SACEPS PAPERS

Paper No. 2

SACEPS Task Force Meeting

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia

Price: Tk 25.00

SOUTH ASIA CENTRE FOR POLICY STUDIES (SACEPS)

Secretariat: Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD)
House 40C, Road 11, Dhanmondi R/A, GPO Box 2129,Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh
Tel: 8124770; Fax: 8130951; E-mail: cpd@bdonline.com ; rehman@citecho.net
Website: www.cpd-bangladesh.org
SACEPS Paper 2

April, 2003

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 2

The South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS) emerged out of a recognised
need to build an institution that would give a distinct shape to the realization of a
shared future for South Asia. The centre was originally set up at Centre for Policy
Research (CPR) in Delhi in 1999, but later in July 2000 it was moved to Centre for
Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka which is now hosting the SACEPS. The overall
objective of SACEPS is to promote regional cooperation amongst the member
countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in the field
of development research, policy studies and policy advocacy.

Major activities and programmes of SACEPS will include undertaking research

programme, arranging policy dialogues and consultative meetings, publishing
reports, creating a network on South Asian studies and cooperation etc. Such
dialogues and meetings would provide opportunities for representatives from various
walks of civil society drawn from the South Asia region to periodically assemble and
discuss issues for promotion of South Asian cooperation and the socio-economic
transformation of the region.

In order to sustain the commitment of policymakers towards South Asian Cooperation

a series of Task Forces, bringing together eminent South Asians as members, were set
up by SACEPS. These Task Forces are expected to deal with issues of immediate
importance for cooperation such as SAFTA, the WTO, Investment Cooperation,
Cooperation in the Energy Sector, South Asian Macro Economic Policies and a
South Asia Social Charter. SACEPS is also exploring the possibility of establishing
a South Asian Economic Forum to bring together national, business and civil
society leaders to meet informally to collectively discuss the future of the region and
explore avenues of cooperation.

The present report on SACEPS Task Force Meeting on A Citizen’s Social Charter
for South Asia contains the highlights of the dialogue organized by SACEPS, in
collaboration with CPD, during December 12-13, 2002 at the BRAC Centre Inn,
Dhaka.

Report prepared by: Mr Mahtab Haider, Staff Reporter, The Weekly Holiday
Series Editor: Professor Rehman Sobhan, Executive Director, SACEPS and
Chairman, Centre for Policy Dialogue
SACEPS Paper 2

The Dialogue

The South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS), in collaboration with the Centre
for Policy Dialogue (CPD), organised the SACEPS Task Force Meeting on the
Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia during December 12 – 13, 2002 at the BRAC
Centre Inn, Dhaka. The meeting was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Justice
Muhammad Habibur Rahman, Chief Advisor to the Caretaker Government. Noble
Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and, former Minister and an eminent lawyer Dr
Kamal Hossain were the Special Guests. Convenors and members of the citizen’s
groups in the SAARC countries participated in the 2-day meeting. (see Annexure for
list of participants)

Inaugural Session

Presentation by Professor Rehman Sobhan

The session started with Professor Sobhan welcoming the participants and the
audience as the Facilitator. Sobhan addressed the following issues in his introduction:

(i) Most of the participants from Dhaka had been exposed to the programmes of
the South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS) because of the annual
conferences on South Asia cooperation held over the past two years, which
had been organised by SACEPS in tandem with its annual Board meetings.
The SACEPS programme is designed to mobilise civil society across the
region to promote issues of interconnectivity among the citizens of South Asia
as part of the process of promoting greater cooperation within the region. At
the same time, the end result of the SACEPS programme was to strengthen
official programmes for regional cooperation through encouraging cooperation
among civil society across the region.
(ii) The SACEPS initiative draws upon a group of well-known institutions from
across the region who have come together to build SACEPS as an regional
institution and to participate in its programmes.
(iii) The principle programme underway at SACEPS is the organisation of 6 Task
Forces made up of well known experts from the region to address key issues
likely to promote cooperation in South Asia. The Task Forces cover the
themes of macro-economic policy coordination, investment cooperation,
energy cooperation, cooperation in the approach to the World Trade
Organisation and building a South Asian Free Trade Area. The sixth Task
Force is committed to preparing a Citizen’s Social Charter, which provides the
basis for this current meeting organised by SACEPS on the issue of the Social
Charter.
(iv) The work of the 6 SACEPS Task Forces will contribute towards keeping the
SAARC process active. At a time when the postponement of yet another

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 1

SACEPS Paper 2

SAARC Summit has decelerated official efforts at promoting cooperation

within SAARC, any attempt to bring together civil society groups in the
region provides an added relevance to sustaining South Asian cooperation.
(v) Professor Sobhan then introduced Nobel Laureate and Special Guest at the
Inaugural Session, Professor Amartya Sen to the audience. He pointed out that
Professors Sen, who was an International Advisor of SACEPS, had a long
academic relationship with the issue of rights and entitlements of the deprived,
not only in the South Asian region but across the world. It was hoped to draw
upon the support of Prof. Sen to guide the work of the Task Force on the
Social Charter and for taking the process of implementing the Citizen’s Social
Charter forward.

