Regional Roundtable on Promoting People to People Interaction Through SAARC

Under the Interaction and Advocacy Programme of GPPAc South Asia, a Regional Roundtable on ‘Promoting People to People Interaction Through SAARC’ was held in Kathmandu, Nepal on July 14-16, 2010. It was organized by the Centre for South Asian Studies (CSAS) in close collaboration with the Global Partnership on Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) and Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, the Regional initiator for GPPAC South Asia. Prof. Amal Jayawardane, Executive Director of the RCSS, Mr. Nishchal N. Pandey, Director of CSAS, Mr. Darynell Rodriguez Torres, Programme Manager-Interaction and Advocacy at the  GPPAC Secretariat in the Hague and erudite scholars and experts on SAARC issues from South Asia participated. Mr. Nishchal N. Pandey, Director of the CSAS, the local partner for the event, hosted a reception in honor of the delegates at the Radisson Hotel, Kathmandu which saw Ambassadors from SAARC countries represented in Kathmandu, the Director from the SAARC Secretariat, civil society leaders and journalists attending.

During the Inaugural Session of the meeting, the key-note speaker, a well known Nepali journalist and Editor of Nepali Times weekly Mr. Kunda Dixit shed light on the shortcomings of SAARC despite its 25-year existence and elaborated on militarized and overly security conscious governmental regulations in the region being a hindrance to more connectivity between countries and its people. Participants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka as well as from Nepal highlighted the importance of promoting track II and track III approaches and initiatives in South Asia which would be a big step forward towards achieving a South Asian Economic Union as envisaged by the leaders of SAARC. Executive Director of RCSS Prof. Amal Jayawardane and Mr. Darynell Rodriguez Torres also spoke on the occasion.

On July 16, the participants visited the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and Pacific under the Office for Disarmament Affairs and acquired information on the activities of the Centre. Likewise, they visited the SAARC Secretariat and discussed the work of the Secretariat and the SAARC itself with Director of SAARC for Nepal, Mr. Niranjan Man Singh Basnyat. They also visited the Secretariat’s library and made a pledge to regularly send publications of their respective institutes and universities to the library which is commonly used by South Asian researchers, academics, and students.  

The RCSS, along with the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation, organized a Regional Workshop for Police Officers and Prosecutors in South Asia on Effectively Countering Terrorism. The workshop was hosted by the Government of Sri Lanka, in association with the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and was organized with the support of the Governments of Australia and Canada. The three-day workshop held from 8-10 June 2010 provided an unconventional forum for senior-level police officers and prosecutors to consider specific issues that arise in counter-terrorism cases. Participants in the workshop considered steps to strengthen international cooperation in investigations and prosecution, including the possibility of developing a joint regional training mechanism.
Participants at the workshop included police and prosecutors from all eight member States of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Their discussions were facilitated with input from the Commonwealth Secretariat, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Marshals Services. The SAARC Secretariat also participated as an observer.
The Colombo workshop builds on an earlier workshop, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 8 to 10 November 2009. These meetings are part of a series of workshops, which aim to develop discussion among police, prosecutors and the judiciary on how to counter terrorism effectively in South Asia. At the Colombo workshop, the police participating in the discussion focused primarily on methods of terrorist financing, including, connections to organized crime, while prosecutors focused on measures to strengthen witness protection. Both groups also discussed the central role of fair treatment, due process and human rights in the process of countering terrorism.
Broader goals of the process are to help build trust and promote the cross-border working relationships necessary to counter terrorism effectively and to lay the foundations for improved regional counterterrorism cooperation.

 KODIKARA AWARDS FOR SOUTH ASIAN STRATEGIC STUDIES 2010