Kathmandu Declaration - 2000
FIRST MEETING OF THE CITIZENS’ COMMISSION FOR SOUTH ASIA

We, as citizens of South Asia, are convinced that our destinies are intertwined by our shared history and common interest in the welfare of our people. The Citizens’ Commission of South Asia stresses the major role and responsibility of civil society in creating a favorable opinion for promotion of regional cooperation and commits itself to acting as an advocacy group for promoting the welfare of the people of the region.

Our main objectives are to:

• increase public awareness about the importance of South Asian cooperation and the need to intensify cooperation in the next decade and beyond;

• harness the resources of civil society and expand its role in promoting cooperation in South Asia;

• facilitate the task of the opinion, policy and decision makers on South Asian issues; and

• carry out an objective evaluation of progress of regional cooperation.

We urge the governments, opinion makers and the civil society of the SAARC member countries to reaffirm their political will to work collectively for peace, progress and prosperity with a view to improving the quality of life of one-fifth of humankind who inhabit South Asia.

The Commission shares the widespread concern over SAARC’s slow progress since its inception. SAARC has not had a summit level meeting since the Tenth Colombo Summit of July 1998.

SAARC’s inability to meet regularly at a time when challenges posed by globalisation and a rapidly evolving global economic and political architecture have created a situation in which the region has been unable to evolve a cogent and a cohesive response at the regional level, to these new challenges. Thereby, South Asia has been unable to fully take advantage of the challenges and opportunities offered by the process of globalization. The Commission stresses the need to reconvene the Summit and other meetings and for creating a conducive atmosphere for this purpose. The Commission is of the view that the schedule of the SAARC Summit and other meetings as envisaged in the Charter should be maintained.

The Commission notes with regret that while the rest of the world is moving rapidly in the direction of peace, stability and development, South Asia continues to remain mired in conflict and pervasive poverty. The Commission shares the confidence that it is possible to build a South Asia that is prosperous and secure. For this to happen, significant changes in current approaches and perspectives are necessary. SAARC offers a ray of hope to the impoverished people of South Asia. The choice for South Asia today is simple: it can either pursue a path of purposeful cooperation or sink deeper into hopelessness. The Commission expresses great anguish over the continuing political tensions in the region, which have hampered purposeful and cohesive cooperative efforts. The introduction of nuclear weapons in the region, which has given rise to varying concerns, has further reinforced the urgency of initiating measures and processes for building durable peace in the region. The Commission is of the view that impediments to purposeful and constructive regional cooperation should be removed through appropriate confidence building measures, dialogue and peaceful means.

Although SAARC has largely remained an inter-governmental process, it has received strong support from civil society. The Commission feels that SAARC needs a peoples’ focus and to broad base its activities by involving all segments of our societies. The impact of SAARC programmes should first and foremost be felt at the level of common people of South Asia.

The Commission covered a wide range of issues confronting the region. While it feels that all round efforts are needed to make a dent on poverty, environmental degradation, social and other pressing problems through value added regional programmes, it recommends the following areas of activities for immediate action by governments and civil society:

• The Commission shares the vision that South Asia in the near future would become an integrated community for purposes of trade, investments and movement of goods, services and labour. To this end, the Commission stresses the need to finalize and operationalize SAFTA Treaty by the agreed deadline of December 2001. It also emphasizes that meanwhile bilateral or sub-regional arrangements for freeing trade should be pursued in a manner that they serve as building blocks for liberalizing trade in the whole region, taking into account the special needs of the least developed countries (like the India-Sri Lanka Bilateral Free Trade Agreement).

• One of the most significant challenges, particularly for the developing countries, arises out of the multi-dimensional process of globalisation and its many complexities. The Commission recognises that while globalisation offers unprecedented opportunities, the countries of South Asia will have to be watchful of the many imbalances and inequities. Both governments and civil society have a responsibility in working together to enhance efficiency and competitiveness in our economies to cope with the challenges posed by globalisation and to obtain maximum advantages from this process. The Commission feels that it would be most useful for SAARC member countries to share experience and information and evolve common positions, where possible, on issues in a globalised economic order and a newly emerging economic architecture.

• The Commission feels that the information technology revolution offers an excellent opportunity to South Asia to leapfrog into the knowledge era. It recognises that human resource and skills is South Asia’s greatest asset, which should be purposefully utilized to create capacity in this area with a view to solving the problems affecting the common people. Other areas in which South Asian countries may have competitive advantage also likewise need to be identified.

• South Asia has had an uneven experience with democracy and governance. The Commission feels that a lot of the region’s problems could best be addressed through a responsive and democratic polity and by pursuing the best practices of governance in all areas, including accountable administration, inclusive development, human rights, empowerment and meeting the minimum basic needs of the people of South Asia. It believes that the people themselves must shape and mould their destinies, largely through their own initiatives, encouraged and supported by the state. The Commission considers corruption prevailing in our societies to be a scourge and an impediment to good governance.

• The Commission believes that governments can and should act as facilitators in promoting measures based on voluntary and civil society initiative for improving the conditions of the people, particularly in the rural areas. It notes the great success of the Grameen Bank and other movements in Bangladesh and South Asia and feels that these experiences could be usefully replicated. There are other similar initiatives, particularly aided by the information revolution, which need to be encouraged by the governments. The Commission urges that the ongoing work on the SAARC Social Charter should be expedited.

• The Commission feels that in many instances, the people of the region, as elsewhere, are ahead of their governments and that there is need for reconceptualising the functions and roles of governments. In this context, the role and responsibility of civil society also needs to be reexamined and reassessed. The Commission believes that the people themselves must shape and mould their destinies largely through their own initiatives, aided and supported by the State.

The Commission expresses its deep disappointment that progress in eradicating mass poverty, illiteracy and deprivation has fallen far too short to meet the aspirations, resource endowment and the objectives of SAARC. It, therefore, urges both the governments and civil society to greatly intensify efforts at improving the condition of the poor people, particularly in the rural areas. In this context, the solemn commitments made by successive SAARC Summits need to be implemented fully and expeditiously.

The Commission sees its role as a continuing one in the foreseeable future. It proposes to meet at regular intervals to deliberate on important issues facing our region and create an environment in which the South Asian region could move forward with hope and confidence. Its processes would be open, visible and participatory. The Commission would aim at receiving the broadest range of views and advise on key issues.

Until its next meeting in 2001, the Commission assigns studies on the following important subjects by reputed scholars and regional think tanks to enable it to consider the relevant issues in depth:

• Globalisation and its impact on South Asia - opportunities offered by information technology revolution and preparing South Asia for the knowledge era;

• Impediments to successful regional cooperation

• Democracy and good governance including effective measures to tackle poverty;

• Potential of biotechnology;

• Regional cooperation in energy.

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