Presentation by Dr Kamal Hossain, Former Minister

Following Professor Sobhan’s address, eminent lawyer, former Foreign Minister and
as Law Minister, the principal author of the Bangladeshi constitution, Dr Kamal
Hossain, took the floor. He pointed out that post-colonial expectations for
subcontinental relations had been high but the concept of regional cooperation had
gradually changed through the decades. The important question, we need to ask
ourselves at this juncture is what we did wrong. Referring to an earlier speech by
Prof. Sen in Seoul, he expressed the hope that the Charter at hand would not become
just another meaningless, unenforceable document, which deafens with the rhetoric of
empowerment and sees the bare minimum translated into action.

Presentation by Professor Amartya Sen

Prof. Amartya Sen indicated that his presentation would attempt to address the issue
of how far the ongoing debate on rights could influence the design of a Citizen’s
Social Charter. To this end, he would deal with a set of issues pertaining to the theory
and evolution of rights in terms of those that can be considered inalienable from the
human condition. He pointed out that the concept of ‘natural rights’ or first generation
rights had a long and rich heritage that essentially found its roots in the discourses
surrounding the American Revolution and the French Revolution and the literature
that complements that period. The idea of natural rights was first articulated in the
1900’s but it was not until just half a century ago that a fundamental change to their
approach began to occur with the creation of the UN Declaration which comprised a
whole set of rights that were considered fundamental to the human condition.

Talking about the relationship between the law and the guarantee of rights, Prof Sen
quoted Bentham who denounced the concept of ‘human rights’ as ‘nonsense on stilts,’
based on the logic that rights are the child of the law and that from real laws come real
rights, while from imaginary laws come imaginary rights. Bentham believed that
fundamental rights were not the correct framework for looking at these issues and he

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 2

SACEPS Paper 2

instead suggested the use of utility as the framework for assessment. Bentham
believed that you can’t have rights unless they have been legislated. Professor Sen
pointed out that there could be three possible approaches to human rights, namely,
legislation, an antecedent legal judgement or through the active monitoring and
nurturing of such rights in society. Explaining the alternative methods through which
these rights can be ensured, Prof. Sen pointed out that unlike the Indian Human Rights
Commission which is a legal, and essentially state entity, the Pakistani Human Rights
Commission is actually just an NGO – which however has not prevented it from being
effective.

Prof. Sen, in his investigation of the history and evolution of human rights, pointed
out two important prerequisites for the structure’s effectiveness. First of all, he said, it
is important to recognise that freedom is important and to express solidarity with the
idea that to not support such a standpoint is intrinsically a moral failure. Once one
recognises that freedom and solidarity are important, you reach a human rights
framework which is theoretically and philosophically robust. Arriving at the central
point of his presentation which could be relevant to the preparation of the Social
Charter, Prof. Sen reminded the audience that legislation is far from the only way to
ensure basic rights. He pointed out several examples where legislation would be
useless without the moral conscience that ensures the rights of an individual. In this
regard, he pointed out, social advocacy starts to make a significant contribution in
ensuring human rights. Consequently, he also pointed out, that the feasibility of an
authority to ensure rights did not have anything to do with their classification as
fundamental rights. The right to go to school for example, was an inalienable right
irrespective of whether the existing government education system encompassed all the
rural communities in the country. If feasibility of ensuring such rights were to become
the necessary condition, then, he pointed out that a multitude of rights would lose
cogency. Prof. Sen concluded by reiterating that the correct approach to the concept
of rights is to recognise freedom as a right itself.

Presentation by Justice Habibur Rahman

Former Head of the Caretaker Government and former Chief Justice of Bangladesh,
Justice Habibur Rahman, echoed the sentiments expressed by the earlier speakers at
the inauguration ceremony. He said that the SACEPS Social Charter should aim to
take rights seriously. While legislation of rights was critical in ensuring them, every
culture devises unique methods to ensure certain rights which are relevant to their
context, and hence transcends the legislative process.

