Minority Rights and Conflict Prevention: Case Study of Conflicts in Indian Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Nagaland


Book Description

This study explores India’s policies and practice towards minorities, and three violent ethnic conflicts: the Sikh struggle for an independent state in the Punjab region; the Kashmiri Muslim demand for the separation of the states of Jammu and Kashmir from India; and the Naga claims to an independent state of Nagalim in the north-east.




Minority Rights: The Key to Conflict Prevention


Book Description

This report, Minority Rights: The Key to Conflict Prevention, cogently argues that an understanding of minority rights is essential for anyone dealing with conflict prevention and resolution. The report’s authors, Clive Baldwin, Chris Chapman and Zoë Gray, demonstrate the strong links between minority rights violations and the outbreak of major conflicts, drawing on research carried out in China, India, Iraq, Kosovo, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Sudan, among other states. MRG’s report shows how minority rights violations are often warning signs of an approaching conflict. This new report looks at five themes: minority identity, the ability of minorities to participate in political and economic life, land/property rights and justice issues. Using case studies and providing practical advice, the authors show why ignoring early warning signs in any of these areas could lead to a build up of tensions and ultimately, violent conflict. The international community’s record on minority rights and conflict prevention is examined and found wanting. The report concludes with a checklist and a series of recommendations aimed at international bodies working on conflict prevention and resolution.




Ethno-Cultural Diversity and Human Rights


Book Description

What is the role of ethno-cultural groups in human rights discourse? Under international human rights law, standards are unclear and ambivalent, while traditional analyses have often failed to elucidate and unpack the conceptual, legal, and policy complexities involved. In Ethno-Cultural Diversity and Human Rights, prominent experts chart new territory by addressing contested dimensions of the field. They include the impact of collective interests on rights discourse and nation-building, international law’s responses to group demands for decision-making authority, and concerns for immigration, intersectionality, and peacebuilding. Drawing from diverse scholarship in international law, legal and moral philosophy, and political science, this volume will be essential reading for scholars and practitioners of human rights, diversity, and conflict management.




Protection of Minorities


Book Description

We live in a world that not only sets standards for, but also professes its commitment to promoting and protecting ‘rights’. Since ours is an age of heightened public interest in auditing the actual realisation of such standards and commitment, the first major focus of this book is a critical account of international standards aimed at the protection of minorities. To that end, it concentrates on four key dimensions. Firstly, it addresses the issue of the identification of minorities as understood by international law. Secondly, it outlines a brief history on the development of international law towards improving the protection of minorities. Thirdly, it gives an overview of international instruments and mechanisms on minorities. Finally, it analyses the rights of minorities under international standards. All these dimensions point to the fact that international minority rights lag behind the development of other branches of rights. The second major focus of this book is to relate international standards on minority protection to South Asian regimes. Concentrating on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Afghanistan, an endeavor is made to examine the state of minorities and their protection under the domestic regimes. It emerges that the normative commitments of these states are more or less compatible with international standards. Nevertheless, majority-minority syndrome persistently remains as one of the causes behind multidimensional deprivation and victimization of South Asian minorities. The present book also assesses the extent to which regional cooperation in South Asia has so far contributed to extending protection to minorities. This ends with an argument that SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) has the potential to play a far greater role in this regard.




Peace and Justice


Book Description

Peace and Justice is a part of the series, Imagine a New South Asia', presented by ActionAid International Asia. The book has contributions from authors spread across the subcontinent, voicing the need for imagining a new South Asia. This volume is an expression of the yearning of the people of this region for a peaceful, violence-free and inclusive South Asia free from poverty, inequality, injustice and conflict. The articles in this volume include discussions on diverse topics such as conflicts and the prospects of peace in the Kashmir valley, accountability of the state, problems related to governance, challenges faced by democracy, politics of secularism in Bangladesh, the alternative to war in Sri Lanka, and the perspective of Pakistan vis-a-vis peace and justice within the subcontinent. They create a vision of a unified pluralism in this region, which is currently tainted by the practice of hegemony and oppression in the name of religion, ethnicity, caste and culture.




Peace and Justice:


Book Description

Peace and Justice, a part of the series, Imagine a New South Asia, presented by ActionAid International Asia reflects the desire for a peaceful, violence-free and inclusive South Asia. It comprises discussions on diverse topics such as conflicts and prospects of peace in the Kashmir valley, accountability of the state, problems related to governance, challenges faced by democracy, politics of secularism in Bangladesh, the alternative to war in Sri Lanka, and Pakistan’s perspective vis-à-vis peace and justice within the subcontinent.




Handbook of Indigenous Public Policy


Book Description

This ground-breaking Handbook explores the key legal, political and policy questions concerning the implementation of Indigenous rights across the world. Expert contributors analyse the complex dynamics of contestation, engagement, advocacy and refusal between governments and Indigenous Peoples, presenting a profound challenge to mainstream policy scholarship.







The Routledge Handbook of Asian Security Studies


Book Description

The Handbook of Asian Security Studies provides a detailed exploration of security dynamics in the three distinct subregions that comprise Asia, and also bridges the study of these regions by exploring the geopolitical links between each of them. This Handbook is divided geographically into four main parts: Part I: Northeast Asia Part II: South Asia Part III: Southeast Asia Part IV: Cross Regional Issues Despite the richness and complexity of security issues in Asia, and the theoretical and conceptual debates these have spawned, there is no single volume that scholars can turn to for succinct, cogent and dispassionate analysis of these issues. The Handbook of Asian Security Studies fills this important gap in the literature, dealing with all major security issues in the area which range from unresolved territorial disputes (maritime and inland), irredentist claims and intra-state conflicts to transnational terrorist movements and nuclear rivalries. This volume contains essays by many leading scholars in the field and will be essential reading for all students of Asian security, Asian politics, and International Relations in general. Sumit Ganguly is a professor of Political Science and holds the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of some 15 books on South Asian politics. He is also the founding editor of the only refereed, social science journal devoted to the study of contemporary India, The India Review and a founding editor of Asian Security. Andrew Scobell is Associate Professor of International Affairs and Director of the China Certificate Program at the Bush School of Government and Public Affairs at Texas A&M University located in College Station, Texas. He is co-editor of the journal Asian Security and has edited or co-edited 12 books on Asian security topics. Joseph Chinyong Liow is Associate Professor and Head of Research at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore. He is co-editor of Order and Security in Southeast Asia (Routledge 2005) and author of The Politics of Indonesia-Malaysia Relations: One Kin, Two Nations (Routledge 2005).




State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2016


Book Description

The unique cultures of minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide – spanning a wide variety of customs and practices – are under threat. This year’s edition of State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples highlights the impact of land dispossession, forced assimilation and other forms of discrimination on the most fundamental aspects of their identity, including language, art, traditional knowledge and spirituality. But while the effects of this attrition can be devastating, minority and indigenous cultures have also been critical in strengthening communities and providing activists with a platform to fight for their rights. As this volume illustrates, ensuring that the cultural freedoms of minorities and indigenous peoples are protected is essential if their other rights are also to be respected.