The International Centre has been working in Pakistan on women's human rights, expansion of civil society, political participation and educating parliamentarians and other political leaders about democratic ways of functioning. This past year, the democratic development study by Hina Jilani, a lawyer and human rights activist, was published and a forum was held in Islamabad in August 1998 in collaboration with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Indonesia Indonesia is in a very critical phase, at the juncture of political transformation, economic collapse and environmental disaster. The end of the Suharto era has created an atmosphere at once uncertain and optimistic. Thirty-two years of dictatorship will be transformed neither quickly nor simply, as the powers of vested political interests and the military, as well as human rights abuses, are institutionalized at all levels of Indonesian society.
Democratization is fundamental to the process of economic and political reform.
The democratic movement composed of students, political parties, sectoral groups and NGOs continue to struggle for genuine reforms. In May 1998, Indonesian labour leader, Muchtar Pakpahan, was freed from prison and he visited Canada in May of this year to meet those who helped campaign for his release.