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 3

SACEPS Paper 2

PLENARY SESSION I
Background and Assumptions of the Meeting of the Task Force

Professor Rehman Sobhan initiated the day’s proceedings by welcoming the

participants from across the region and outlining the background and the process,
which had led up to the present meeting of the Task Force to prepare a Citizen’s
Social Charter for South Asia. He pointed out that:

(i) The SAARC Social Charter, which was in the works through the official
inter-governmental channels, inadequately reflects the issues and concerns
of civil society and citizen’s of the region.
(ii) The essential role at the SACEPS Task Force would be to gather inputs
and responses from civil society across South Asia, to contribute to the
preparation of a Citizen’s Social Charter.
(iii) Such a Charter should be designed so as to be instrumental in initiating a
form of social advocacy which could exert pressure on the relevant
SAARC governments to prepare a more credible official SAARC Charter
that could and would be implemented rather than take its place on the shelf
alongside a large number of official documents prepared at the national,
regional and global level. Such an official document as the Citizen’s
Charter should, therefore, be designed to be enforceable.
(iv) The contents of the SAARC document needs to be influenced by the inputs
provided by Citizen’s group in each of the member countries. This
consultative process has remained absent from the official SAARC process
for preparing a Social Charter. The SACEPS Task Force is designed to fill
this lacunae in the preparation of the Charter by activating such Citizen’s
group to work on their own National Citizen’s Charter.
(v) The document on the state of progress on the preparation of the Citizen’s
Charter, prepared for this Task Force meeting in Dhaka, would be the
point of departure for the discussions that would ensue in this meeting.
(Annexure A).
(vi) The emerging, and increasingly relevant influence of civil society, in
playing a custodial role in monitoring government initiatives in the social
sector, was emphasized.
(vii) The broad coalition of civil society forces that can be mobilized at the
national and regional levels indicates that the government is no longer the
exclusive player in efforts at both charting social charge at the national
level or in promoting regional cooperation. However in both cases
governments remain crucial but needed to interface with the efforts
underway in civil society.

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 4

SACEPS Paper 2

Agenda for the Task Force Meeting

Discussions among the participants resolved that the agenda of the meeting of the
Task Force would comprise of three components:
(i) The participants would discuss the draft document tabled before the
meeting spelling out the background and approach to preparing the
Citizen’s Social Charter.
(ii) The issues of implementation and enforcement of a Citizen’s Social
Charter would be discussed aided by the document prepared by the
SACEPS Secretariat titled A Work Programme for Advocacy and
Enforcement of the South Asia Citizen’s Social Charter.
(iii) The participants would need to apply their minds as to how they would
like to structure the upcoming SACEPS Conference in Colombo to be
convened from 25-27 February 2003.
(iv) Originally, the plan had been to invite Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya
Sen to be present at the advocacy, enforcement and mobilisation phase
associated with the work on the Charter and initiated at the Colombo
conference. But due to Sen’s inability to attend the Colombo event, his
presence had been successfully secured for launching the meeting of the
Task Force at Dhaka on 12-13 December, where he could define a social
vision for the region which could guide the work of the SACEPS Task
Force and mobilize support for the idea of a Citizen’s Social Charter.

Presentation of the Draft Report

The Draft Report of the Task Force on the Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia
was presented by its convenor, Dr Gunatilleke, who had also been part of the inter-
governmental effort in the preparation of the Social Charter. In his presentation,
Gunatilleke pointed out that:

(i) The preparation of the official document had induced the realisation that
the Charter’s raison d’etre was to address issues relevant to the most
deprived sections of the population of South Asia.
(ii) The response of the SAARC Ministerial Council to the preparation and the
results of the Citizen’s Charter had been positive.
(iii) One of the initial questions raised by the inter-governmental expert group
was regarding the standing of the Social Charter as far as international
treaties are concerned. They registered concern that it was not possible to
have a treaty in the SAARC region, which could be considered a binding
instrument.
(iv) A number of representatives, at the SAARC meeting had observed that in
terms of rights, citizens have no legal claim on the state.

