encourage them to hand over more and more responsibilities in the cluster areas as defined in the London conference.

A surprising omission is the balanced inquiry into what climate change and its effects mean for democratization, and what democratization could mean for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and climate adaptation. This paper draws attention to the little explored relationships between climate change and democratization.