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The Modules
A. Basic concepts of human rights and their links to peace
The module sets the study of peace in the context of human rights and
justice. As the introductory module it will deal with topics such as a
brief history of human rights, the challenge to empires, struggles against
autocratic regimes and growth of democracy, emergence of concepts like
"people", "nation", "nation-state", "citizen"
and the "stateless", development of the notions of rights as
"rights of man", "rights of citizens" and "universal
human rights", imperialism, colonialism and the struggle for national
self determination, growth of International human rights law and mechanisms,
constitutional forms of government and protection of human rights, the
role of judiciary in the protection of rights, protection of religious,
linguistic and ethnic minorities, the concept of cultural rights, rights
of non-citizens - the refugees and migrants, and finally, the new generation
of rights - gender, environment and child rights, and the concept of collective
rights.
(Participants' roundtable discussion on "The Need to View Peace
on the Foundations of Human Rights and Justice")
Report of the discussions in Module A
Module A of the Course focused on Issues in Human Rights. Given such a
broad ambit, it was not surprising that the module lectures and group
discussion varied in the raised themes. The resource persons for the module
included C.R. Abrar, Tapan Bose and Kapil Shestra, who in lectures, tutorials
and informal discussions gave a wide ranging but coherent sense of the
salient issues at stake in the human rights field. Among these were an
ethnographically grounded discussion of human rights abuses of linguistic
and Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, and theoretical ponderings on the
meaning and actuality of state sovereignty and the universality of human
rights. The participants in the module, perhaps more so than those in
other modules, introduced to the course numerous case studies from the
subcontinent that intersected with Module A's lectures as well as other
module themes. The breadth and personal, professional, and political involvement
in the case studies proved eloquent and insightful. Among the most poignant
discussions focused on the Bhutanese refugees in Nepal and the struggle
for repatriation; the trafficking of girls and women from Nepal into forced
prostitution; the persecution of independent media in Bangladesh; the
protracted struggle between indigenous inhabitants in Bangladesh's Chittagong
Hill Tracts and the state; and the Maoist insurgency and consequent crackdown
by the State in Nepal.
Given that Module A's lectures and group discussions were the jumping
off point for the course's later content, much of the rich discussion
with other participants and resource persons involved in other modules
following these presentations resulted in the elaboration of further information
and ideas, and provided interesting counter-examples from countries of
South Asia. Among the issues raised were the role of advocacy networks
and the media in publicizing and thereby putting pressure on state entities
involved in human rights abuses; the tactics of non-state entities such
as trafficking networks in violating freedom and dignity of women and
children; the development of religious and cultural discourses that legitimate
further disempowerment and subjugation; and the linkages between state
development projects and dominant community abuses of indigenous and ethnic
minorities. An especially positive and stimulating aspect of the Module
A group''s internal and classroom discussions concerned the webs of similarity
that weave together so much of South Asian peace and human rights issues.
When states and other dominant groups utilize the same brutal tactics
and discourses in stultifying marginalized communities, the effect is
on those victimized who feel small and helpless. The understanding that
there are other possibilities and examples that can be constructively
applied in understanding and countering cases of oppression was the most
constructive benefit arising out of participation and discussion under
Module A. (Ajay Gandhi)
B. Laws of war and laws of peace
The neo-imperial wars of domination and the civil wars of mutual claims
of recognition and determination have done away with every sense of responsibility,
restoration of trust, and a just reconciliation of claims. The old territorial
forms of political living (territorial units such as state, country, province,
autonomous republics in a multi-national state, nation-state) are considered
inadequate or irrelevant by the political classes in many parts of the
world with the consequence that the grab is up for new forms of territory
as a matter of life and death struggle in the politics of recognition
and determination. In this sense, new wars do not signify banal geopolitics,
but a crisis in administering laws of war and laws of peace. Under this
module, the human rights laws and humanitarian laws will be discussed
in the context of the present situation in South Asia, the war in Afghanistan,
globalization, and the post September 11 developments. The module will
concentrate on issues such as early and modern laws of war; war over territory;
nationalism, ethnocracy and violence; human rights laws and humanitarian
laws; principles of sovereignty, states system, globalization and war,
the debate over wars as humanitarian intervention, and the convergence
and divergence of human rights laws and humanitarian laws. In addition,
the module will relate to the issue of constitutionalism, and its limits
in promoting dialogues and resolving conflicts.