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 5

SACEPS Paper 2

(v) The strength of a Social Charter is that it sets out targets for the future, set
within a time-bound framework.
(vi) The difficulty in preparing such a Charter lies in the need for such a
Charter to incorporate sweeping structural changes which could address
the challenge of linking disadvantaged groups to the changes that are
transforming the more dynamic sectors of the economy.
(vii) To capture the role and need for structural change it was suggested that
each member country submit a text for a National Citizen’s Charter whose
contents might then be integrated into a Citizen’s Charter for South Asia.
Since structural injustices and social inequities take different forms in each
of the member countries, there could be difference in the respective
country texts which would then need to be recognized and assimilated into
the draft of a regional charter.
(viii) In terms of the standing of a Social Charter it was suggested that the
fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitutions of each of the member
states could be used as a platform or basis for ensuring the enforcement of
the rights and implementation of institutional changes mandated by the
Citizen’s Charter.
(ix) For the Citizen’s Charter to be credible it was essential to set realisable
targets.
(x) Civil society movements across the region had become restricted to broad
forms of action which failed to translate themselves into mobilizations
behind specific goals.
(xi) A credible Charter should specify that the government, in becoming a
signatory to the Social Charter, must be obligated to allocate resources
towards the realisation of the targets laid down in the Charter.
(xii) In the Sri Lankan experience, the process of informing people at the
village level, of the projects the government should be enforced in their
area to make them aware that their social upliftment, was at the heart of
any solution to make the government accountable for fulfilling its Charter
obligations.

Drafting the Citizen’s Social Charter

It was agreed by the participants that:
(i) The texts of the National Charters for each of the member countries be
prepared by the National Citizen’s groups. This national draft should be
made available to Gunatilleke by January 15th 2003, so that he would have
adequate time to extract from them the relevant issues and concerns at the
national level which would serve as inputs in the preparation of a South
Asian Citizen’s Charter.

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 6

SACEPS Paper 2

(ii) Reservations were expressed about setting an imminent deadline for a

National Charter, pointing out that India’s national text would then have to
forego regional consultations which are important, considering the
vastness of their country. Criteria also need to be established through
which agendas for action would ultimately be devolved from the national
level to the regional level. It suggested that the sectors be selected on the
grounds of either being common to all members or at least common to two
members of the SAARC region.
(iii) The implementation of the Charter, and not its preparation, would be the
most difficult part of the task at hand. To ensure accountability in
enforcement, the Task Force would have to clearly set down formats for
follow up reports that each government would prepare periodically for
establishing accountability for its performance.
(iv) The Task Force further needs to recognise that a degree of justifiable
cynicism about the SAARC concept prevails across the region. This is
likely to impact on the eventual enforceability of the Charter so that
concrete action would be required to lend credibility to the enforcement
process. Numerous such policy documents, which are rich in material and
comprehensive in scope, are already in place at the national and global
level but which still fail to see their goals translated into action. These
realities need to be recognized in the work of the SACEPS Task Force.
The idea of national charters forming the basis of regional charters is, thus,
a useful strategy to give the SACEPS document more legitimacy.
(v) It was further suggested that the Charter document could assimilate
components from the ongoing efforts in South Asia on the definition of
Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and the Poverty Reduction
Strategy Papers (PRSP). The PRSP process had been not been a truly
consultative process. What little ‘consultation’ took place owed largely to
the World Bank and the IMF who emphasized this as a precondition for
their aid. As a result, the PRSP process remains flawed due to its weak
domestic ownership. As an attempt to recapture some element of
ownership, in some South Asian countries, an alternative-PRSP process is
underway at the level of Civil Society.
(vi) Discussion was joined on the issue of the link between the Citizen’s
Charter and the SAARC Charter. It was pointed out that as far as the
SAARC governments are concerned, the very decision to have a Steering
Committee for the SAARC Social Charter, prepared under the SAARC
initiative, was not adhered to. This bodes ill for the Charter’s significance
at the governmental level. It was generally agreed that a pro-active attitude
towards the Citizen’s Charter was needed since the Charter prepared by
the intergovernmental committee did not derive from broad based
consultations.

