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Programmes & Reports]>reports
 Regional Dialogue on Minority Rights in
South Asia
Bangalore, May 2000
Statement of Understanding
The participants in the second regional dialogue on minority
rights held by the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR) in collaboration
with the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, in Bangalore on 10-11 May 2000, take
into account the fact that in protection of minority rights the primary
concerns are democratization of society, ensuring political-social space
for the minorities, arresting the phenomenon of the creation of new minorities
by majoritarian states in this region, and addressing the task of setting
up regional standards. The participants further note, that these concerns
embody issues that are particular and global, moral-ethical and practical,
country-specific and regional, political-economic and cultural, and finally
issues of rights and justice.
The participants take into account the perspective set out
in the key-note address on the democratic values of minority protection,
and the inaugural address on both principles and instrumentality.
The participants are of the view that minority rights must
be seen in the context of human rights as a whole while allowing for both
distinctions and convergence of the two.
These rights must also be seen in the context of democracy,
and particularly good governance from a functioning democratic state.
In other words, minority rights are meaningless in the absence of democracy.
An adequate understanding of minority rights can grow from
a rigorous examination of the trends towards majoritarianism in South
Asia, and possible ways to reverse them.
Minority rights must also examine and grow from demands
for broad social justice.
The participants are of further view that existing notions
of human rights and fundamental rights must inform the exercise of setting
standards, though not exclusively.
While the participants recognize community and group rights,
they also hold that these can not be allowed to take away individual rights.
The participants note the paramount significance of instituting
reconciliation mechanisms in ensuring a tolerant and plural society, and
realize that one of the effective ways of democratic activism in ensuring
minority protection is moving towards citizens' organs that work for reconciliation.
Finally, in the context of South Asia, the participants
realize the need to examine the effectiveness or otherwise of the existing
forms of autonomy which pervade the notion of minority rights. The participants
further realize the importance of the task of exploring the possible forms
of cultural, political, economic, and territorial autonomy. The participants
further agree that it is necessary in this context to see whether these
can be simultaneously pursued, and if they are complementary or case/country
specific.
On the basis of the understanding mentioned above, the dialogue
agrees to set up a working group to examine existing forms of minority
rights in the region, prepare an institutional profile of these forms,
also examine existing autonomy provisions in various democratic polities,
and other international legal and public arrangements and declarations,
so that based on both country-specific and a broad review, the working
group can suggest by the end of this year certain regional standards on
minority rights in South Asia. The focus is to be on autonomy provisions.
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