(Participants' roundtable on "Humanitarian Wars in the Mirror of
Human Rights and Humanitarianism")
Report of the discussions in Module B
Straddling with ease the twin roles of peace activist and theoretician,
Oren Yiftachel set the tone for the discussions and presentations under
Module B during the face to face on the evening of 4 August. Speaking
on resource based conflicts, land rights of the Arabs and particularly
Arab-Bedouins under the ethnocratic regime in Israel, and the erosion
of human values under a regime of repression and widespread abuse of human
rights, Oren in the course of discussions and replies to several inquiries
was able to bring out the complex and inter-twined dynamics of the Middle-East;
from there, the discussants could extrapolate the lessons to the situate
in South Asia. Fernand de Varennes, dealing with international law, spoke
about the holistic nature of law making - and the indivisibility of fairness
and justice, of the disjunction between America's actions in Afghanistan
and Guantanamo Bay and established international and humanitarian norms.
Speaking on the problems of conceptualising and enacting international
law, Fernand engaged with the participants to thrash out the inherent
contradictions of international law, and in doing so, impressed upon them
the many shades and forms that international law could take and use to
buttress and help maintain human rights in nation-states in the contemporary
world. Patrick Hoenig, speaking more specifically on the UN system and
its interactions with human rights issues, clearly explained the tasks
of most of the statutory bodies and treaties that governed UN intervention
and action, and highlighted the inherent dilemmas of these institutions.
Patrick brought out the bureaucratisation, and the lack of accountability
and transparency in some UN agencies as impediments to the proactive role
of the UN in regions where human rights were being abused.
In the presentations in the roundtable in Module B, participants concentrated
on the Kashmir issue and various facets of the ethno-political conflict
in Sri Lanka. The struggle of ordinary Kashmiris for justice and at times
sheer survival, struggle for the acceptance of basic human rights as an
underpinning of governance and democracy, the yearning for a realisation
of their aspirations, and the constant battle against the adversarial
forces of the State were highlighted in the presentations of the participants,
each of whom gave an insightful, though-provoking and well researched
presentation into a particular aspect of the Kashmir problem. Presentations
on Sri Lanka by the participants mapped the historical antecedents for
the present conflict, examined oft forgotten facets of the scenario, the
Up-country Tamils, and also reviewed the socio-political scenario after
the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in February 2002. The SAFHR Peace Audit
exercise also brought out the inextricably entwined nature of war, peace
and human rights. The examination of the complex dynamics of the ethno-political
conflict in Sri Lanka, its raison d'etre and its present form not only
enlightened participants on the complex interplay between peace making
and human rights, but also brought out in no uncertain terms the effects
of systematically depriving peoples of their basic human rights under
repressive regimes of a majoritarian democracy.
The nature of the SAFHR course was holistic, and in a very real sense,
one could not pigeon-hole the lessons learnt from one module, presentation,
and lecture or group discussion. As such, the ideas of participants in
Module B were shaped and influenced by the content of other Modules, as
well as active participation in the discussions of other Modules. In sum,
Module B presented participants with a gamut of issues associated with
war, peace, human Rights and humanitarian Laws in a way that was instructive,
thought provoking and useful. (Sanjana Hattotuwa)
C. Ethics of rights, justice, and responsibility
Understanding why we want to know who is responsible for which deaths,
and the limits of that responsibility may be as important as, if not more
important than, the process of determining responsibility that is so developed
in international law. It is only when we appreciate the politics of identity
and its closure, which animate our desire to know, that we can begin to
glimpse new possibilities of responsibility/community outside of or beyond
the limitations of that desire. Module C will discuss issues such as ethics
of care and hospitality, justice as reconciliation, relation of truth
to justice, forms of justice, medical ethics and torture, differential
history of responsibility, war crimes and accountability, laws and their
limits in the pursuit of justice and responsibility, and the feminist
critiques of the accounts of responsibility.
(Participants' roundtable on "Law and the Ethics of Care")
Report of the discussions in Module C
The discussion on ethics of rights, justice, and responsibility was one
of the most interesting parts of the fifteen day course. To many participants
familiar with the day to day language of laws and rights only, discussion
of ethics was novel, and instructive. Professor Pradip Kumar Bose's discussion
on the moral paradox within the theory and practices of multiculturalism
that reflected negatively on rights that bordered the two worlds of the
state and the community, such as the rights of the women, provoked comments
and several intrigued questions. His suggestion that group rights were
not absolute was a pointer to the argument that human rights could inhere
only in a framework of justice and morality. Similarly, Ranabir Samaddar's
two lectures on the margins of ethics dealt with the intersection of law
and ethics, and the historical formation of ethical arguments in the context
of legal evolution. The ensuing deliberations on the culture of hospitality
and care for the shelter-seekers such as the refugees showed how ethics
similar to law did not stand on absolute ground, and often lived in a
hierarchical world - yet, as he showed, ethics worked as a counterpoint
at a time when the world of law would reign seemingly absolute over the
universe of rights. The discussion arose - who acts as whose supplement?