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 7

SACEPS Paper 2

(vii) As regards the Citizen’s Social Charter, attention was drawn to the need to
draw in Bhutan and Maldives in the work of the Task Force. It was
explained that a draft had been prepared by the Maldives group but their
representative on the Task Force, Ms. Aneesa Ahmed, has recently been
elevated to the status of Minister for Women’s Affairs and could not attend
the Dhaka Task Force meeting. Bhutan has only just been involved in the
work of the Task Force and will participate in the Colombo meeting to
review the final document.
(viii) It was agreed that the process of the preparation of the Citizen’s Charter
would have to be made consultative and transparent. The participants were
urged to look beyond the preparation of the document. Thus, the
ratification of the Charter could only be considered to be the beginning of
the SACEP’s efforts.
(ix) The need for a consensually defined terms of reference for the Charter
document was imperative. Words like “development” convey inherent
ambiguities. Only when we define development so that it can benefit and
include all segments of society, can we talk of a ‘right to development’.
Globalisation as a phenomenon will also have to be factored into the
Charter and its goals since this may impinge on the ‘right to development’,
particularly for the weaker segments of the population.
(x) Taking account of the comments and criticisms of the approach to
preparing an official Social Charter, it was agreed that the Task Force
should make the preparation of a Citizen’s Charter, a distinctive process,
based on consultation. It was therefore important for the Task Force to
spell out a concrete set of concerns and goals for the Charter which could
be put before the bigger gathering of Citizen’s meeting in Colombo in
February to discuss the Draft Citizen’s Charter. This document needs to
incorporate the doable measures for social action in the Charter so that it
could be used as an instrument of civic activism across the region.
(xi) In preparing the Citizen’s Charter the issue of whether the document to be
prepared was going to be class neutral and ideology neutral needed to be
addressed. It was pointed out, for example, that aid or international
assistance provided to South Asia, tended to be largely channelled to serve
an affluent elite. Given the present political context in South Asia it was
thus important to ensure that this Charter acts as an instrument to minimise
inequality and democratise access to resources. The Charter would have to
accordingly ensure the inclusion of communities that have traditionally
remained excluded from the development process due to the inadequacies
of public policy and the weakness of public institutions.
(xii) It was important for the Task Force to ask themselves who will be using
this Citizen’s Charter and how and whether there would be any way to

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 8

SACEPS Paper 2

ensure that the constituencies who actually used the charter were involved
in its preparation.
(xiii) It was important at the very outset to define the terms of reference such as
eradication of poverty and to thereby define the poor in a meaningful way.
(xiv) It was emphasized that the Task Force needed to prepare an agreed
document if it was to serve as a strong advocacy instrument.
(xv) The Task Force should take a right’s based approach to the Charter and
leave it up to the government to drop whatever articles they felt were
unenforceable, instead of compensating for that at source, in its
preparation. There may, however, be some problems in binding the charter
to time frames but the document must not be disengaged from its political
context.
(xvi) The Task Force would need to address whether communities should be
targeted. Particular communities still remain excluded from the realm of
conventional social development wisdom. It is these very communities,
whose concerns should be highlighted by the Task Force.
(xvii) The Task Force would need to keep the respective governments across the
region under a certain degree of pressure in order to generate value
addition from the Citizen’s initiative on the SAARC process. The
complacency of the government was evident from the fact that other than
in Sri Lanka the governments of the SAARC member countries are yet to
form steering committees for the preparation of the social charter.

Plenary Session II

Presentation by Dr Godfrey Gunatilleke

(on the Drafting of the Citizen’s Social Charter)
The second plenary session of the SACEPS Task Force Meeting began with a
suggestion by Dr Godfrey Gunatilleke that the Citizen’s Social Charter should follow
the structure of the CRC and the CEDAW. He said, one of his main concerns about
the Charter at hand was that it has not been formulated in the language of a charter.
He cited the example of the European Charter, which he said has been formulated in
clear and precise terms, which also needs to be done for a South Asia Social Charter,
if the constituencies and the respective governments were to take the charter
seriously. Referring to questions and controversies raised in the previous session
about sensitive issues such as the definition of ‘poverty’ and ‘development’, he
suggested that the Charter adopt the language and terminology of the UN Charters so
that the Charter in hand will be formulated in a language which is globally acceptable.
Gunatilleke pointed out that the member countries must develop common indicators
and norms if there is to be social and development cooperation across the SAARC
region.

