215. CIVIL SOCIETY AND DEMOCRACY
215.
Panel Title : CIVIL SOCIETY AND DEMOCRACY
Chair : Wolfram Schaffar
Participant :
Dora Martins
Paper Title : International NGO's role in building civil society in China
Abstract :
Although States have always played a central role in international relations, numerous non-state actors, such as NGO and foundations, have acquired increasing visibility as international actors. Furthermore, some issues became global, such as environment, labour, human rights and crime. To solve them it will be necessary comprehensive methods and cooperation between different international actors. Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye (1971) proposed the substitution of a state-centred paradigm by a world politics paradigm where international relations are transnational. Marcel Merle even defended that transnational forces are the most important element in the international system. James Rosenau proposed a model of post-international politics where the international system is characterized by growing interdependence and the fragmentation of decentralised world. The state is no longer the only neither the most important actor of the international society because each individual and group play different social roles in different systems (interdependence in cascade). These groups and movements known as the international civil society can even influence states' society and politics. According to Ronnie Lipschultz, global civil society represents an ongoing project of civil society to reconstruct, re-imagine and re-map world politics. As far as China is concerned, and having very specific features, the concept of 'civil society' appeared only in the academic field in the eighties (twentieth century) and became a hot issue during the nineties. Only in 1988, the Chinese government issued the first regulations for management of foundations and ten years later the provisional regulations for registration and administration of private non-commercial institutions and of state-owned non-commercial institutions. Regarding transnational organizations such as international NGO and foundations, they must abide by Chinese government laws and control. In the last years due to increasing transnational problems, Beijing has been more permissive concerning the establishment of this kind of organizations in China especially those related to causes such as poverty alleviation and environment degradation. In my presentation, I will analyse the role of international NGO's shaping Chinese civil society.
Wolfram Schaffar
Paper Title : The Failure of the 1997 constitution of Thailand: A lesson in New
Constitutionalism in Asia
Abstract :
After its promulgation in 1997, the last constitution of Thailand was praised to be the best and most democratic Thailand ever had. Less than 10 years later the call for a new round of constitutional reform emerged as one of the major demands of the anti-Thaksin demonstrators in February 2006, Prime Minister Thaksin himself reacted to this demand by setting up a study group of university rectors to identify the constitution's flaws, and finally with the coup d'etat in September 2006, the "people's constitution" was abrogated without much objection from the political actors of Thailand and a new constitution is being drafted by a royally appointed committee. Whereas the need for a new round of constitutional reform seems to be uncontroversial in current political and academic discourse, the opinions on why the 1997 constitution failed differ widely. The most common view is what can be called a usurpation theory: the constitution as such is good but it was abused by Thaksin and turned into its contrary (cf. PASUK/BAKER 2004, 2005, MCCARGO/UKRIST 2005, and most of the political commentators of the daily press). Another view can be called the dysfunction theory, claiming that the text of the constitution itself is bad and dysfunctional (cf. MCCARGO 2002) and one could argue that its failure is only a natural outcome of the text itself. CONNORS (2003), as a third approach, locates the problem in a Thai peculiarity of what can be called "permanent constitutionalism" and a specific ideological usage of the term "democratisation". All analyses have in common that they interpret the 1997's constitutional reform as a national development, from a purely Thai perspective. I will argue that while we were confronted with a number of national peculiarities in the 1997 and the present round of constitutional reform, we can only understand the political and social processes behind the reform process as well the reason for its failure from a global perspective. A comparison with constitutional reforms in countries like Israel (in 1992), South Africa (in 1993 and 1996), and the European Union (in 2005-2006) reveals that the Thai reform of 1997 is part of a global trend of what GILL (1995) calls New Constitutionalism - a trend which led to constitutional reforms in almost all major countries of the world in the last two decades. The new constitutions share characteristic features like the great length of the texts, the codification of a specific form of civil rights, and the introduction of constitutional courts (constitutional review), which lead to an empowerment of seemingly apolitical and neutral courts at the expense of parliaments (HIRSCHL 2004). Hirschl's comparative analysis of the social and political processes behind constitutional reforms reveals that such projects are elite driven and occur under specific socio-economic conditions when elite is threatened to lose its hegemonic position. A re-interpretation of the Thai constitutional reform process of 1997 in the light of Hirschl's comparative analysis can help to understand the character of the 1997 constitution and shed some light on the social dynamics behind its failure as well as behind the new round of constitutional reform.
Lavanya Dindukurthi
Paper Title : Empowerment of Women and Human Rights
Abstract :
In 1948 Global Conference on Human Rights held in Tehran contributed to the reconceptualization of Human Rights by introducing a structural approach, emphasizing the interconnection of human rights concepts. It was the World Conference on Human Rights at Vienna in 1993 that underscored and indivisibility of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. Over the years, the United Nations has been instrumental in promoting recognition of women's fundamental human rights and in codifying those rights in legally binding International Women's Year and 1976-1985 as the U.N. Decade for women. The Fourth World Conference in 1995 (Beijing) adopted a platform for Action focusing on 12 critical areas of concern that were identified as obstacles to the advancement of women, one of the critical areas of concern was human rights itself, some of the others being poverty, health, education, violence, economic, disparity, environment and girl child. The protection of Human Rights Act came into effect in India in 1993 to provide for the Constitution of National Human Rights Commission. According to the Act, today Human Rights mean the right relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the international covenants and enforceable by Courts in India. Objectives of the Present study - The main objective of the present paper is to focus on violation of women's human rights in the context of a slum in Tirupati town, with specific reference to the critical areas of concern. Violation of Women's Right to Protection from Violence - Violation against human being has been one of the major factors which has prevented the realization of human rights goles. In the present study there were several cases of life battering among women. The drunked husband claim that they have right to beat their wives. In most cases women owing to poor economic and social conditions, have no choice but to up with all the battering.
Raja Kumari
Paper Title : Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS
Abstract :
The term 'violence against women' means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. Violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full advancement of women, and that violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men. Violence against women plays a crucial and devastating role in increasing the risk to women of HIV infection. It is a key reason why women are more vulnerable to HIV infection than men. It is both a cause and a consequence of infection, and as such is a driving force behind the epidemic. The circumstances underlying the correlation between violence against women and HIV/AIDS are a complex weave of social, cultural, and biological conditions. This paper examines the links between violence against women (VAW) and HIV/AIDS, highlighting key issues, research and resources. It outlines how HIV/AIDS is a consequence of VAW, how VAW is precipitated by HIV, the economic factors that increase women's vulnerability and the interaction between VAW and conflict. It also offers strategies and actions for ending VAW and reducing HIV/AIDS infection.
