COMMENT 228 – Genocide in Bangladesh – The politics of Disinformation
For the whole eleven years during which I have been actively engaged in South Asia, nothing touched me more than the Bangladeshi people’s struggle for memory, justice, and accountability regarding the Genocide perpetrated against Bangladesh by the Pakistani military authorities. This genocide, organised in tandem with Islamic fanatic organisations...
COMMENT 169 – India CAA: Europe should promote understanding, not hate!
Nearly forty years ago I was involved in the creation of an ‘Amnesty International local group’ in Ponta Delgada, the first ever created in the Azores. I remember vividly how we dedicated ourselves to publicise the work of the organisation and campaign for the release of our first ‘prisoner...
Conference – Rethinking Afghanistan
On November 3, 2021, the South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF) hosted a conference by Nazifullah Salarzai, H. E. Ambassador of Afghanistan to the Kingdom of Belgium, EU, and NATO. His excellency shared his deep insights on the current political and economic situation of the country as well as the...
COMMENT 214 – Central Asia and the EU-India connectivity partnership – Reinventing the spicy...
Introduction
The EU-India summit of May the 8th 2021 approved a vast array of common initiatives – among which the EU-India Connectivity Partnership, the most important European global connectivity enterprise yet.
Based on ‘shared values of democracy, freedom, rule of law and respect for human rights that underpin their...
Baluchistan: Pakistan Albatross – C268
Pakistan’s largest province, Baluchistan is in a simmering situation following the extra-judicial killing of 20-years-old student Mola Baksh in November. The killing sparked a long march from the south-western city of Turbat to Islamabad under the leadership of Mahrang Baloch. A sustained rise in terror incidents in Baluchistan in recent months has...
Democracy and Human Rights in Bangladesh
Democracy and Human Rights in Bangladesh
On the 10 August 2023, Conference on Democracy and Human Rights in Bangladesh: Violence Preceding Elections in Perspective, Dhaka, Bangladesh
From August the seven to August eleven, SADF made part of an international team invited by the Bangladesh humanitarian organisation ‘Empowerment through Law of the...
WORKING PAPER 22 – Pakistan’s Pandemic Policies
Abstract
The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan is not only leading to severe economic and social impacts but is also accompanied by negative political ramifications, particularly for the country’s civil-military relations. Pakistan is also presently hit by one of the worst locust plagues in decades. The federal...
COMMENT 165 – 2020 – False start for democracy in Pakistan
For many observers, the year 2019 ended with a ‘twofold big bang’ in Pakistan’s unhealthy civil-military relations. The death sentence of a former army head (Wolf, 2019, January 19) and the interference into the re-appointment process of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) by the country’s judiciary (Wolf, 2019,...
Comment 240 – Kazakhstan and the Russian debacle
‘Now is not the time for war’ was the concise and sharp public message that Prime-Minister Modi left in his bilateral meeting with President Putin. It will remain as the most impressive memory from the ‘Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’ 2022 summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, held on the sixteenth of September.
Prime-minister...
ASPI publishes a report on Australia’s policy options in Indian Ocean
In March 2019, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) published a report titled Australia's Second Sea: Facing our multipolar future in the Indian Ocean. The report dissects the problematic that despite being the country with the longest maritime border, Australia has thus far seen the Indian Ocean as secondary...