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 9

SACEPS Paper 2

Discussion on Gunatilleke’s presentation

A number of issues were raised in the course of the discussion of the presentation by
Gunatilleke:
(i) It was pointed out that a great number of countries that are signatories to
CEDAW flout the laws easily simply because the legislative process does
not support the rights ensured in the charter. It will be important to
establish what kind of accountability is expected from the Citizen’s Social
Charter. Legislation cannot be the only course through which rights can be
ensured. There have to be social safeguards and civic action to ensure that
the relevant government performs its duties.
(ii) It should be kept in mind that country specific targets and situations are
very different for different countries within South Asia. Thereby making
the formulation of a common charter which addresses these specificities
remains a difficult task. Thus, apart from a Citizen’s Social Charter
common to South Asia, the country specific documents submitted by
citizen’s groups in each country must serve as an addendum to the South
Asian Charter. Whilst using existing, globally accepted definitions and
terminology would increase the Charter’s across the board acceptability
the source of such definitions must be explicitly stated in the document.
Unless there is clarity in the definition of the issues dealt with, it would be
difficult to reach a real consensus on the issues plaguing the region.
(iii) It was pointed out that in its current form the charter is no more than a
mere statement, with no time-bound targets to ensure its effectiveness. In
this respect, targets must be set for the Charter members and neither the
Charter nor its targets must be made conditional.
(iv) As regards targets for poverty reduction it was argued that no country can
have poverty reduction or increase in the welfare of its general population
without economic growth. However, in identifying the role of growth the
Task Force needs to keep in mind that the growth-distribution debate has,
in recent years, evolved. The important issue today, is the qualitative
nature of the growth that is achieved, and not necessarily about its
quantitative assessment. Thus, the growth process itself can now be so
designed as to not just benefit the poor but to involve them directly in the
growth process.
(v) The discussion addressed the fundamental issue of the relationship
between resources and rights. It was recognised that a country can go a
long way in fulfilling the rights of the people in poor countries without
imposing any significant burden on resources. That is what Amartya Sen
and Jean Dreize have hypothesised in their various publications. It was,
accordingly, pointed out that most welfare activities directed to the
deprived are labour intensive in nature and hence not resource consuming.

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 10

SACEPS Paper 2

“This, however, does not mean that resources are not a constraint.
Resources are a fundamentally important part of the process of achieving
growth and additional resources are an imperative as a requirement for
progressively fulfilling the rights of the people. Therefore, it is important
for the Citizen’s Social Charter to not only specify how much growth is
expected to be achieved but also specify the nature of that growth as to its
capacity to serve and involve the deprived. But the conditionality of the
fulfilment of rights without a consideration of the resources that will
finance their actualisation may render the Charter dysfunctional.
(vi) In preparation the Social Charter, the Task Force should keep in mind
what is doable and achievable not just by the governments across the
region but though the autonomous action of civil society in each member
state.
(vii) One of the important purposes that this Charter could serve was to remind
the concerned governments of SAARC that they have earlier ratified
various International Charters. It was, thus, important to ask of them as to
how much progress has been achieved by them in meeting their
obligations under these various Charter commitments. The right to
information, for example, should be sanctified. Enforcement of such social
and political rights, are not resource intensive and can be relatively easily
ensured if the political will exists. It may become difficult to go beyond
such achievable targets in a document as general as the Social Charter.

Summing up the discussion

Godfrey Gunatilleke
Following this discussion, Gunatilleke was given the responsibility of summing up the
session. His first observation in this respect was that it had been unanimously agreed
that the Charter should be a prescriptive rather than a declaratory document. He also
pointed out that it was generally agreed that the Charter is not going to be like other
international charters in that it is going to specify what goals the respective SAARC
governments should be able to achieve over a given time frame. He observed that he
personally believed that the process for the progressive realisation of goals should be
set out in such a way that targets are set against a specific timeframe but that in order
to achieve these the targets must be realistic in nature.

Rehman Sobhan
Sobhan observed that the Charter could set absolute targets such as the elimination of
poverty and then set about stating the instrumental interventions necessary to achieve
those targets for each SAARC country. The Task Force can, accordingly, consider
action in three separate directions:

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 11

SACEPS Paper 2

(i) The first direction could be to set targets based on best practice for serving
the goals of the Social Charter in the region, as far as civic activism is
concerned. This, he said, can then be used as a rationale for Citizen’s
groups in each country to demand action from their governments for
realising best practices achieved in the neighbouring countries
(ii) Another area of action could be through some forms of collective action by
civil society institutions. For example, an area of action which could lend
itself to autonomous civic action in the SAARC region was Micro-credit,
where the region was leading the world. The Social Charter could,
therefore, identify a Right to Credit for the deprived population of the
region. To realise this right, a Micro-Credit Network, involving micro-
credit institutions, throughout South Asia, could be established, which
could not only monitor the realisation of this right in each country but
could initiate a process of collective action to ensure widespread
enforcement of the Right to Credit.
(iii) The third direction could be to identify specific areas requiring political
action to implement the provisions of the Charter. To ensure the rights
indicated in the Charter are translated into political action the areas for the
involvement and participation of political constituencies in realising these
rights should be spelt out.

