EUROPE-SOUTH ASIA EXCHANGE ON SUPRANATIONAL (REGIONAL) POLICIES AND INSTRUMENTS FOR THE PROMOTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE MANAGEMENT OF MINORITY ISSUES

EURASIA-Net creates the basis for future research cooperation in the field of South Asian regional cooperation on human rights and minority issues, a sector that is an important pre-requisite to lasting peace and economic development in the region. European research must create, together with colleagues from the region, the knowledge basis for an effective and comprehensive EU cooperation policy with South Asia. A first, indispensable step in this direction is to develop a joint research agenda focusing on human and minority rights as one of the most critical factors of South Asian regional stability (WP1). The information and exchange sessions with EU officials and institutions (WP3) as well as the trans-regional Platform (WP4) will certainly create the favourable policy environment for future research. The involvement of young researchers (WP2) will reinforce the basis of future cooperation and raise the interest of South Asian researchers in European studies.

The project has mobilised the most active researchers on this topic in Europe and South Asia, and has gathered them in a consortium, namely

EURAC

Brunel University – West London (UK)

Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität – Frankfurt am Main (Germany)

Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (India)

South Asian Forum for Human Rights (Nepal)

Democratic Commission of Human Development (Pakistan), and

University of Dhaka (Bangladesh).

This consortium will be supported and assisted by a group of project Associates including the Council of Europe and SAARC.

The European-Asia Exchange Project on Experiences of the Politics of Recognition (EIDHR-Programme 2003-2006) finalized in 2007, explored with representatives of South Asian minority and indigenous groups as to what extent and how their rights and freedoms and interests can be protected and realised by means of self-government arrangements including forms of substantive autonomy based on evolving juridical and political ideas of shared sovereignty. The follow-up project EURASIA-Net should strengthen the network built up in the last decade.

EURAC as project coordinator is acting on behalf of the consortium towards the European Commission and third parties. Furthermore, to give a common frame of work to all partners, a Project Steering Group is installed: it supervises the technical, financial and administrative implementation of the project with the participation of all partners. The Project Steering Group consists of one representative of each partner organisation, and the coordinator holds the chair.