• Report by Deep Ranjani Rai
  
  
• Published by SAFHR, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2005
  
  
• 76 Pages

SAFHR's pilot survey of the situation of the IDPs in Nepal is aimed to focus on the quality of human rights enjoyed by these hapless people. Nepal is one of the poorest countries of the world. The IDPs of Nepal to day have been reduced to penury and begging. The children and the young have no scope to pursue their education. Young girls have had to flee their homes and are now working in shops and restaurants in Kathmandu and other cities. Large numbers of young boys, in the age group of 12 to 18, are going across the border to India in search of jobs. We hope this small initiative of SAFHR will bring the desired attention of the government of Nepal and the international development organisations to the plight of the IDPs in Nepal.

• Edited by Laxmi Murthy
  
  
• published by SAFHR, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2004.
  
  
• 86 Pages
  
  
• ISBN 99946-32-57-4
  
  
• Price; USD $ 6, NRs 400 & INR 250
  

Developed from within the South Asian media community, the Handbook is the first of its kind in identifying road blocks and exploring a pathway to a more sensitive reporting of conflicts. In the blame game the mass media is often singled out as a part of the problem of exacerbating conflicts. Moreover, in the wake of the media revolution South Asia there has been a phenomenal expansion in the reach and power of the media as also its responsibility. However, while the mass media is the primary vehicle of the constitutionally guaranteed fight of freedom of expression in our countries, its independence is mediated by its structural dependence on the state and market. Also, the journalist is not outside society.

In reporting conflicts, the journalist is a participant - from determining where there is a (newsworthy) conflict, to explaining its causes, aggravating it or even resolving it. Well intentioned impulses to shore up national integrity- the patriotic imperative, and manipulated information produce the 'mistakes' of journalists that can drive cycles of violence.

The Handbook a distillation of the discussions of SAFHR's media dialogues with about 120 journalists from the region. It stretches our understanding of the philosophic and moral issues involved in conflict reporting as well as grapples with pragmatic do's and don'ts. Its A to Z of conflict reporting provides a ready reckoner for busy working journalists.

It is an important and worthy contribution to the study and practice of conflict reporting in our region and is a must for working journalists, schools of journalism, institutes of mass communication and finally, for all those who realise the importance of media literacy.

• Edited by Rita Manchanda
  
  
• Published by SAFHR, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2004.
  
  
• 212 Pages
  
  
• ISBN 99933-874-0-1
  
  
• Price; USD $ 6, NRs 400 & INR 250
  

An essential attribute of the modern nation-state are settled borders - the external markers of sovereignty, differentiating 'us' from 'them'. In the young state system of South Asia arbitrary administrative divisions drawn by former colonial masters, lines of political control over territory - borders have been sacralised. The mass media participates in the production of the border as zones of anxieties and sites of conflicts over territorial and maritime boundaries, resource sharing, destabilising population movements, smuggling of drugs and arms, cross border insurgencies and the 'border politics' of competitive nationalisms. The media reflects the national imagination and configures borders from the positions of the privilege of power elites.

Could the media participate in demystifying borders and unpack the ideology of power and exclusion that makes borders sites of confrontation and inhibits the crossing of borders. Could the media contribute to de-terriorialising borders and explore their philosophic roots in a discourse that legitimises power and exclusions? Could it essay an alternative imagining of borderlands as homelands, i.e. not from the centre but from the margins? Could the media recover spatially expansive geographies of mobility and humanize population movements? Is the media capable of capturing the reality of the crossing of borders - that is, myriad resistances?

This miscellany of a book empirically and philosophically grapples with these questions drawing upon a regional media audit exercise - Mapping Borders held in Kathmandu in 2003. It is the latest in SAFHR's series of Media & Conflict publications and is a valuable critique and an exciting exploration of more responsible ways of reporting borders. The book is the first of its kind and an important contribution to applied journalism, social communication theory and peace studies.

• Edited by Rita Manchanda
  
  
• Published by SAFHR, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2004.
  