(A Reporter)
D. Collapse of liberal-constitutional culture in the wake of new wars,
and the need to defend the area of conscientious dissent, human rights
and freedom
We are now witnessing the prospect of the collapse of liberal values and
constitutional culture when every form of war threatens to overwhelm all
other aspects of political life. The silencing of laws by war is a future
that must be averted in not only South Asia but elsewhere too. Module
D will concentrate on enlightenment, liberalism and law and order; received
constitutional legacies, violence and constitution making, new wars, globalisation
and the breakdown of the state, history of dissent, court and the dissent,
legal pluralism, human rights commissions and other protection mechanisms
in the region, their significance and limits in the wake of wars and communal
massacres.
(Participants' roundtable on "The Need to Defend the Area of Conscientious
Dissent")
Report of the discussions in Module B
Module D focused on the crisis and occasional collapse of constitutional
culture in South Asia in the wake of the interventionist wars and the
need to defend human rights under attack in the wake of such wars. The
resource persons for the module, Arun Patnaik (India), Lok Raj Baral (Nepal)
and Ranabir Samaddar (SAFHR), in their lectures and discussions put forth
a wide range of concrete and salient features of such situation.
Arun Patnaik examined the components of the Indian constitution, which
provides for civil and political rights as fundamental rights and economic,
social and cultural rights as directive principles and the impact of such
categorization on the social and personal lives of individual men and
women. He pointed out that the constitutional rights of the people were
more so violated when there was a total neglect of responsibility by the
ruling class towards the basic needs of the people. Lok raj Baral gave
a very interesting insight into the events which had led to the drafting
of the present constitution in Nepal. He discussed the current context
in Nepal in which the constitution had fallen in jeopardy in the midst
of political contests between government, opposition parties and the Leftist
armed rebels. Elaborating on the internal conflict and the socio-political
scenario of Nepal, Dr. Lok Raj Baral rightly pointed out how constitutional-political
situation in Nepal had developed in jumps and not in an orderly way of
evolution, and analyzed how the situation was moving towards a sort of
the militarization of democracy in Nepal, where the main problem lay in
the fact that the political class was only paying lip service to popular
democracy while importing, besides guns, Pajero vehicles, in his words,
thus creating a "Pajero Culture" in the country. In such a situation,
even though the call by the rebels for renewing a constitutional assembly
to rework the constitution and re-vitalize the constitutional system was
worth considering, he felt that if such call only entailed violence, the
idea of rejuvenating the constitution through other means of review should
be pursued.
Ranabir Samaddar explored the complex dynamic of "Rights language"
and how understanding the complexity of the language of rights had become
important to us. He further explained the theme of the "margin of
rights", where it was not only a question of rights, but also the
allocation of rights, and capacity to enjoy rights. In the current context
thinking of capacity and capability to have rights meant, he pointed out,
that it was necessary to understand that in order to enjoy rights, we
have to have "the right to have rights". We all are members
of states, but our relation with the state is of a very transactional
nature. Rights in such context are gradually denuded of ethical content
and become a legal product only, whose end is to keep the transactional
nature of state-citizen relation intact. It is about time that political
thinking should explore new vistas of rights and justice and the language
of justice as the companion of the language of rights. In the current
world where consummation of a right in each case brings to the fore a
strengthening of the legal-bureaucratic system of State and governing,
it is important that new outlooks be explored towards new forms of political
societies, for in every society there exists moral resources of justice
and protest against indignities, and these resources are the ones that
take a society forward with the help of a notion of "minimal justice
to the common person". Samaddar was able to explain to the participants
that the moral economy of rights was based on ethics, sentiments and doctrines,
wherein ethics had its limits, but the moment when one had reached the
goal and made a turn, one discovered a whole new dimension appearing on
the horizon.
On the whole the moderators and facilitators of Module D were able to
link the sessions with the fluidity of the previous sessions and clearly
show that sovereignty (both internal and external) of the state, that
is, absolute power over its subjects and territory had become contingent
in face of the demands for justice. The theme of the module thus became
quite thought provoking and interesting to debate on. (Sanjay Gathia
and Ranjana Thapa)
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