PLENARY SESSION III

Implementation of the Social Charter and Institutional Mechanism

The session opened with a warning that the implementation of the charter, once it has
been formulated, will be as crucial as its formulation. The following issues were
addressed with regard to implementation:

(i) Governments only act when there is a mobilisation of pressure from

powerful quarters. In this respect, it was important to separate the
initiatives originating in the official process for preparing a SAARC
Charter from the preparation of the Citizen’s Charter, which will outline
what civil society groups suggests needs to be done. For the Citizen’s
Charter to serve any fruitful purpose, it will have to deal with issues which
are deep-rooted and problematic. It should, thus, be kept in mind that
whilst various agendas for social action in the South Asia region are
underpinned by external conditionalities the large defence budgets in the
region do not appear to be constrained by the availability of resources,
which remain free of such conditionalities.

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 12

SACEPS Paper 2

(ii) The Task Force needs to address how the citizens of the region would
ensure that the document can be transformed into a set of measures that
will be implemented. This will need to resolve the specific issue of who is
going to implement the recommendations of the document. Setting time
bound targets may not be good idea because such targets are generally set
at a minimum level to ensure achievability, but then invariably become the
ceiling against which implementation is measured, thus offering an excuse
for particular governments to go no further. The SAARC Citizen’s Social
Charter should thus aim to become a visionary document. From the very
outset, we should not compensate for the feasibility of the targets we want
to achieve, by compromising them.
(iii) Such an initiative to draft a Charter taken at the regional level could have
some practical effect if it brings together some powerful civil society
forces to come together for action across the region.
(iv) Keeping the above discussion in mind it was pointed out that if the Charter
is to be prepared in the way that it has been envisioned, all the members of
the Task Force will have to take their responsibilities seriously and commit
more time and effort to the endeavour. Specific areas of responsibility for
enforcing the Charter have been spelt out in this document on
Implementation of the Work Programme for Advocacy, prepared by the
SACEPS, which needs more careful discussion.
(v) If the Charter is to be given high visibility across the region, as a prelude
to initiating an advocacy process, eminent persons from the region would
need to be mobilised to invest their support behind the Charter. However,
it will be important to select such a group of people carefully. The
selection should be on the consideration that such a group of eminent
persons would do more than just lend their faces and their image to the
cause of the Charter. In this regard, it was observed that the Task Force
should go through the natural selection process that is in place in each of
the member countries so as to make the pressure groups relevant at the
national level as well.
(vi) It was pointed out that the SAARC Social Charter has had too little
exposure and consultation at the national level. The Citizen’s Charter
should avoid this pitfall and make every effort to broaden its appeal if it
aspires to command legitimacy across the region. It was, thus, suggested
that the regional dialogue on the Charter should be followed by a broad
based process of consultations at the national level in each of the member
countries to reaffirm and add value to the Citizen’s Charter to be discussed
at Colombo. There was unanimous agreement on this suggestion,
following which, Dr Gunatilleke suggested a time frame for the
submission of the national Citizen’s Charters which will constitute the
building blocks for the regional document.

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 13

SACEPS Paper 2

Agenda of action for completing the work of the Task Force

(i) The national Citizen’s Charter should be made available to Gunatilleke by
the end of January 2003. This would consist of the text of the charter as
each of the member countries perceive it.
(ii) The authors from each of the member countries would be given a general
outline along which the National Charter may be prepared. The outline
should be prepared for each country on a consultative basis drawing upon
a broad constituency from across civil society.
(iii) In consideration of the time frame, it was agreed that each of the national
groups should attempt to organise one final national consultation before
they prepare the final draft of the National Charter. To accommodate this
approach it was agreed that the first draft of the National Charters should
be sent to Gunatileke by the 15th of January 2003, with the final version
due on the 30th of January. The national consultations could be carried out
in the interim period between the submission of the first draft and the final
version.
(iv) In this respect, it was agreed that there should be scope to explore some
aspects of the regional charter in the national documents prepared by each
of the countries.
(v) Attention was drawn to the issue of how the work of the Task Force should
relate to the Intergovernmental Expert Group which is responsible for the
preparation of the Social Charter. This may be discussed in Colombo.
(vi) With regard to monitoring, the implementation of the Charter it was
pointed out that a Regional and National Task Forces could periodically
prepare high profile reports on the progress in implementing the provisions
of the Charter which could be published in the national media. These
reports could include the evaluation prepared by the Regional Task Force
which could compare progress across the region. Such an exposure to
regional comparison could make the respective national governments more
answerable to their Citizens and even at the SAARC level. It was therefore
important that the reviews of the relevant sectors in each of the member
nations should be aggregated through a Regional Task Force who would
publish such reports.