  
• 96 Pages
  
  
• ISBN 99946-31-81-0
  
  
• Price; USD $ 3, NRs 160 & INR 100
  

In the South Asian discourse on gender and conflict, Naga women have an iconic status as women of peace. This slim volume seeks to empirically document in the grand narrative of India's longest running insurgency, the Naga women's story and to theoretically contribute to establishing 'women making a difference' in both the praxis and substance of peace building. From the head hunting days to now, the Naga women have used their exclusion from politics as a resource to negotiate with state and non state armed actors to protect their communities; to mediate between warring factions of the Naga underground and effect reconciliation; to sustain the ceasefire and foster unity and to build inter community people to people dialogues. Above all, the women have kept the channels of communication open and promoted an inclusive peace politics. Naga women's peace activism has socially legitimised their leverage to claim a seat at the peace table as a stakeholder in the peace process.

This is a vital contribution to the corpus of gender and conflict studies and most timely in view of the on going Naga peace process. Download PDF

• By Pradipshankar Wagle
  
  
• Published by SAFHR and Nepal Institute of Peace, 2004.
  
  
• 128 Pages
  
  
• ISBN 9994632418
  
  
• Available in Nepali only

A guidebook for journalists, human rights workers and peace activists for effective information gathering, communication, and documentation during conflict.

• By Ram Narayan Kumar with Amrik Singh, Ashok Agrwaal & Jaskaran Kaur
  
  
• SAFHR, Kathmandu, 2003
  
  
• 634 Pages, RS 800
  
  
• ISBN 99933-53-57-4
  
  

Punjab, rather the truncated part of the province east of the Pakistani border that remained with India after the 1947 partition of the subcontinent, is a member state of the Indian Union. Totally landlocked, it covers 50,000 out of India’s 3.3 million sq. kilometers of a diverse geography. Its population of approximately 22 million people is dominated by the Sikhs, a distinct religious community initiated by Guru Govind Singh in 1699. W. Owen Cole’s dictionary of Sikhism defines a Sikh as “any person who believes in God; in the 10 Gurus; in their principal scripture known as Guru Granth Sahib; in the Khalsa initiation ceremony and who does not believe in the doctrinal system of any other religion.” Less than 2 per cent of India’s one billion population, the Sikhs constitute more than 62.1 percent of Punjab’s approximately 22 million people.

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• Organized by SAFHR, Forum-Asia, INSEC and FNJ, Dhulikhel, 21-22 November, 2003
  
  
• 68 Pages
  
  

The National Workshop on Media, Democracy and Human Rights was held in Nepal, from 21st to 22nd November, 2003, to discuss how to further develop the capacity of media practitioners, human rights and legal activists to work in Nepal's conflict torn environment. This report provides a detailed account of the issues discussed during this workshop.

• By Govind Subedi, Jagat Acharya and Sophia Sahaf
  
  
• Published by SAFHR, Kathmandu, 2003
  
  
• 47 Pages
  
  
• INR 100
  
  
• Available in English and Nepali
  
  

This report is about a survey that SAFHR conducted in 2002, in and around Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. The objective of the survey was to make an assessment of the incidence of 'unregistered' among the Bhutanese asylum seekers and their conditions, as well as to make recommendations to the UNHCR and the government of Nepal for improving their condition.

• By Rita Manchanda, Bandita Sijapati, Rebecca Gang
  
  
• SAFHR, Kathmandu, 2002
  
  
• 60 Pages, Rs. 250
  
  

Could the identity of women as a group have the potential to produce an alternative narrative to bridge the emerging conflict between Metei and Naga women or Kuku and Naga women? Could Kashmiri Hindu and Muslim women find a common language born of pain and grief to begin a dialogue towards empathetic mutual understanding? Could women forge a coalition based on cross cutting identities challenging polarised Sinhala-Tamil or Tamil-Muslim ethnic constructs? Beyond their common identity as could women from the many conflict zones of the region have the potential to be mobilised as a constituency for peace? Could women peace activists negotiating distinct conflict situations learn from each other on strengthening peace activism and making a difference in the peace process?

