Report of Session on Rights of Minorities’ in South Asia
Peoples’ SAARC Regional Convergence
24th November, 2014
Kathmandu, Nepal
The nature of violation of rights of minorities in South Asia and create a strong network of organizations across South Asia to consolidate existing or establish new mechanisms to address such violations. The process to draft a charter on rights of minorities in South Asia was to be initiated during this session. Approximately 40 participants from countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh attended the session. The session started with a brief introduction of all the participants present. Then Adv. Irfan Engineer, Director of CSSS briefly outlined the purpose of the meeting. He contextualized the discourse of rights of minorities in South Asia by it tracing the consciousness of minorities in South Asia to the colonial times where the colonial rulers forced and induced migration of huge populations for cheap labour which would work to their benefit. However this migration changed boundaries and political systems.