PLENARY SESSION IV
Organisation of the Regional Conference

The Colombo Conference

The fourth and final session of the Taskforce meeting was convened to discuss the
details of the upcoming regional summit of SACEPS in Colombo:

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 14

SACEPS Paper 2

(i) It was agreed that the summit will be held from 25-27 February 2003.
(ii) It was agreed that there would be a joint declaration at the end of the
Colombo summit.
(iii) Mr Basil Ilangakoon as Executive Governor, Marga Institute was invested
with the responsibility of organising the Summit.
(iv) Illangakoon informed the Task Force that an attempt would be made to
secure the presence of the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka as the Chief Guest
at the Colombo Summit. The Guest of Honour, would be the eminent jurist
Prof. G L Pieris, who was Minister for Constitutional Affairs.
(v) As far as the number of participants from each country was concerned, it
was agreed that 7/8 representatives would come in from each of the
member countries except the Maldives and Bhutan who would be entitled
to 3/4 participants each.
(vi) In the discussion of the invitees to the Summit, it was generally agreed that
the country team would aim to include some key people from across the
region, who have participated in citizens’ movements or are eminent
personalities in the civil domain.
(vii) There was a discussion over whether the final Citizen’s Social Charter
would be analysed article by article on the second day of the summit. It
was agreed that different components of the Charter would be discussed in
different groups. Thus would reduce the tedium and the necessity of
discussing the document at length in plenary session.

Follow up to the Colombo Conference

(i) Godfrey Gunatilleke would incorporate the recommendations of the
regional consultation in Colombo in a final draft of the South Asia
Citizen’s Social Charter.
(ii) This final draft would be circulated to the respective National Citizen’s
Groups who would convene a meeting of Citizen’s to review the final draft
of the Citizen’s Charter. This national citizen’s consultation would also
address the issue of implementing the Charter and would seek validation
from the Citizen’s for the Charter as well as commitment for its
implementation.
(iii) The inputs from the National consultation would be incorporated by
Gunatilleke into the Regional Charter which would serve as the final
statement of the SACEPS Task Force on a Citizen’s Social Charter for
South Asia

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 15

SACEPS Paper 2

(iv) A final meeting of the Task Force would be convened by SACEPS to

validate the South Asia Citizen’s Social Charter. The Charter would then
become the instrument for advocacy and implementation across the region.
(v) The final Task Force meeting would discuss the issue of developing a
programme for advocacy and implementation of the Charter. The meeting
would review a programme prepared by SACEPS to underwrite this
advocacy process and would decide as to whether and in what form this
second phase of work on the Citizen’s Social Charter should go ahead.
(vi) The final document of the South Asia Citizen’s Social Charter would be
presented to the SAARC Heads of State as well as the SAARC Secretariat
by the SACEPS Task Force.

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 16

SACEPS Paper 2

Annexure

List of Participant
(in alphabetical order)

Ms Khushi Kabir Convenor,Citizen’s Group, Bangladesh

Coordinator, Nijera Kori
Dr Abul Barkat Department of Economics, Dhaka University (DU)
General Secretary, BEA
Chief Advisor ( Hon.), HDRC
Dr Sadeka Halim Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, DU
Ms Syeda Rizwana Hasan Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association
(BELA)
Mr Shamsul Huda Member Secretary,
National NGO Coordination Committee
Advocate Sultana Kamal Executive Director, Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK)
Mr Abul Hasib Khan Director, RIC
Dr M Rahmatullah Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of SACEPS
Programme Director, CPD
Raja Debashish Roy Chairman, CHT NGO Forum
Professor Rehman Sobhan Executive Director SACEPS
Chairman, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD)
Professor Muchkund Dubey Convenor, Citizen’s Social Group, India
President, Council for Social Development, New Delhi
Former Foreign Secretary, Government of India
Ms C P Sujaya Treasurer
Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi
H E Ms Aneesa Ahmed Convenor, Citizen’s Social Group, Maldives
Mr Shyam Prasad Adhikari Convenor, Citizen’s Social Group, Nepal
Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS)
Kathmandu
Ex-Secretary, NPC and National Population
Commission
Dr Dwarika N Dhungel Executive Director
Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS)
Ms Khawar Mumtaz Convenor, Citizen’s Social Group, Pakistan
Coordinator, Shirkat Gha, Lahore
Mr Mohammad Tahseen Executive Director, SAP-PK, Lahore
Dr Godfrey Gunatilleke Member, Board of Governors, Marga Institute,
Colombo
Mr Basil Ilangakoon Executive Governor, Marga Institute, Colombo

A Citizen’s Social Charter for South Asia 17