These were the challenges, which the South Asia Forum for Human Rights and its participants took on at the regional workshop on Strengthening Women's Role in the Peace Process in Kathmandu on June 25-28 2001. SAFHR's new publication 'Women Making Peace' reports on the workshop's experiments with developing overarching and comparative frames of women's experiences in conflict zones and their coping strategies in South Asia. It is structured around the themes of (a) mainstreaming women in the peace process including in reconstruction and rehabilitation; (b) heightening the profile of women's current role in peace activism both at the humanitarian and political level; (c) empowering and safeguarding the ambivalent gains in gender relations arising from conflict; and (d) constructing gendered maps and developing a methodology of cartographic representation by women of their experiences and perspectives on living in militarised civilian space as a tool for awareness.

'Women Making Peace' is a major contribution to the developing discourse on women's distinct experiences and negotiations with conflict and perspectives on peace building. The report focuses on three conflict zones, Sri Lanka, Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland-Manipur (India) contextualised within a regional framework. Its experimental methodology of 'gendered mapping' gives spatial dimension to women's testimonies, validating their gendered experiences and perspectives of conflict. The maps show women individually and collectively representing spatially their lived experience of 'militarization of civilian space', 'experiences of inter communities co-existence and conflict' and a vision of "post conflict reality'.

• Edited by Rita Manchanda
  
• Sage Publication, New Delhi, 2001
  
  
• 304 pages, INR 495
  
  
• ISBN 0-7619-9539-0
  

• Edited by Sumanta Banerjee
  
  
• SAFHR, Kathmandu, 1999
  
  
• 219 Pages, Rs. 600
  

This volume brings together contributions by some of the leading academics, journalists, religious dignitaries and leaders of political and human rights movements from six countries of South Asia Bangladesh. Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. They present multidisciplinary approaches to the problems faced in these countries by their respective minority communities ? whether religious, linguistic, and ethnic or of other categories. These studies analyse the various forms of discrimination that they suffer from both at the hands of the state and nonofficial organizations (e.g. racist or terrorist groups), and present a critique of the role of the different agencies like the executive, the judiciary and the police which have failed to protect the rights of these minorities. In this context, the authors draw attention to the failure of the governments in all these countries to adhere to the major provisions of international covenants that relate to the human rights of minorities, as %ell as to implement their own domestic laws and constitutional safeguards.

The first of its kind to be published in the subcontinent, the book will be a ready reference for specialists dealing with South Asian politics and society. It should also be of interest to the common readers of the region who share the practical objective of creating a greater mutual understanding between the majorities and the minorities in their countries, and a lessening of the ethnic, religious and racial hatred, violence and war that are ravaging the region.

• Edited by Tapan K. Bose, Rita Manchanda
  
  
• SAFHR, Kathmandu, 1997
  
  
• 380 Pages, Rs. 500
  

In South Asia the modem state building process of the post-colonial states has been marked by the trails of divided communities and mutilated mohallahs (neighbourhoods) and the wails of rejected peoples. The history of these post-partition states of South Asia has been one of majoritarian elites producing persecuted minorities, of citizenship giving rise to statelessness, of borders resulting in illegal but not unnatural cross border movements and of development policies uprooting millions. It has made South Asia a region crowded with refugees and the displaced with the fourth largest concentration of refugees in the world, and this does not include the army of stateless migrants and the internally displaced.

• Edited by Subir Bhaumik, Meghna Guhathakurta and Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury
  
  
• SAFHR, Kathmandu, 1997
  
  
• 289 Pages, Rs. 500
  

Living on the Edge is an account of the life and times in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It also indicates how people in many regions of the subcontinent have to live their lives following the particular way in which the subcontinent has been decolonized and the politics of the majoritarian nation states has become the dominant reality in the region. Based on contributions by scholars, journalists, militants and peace activists the book will become a valuable addition to the growing literature on far frontier studies.

The volume is an account of the marginalisation and peripheralisation of seemingly inaccessible lands and also a tale of how areas hitherto considered parts of mainland suddenly find themselves as the distant frontiers to be eternally guarded and suppressed. It shows at the same time how the people of these areas refuse to accept the assigned fate.

This volume by the Calcutta Research Group in association with the South Asia Forum for Human Rights continues its publication programme on peace studies.