Date

Tuesday, December 11,2007, 10:40-16:10

Place

Building 19, Room 314

Presenters

Md. Shanawez Hossain; Figi Giarfina; Phunyanuch Pattanotai;
Kyuwon Kang; Tomoko Matsumoto; Thomas Papanastasiou; and Olga
Nagy, Graduate Students, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies,
Waseda University.

Title

Dialogues with South Asia

Moderator

Mr. Yasushi Katsuma, Associate Professor, GSAPS, Waseda University

Participants

Ms. Shahina Hanif, Coordinator, Simorgh Women’s Resource andPublication
IndependentCentre,Pakistan;

University,Ms.

AbanteeBangladesh;Mr.

Harun,Devraj

Lecturer,
Humagain,Researcher, Martin Chautari, Nepal; Ms. Priyanka Kakodkar, Senior
Special Correspondent, New Delhi Television, India; Mr. Siddartha Das,
Design Consultant, India; Mr. Harindra B. Dassanayake, Colombo
Institute for Advanced Study of Society & Culture, Sri Lanka; Mr.
Phurba Thinley Sherpa, Co-Founder, Voluntary Artists` Studio,Thimphu (VAST), Bhutan; 30 PhD andMA Students from theGraduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University.
First Session: International Human Rights vs. ``Asian Values``
1. First speaker Mr. Shanawez spoke on the indigenous human rights issues ofChittagong hill tracts (CHTs), Bangladesh from the so-called `community interest`
perspective of `Asian Values`. The main issues addressed included how this claim oflarger community interest can pave the way for violation of many other smaller
communities’ human rights. And how international initiatives can also beintentionally mis-directed by the local authorities if there is no conditionality tosafeguard human rights in the development projects. On the basis of his research,he proposed for human rights-based approach in development projects.
2. Second Speaker Ms. Figi spoke on the human rights issues of Muslim society inIndonesia from Asian values and international human rights perspective. The main
issues addressed were how duel practice of Sharia law and constitutional law
creating human rights violation among different ethnic groups in Indonesia. She
emphasized to have a common ground of human rights where all ethnic groups will
have equal opportunities.
3. 3rd speaker Ms. Phunyanuch presented about international human rights vs. Asianvalues in Thailand`s perspective. On the basis of various human rights abuses in1

Thailand she explained how difficult it might be for ASEAN nations to have aregional human rights mechanism. And it is not only Myanmar but internal issuesof many other countries will also be the major problem in this regard.
4. 4th speaker Ms. Kyuwon discussed the death penalty issue of South Korea frominternational human rights perspective. She explained that South Korea still notready to abolish death penalty though it is found it failed to reduce crime as thehighest punishment. But abolishing death penalty in Korea would hold lot of weightin regional Asian countries to influence others.
5. 5th speaker Ms. Tomoko spoke on the Refugee issues of Japan from human rights
ground. She showed that though every year number of refugees increased in Japan
still it far below international level. Complex internal law, language barrier, andnegative perspective of a portion of Japanese society are the main reasons behindsuch lower rate. But Japan should come out of these issues to solve the need ofincreased human resources.
Second Session: `Poverty and Development in Asia`
1. First speaker Mr. Shanawez discussed about poverty and inequality issues inBangladesh. On the basis of household survey data he explained how Bangladesh isreducing both income and human poverty with economic growth. But at the sametime inequality increased in both sector among different income groups and regions.
And a significant portion of economic growth effect is lost due to increased inequality.
And in many cases it is the poor people, woman, and children who are the mostvulnerable. He proposed for more group and area targeted strategies to fight against
poverty and inequality.
2. 2nd speaker Mr. Thomas spoke on corruption issues in the infrastructural sector inIndonesia and role of accountability mechanisms in the community driven
development projects. He showed that corruption might be a problem of incentives
in economic, cultural, political and social issues. Legitimacy might be an important
instrument to fight against corruption as it increases accountability by increasing
the involvement of stakeholders and ultimately by empowering them.
3. 3rd speaker Ms. Olga spoke on importance of preserving a Tibetan historical buildingin Ladakh, Kashmir, in India. It is the place where Alexander Csoma de Koros, aHungarian scholar lived and compiled the first Tibetan-English dictionary in 1831.
Many people aren’t aware about this historical place and it’s almost ruined.
Describing its historical importance she explained how a small project can save thisplace.
2

Third Session: `How South Asia Fit in the Discourse on ``Asian Regional Integration?`
Asia itself is very multicultural and within Asia South Asia is the mostdiversed in many terms like identity, culture, and ethnicity etc. For example,
within India we can find so much diversity which we can’t find even in many
whole continents. So, unlike Europe, for Asia these diversities might be thefirst problem in mainstreaming South Asia in Asian regional integration.
Like East Asia, South Asian countries are also coming up with various regional
integration tools. These combined regional efforts will create equal
opportunities for many less powerful South Asian countries to survive in an
integrated Asia. So, all though still there are many problems than prospects forSouth Asia to be fit in the discourse ofAsian regional integration right now

but combined efforts from both sides show us certain opportunities to bring
South Asia in the discourse of `Asian Regional Integration.`3