Asia

The roundtable conference was conducted by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in cooperation with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). The report is an analysis of the roundtable recommendations.

The bulk of the media and parts of the intelligentsia, after first coming to terms with the Congress Party system, now prefer the two multiparty coalition systems: the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) or the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), even when the UPA is only going in for post-poll alliances with its erstwhile colleagues. The one thing that worries the media is a Third Front.

Despite the hopes of a bi-nodal party system since 1998, a secular alternative, reduced from being the second option in 1977 to the Third Front within a decade, has not ceased to linger in the background. It remains a parking space for satraps in search of greater role in national politics than their regional space would afford them.

After the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks many expected the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to benefit in the general elections. This was based on both the party’s emphasis on security and on the assumption that the attack would stir up anti-Muslim sentiments.

Some of the Offices of of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Asia describe their work in the following short films.

China has emerged as Cambodia’s leading investor and donor and an increasingly important trading partner. Will the close relationship with China help Cambodia weather the global financial crisis? Or can we expect the economic slowdown in China to spill over into the Cambodian economy?

On March 31, 2009 the future of Afghanistan was discussed at a one-day conference in The Hague. That the conference was being held at such a senior political level has raised concern among Afghan civil society activists - will their views, will voices from Afghanistan in remain unheard?

NATO’s intervention in Afghanistan shows that the alliance has no choice but to co-operate with other multinational organisations, as well as major and regional powers in order to earn respect and legitimacy.

When emerging Asia’s boom turned to bust in 1997, Thailand was famously on the vanguard of the regional collapse. Now with the United States and Europe repeating several of those same mistakes - albeit on a larger and more expensive scale – Thailand’s post-1997 crisis experience is back in the spotlight.

Experts from Afghanistan, Pakistan and German and international scientists, politicians and journalists outline challenges for the stabilisation process in the region.

The film by Nana Yuriko describes the experiences of 5 single women in the Joint Land Titling process in Cambodia. By giving voice to these women, the Heinrich Böll Foundation hopes to contribute to improvements in the recognition and registration of women's land rights in Cambodia.

This short film by Ian White delivers insight into a women radio programme in Cambodia. Together with the Solidarity and Community Development Association the Heinrich Böll Foundation designed a training and radio programme to encourage women's participation in politics.

The Committee Topical Resolution on Burma of the European Green Party and remarks by Sabine Meyer.

A collection of essays on civil society in Vietnam and Myanmar/Burma focusing on the perspectives for pro-democracy and pro-change politics.

The Press review China comprises the online news coverage of International Herald Tribune, Reuters, Asia Times, China Daily and Peoples Daily Online. To receive the summaries as pdf files, please subscribe at asien@boell.de with the subject "Press review China".

The Asia Department of the Heinrich Böll Foundation views and compiles the international news coverage of China and India on a biweekly basis. To receive summaries related to politics, economy and labour, environment, social rights as well as gender issues as pdf files, please send an e-mail to asien@boell.de.

The regional director of Heinrich Böll Foundation South East Asia comments on the EU's Myanmar (Burma) Country Strategy Paper 2007-2013. She proposes to engage with sub-national state actors and to partner with the civil society.

The three decades of conflict in Afghanistan have taken the lives of more than a million people and the country and its people have suffered the gravest violations of human rights.

Berlin, Juni 2007, 40 SeitenDownload (englisch)Bestellen: E-mail:info@boell.de