When the BBC Asian Network was launched back in 2002 as a nationwide digital radio station throughout Britain, the BBC’s then-radio director, Jenny Abramsky, called it “one of the most important things the BBC has ever done.” Since then, the Asian Network has developed a loyal following, both in Britain and, via the internet, around the world.[Because of immigration patterns, "Asian" is the UK word for South Asians.]
Today, however, the Asian Network’s future is very much in doubt. On the eve of British general elections, a strategy review by BBC management proposes major changes in the BBC’s operations — including the closure of the Asian Network (and another network, BBC 6 Music) altogether….
Continue reading at SAJAforum….
Posted in sajaforum March 12th, 2010 Trackback
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DREXEL EVENT: Shylashri Shankar, Judging Anti-Terror Cases: Evidence From India, Mon Jan 11 @ 4:30pm
Jan
11
4:30 pm
The Indian Supreme Court is widely recognized as a complex and dynamic institution. It has been the subject of much acclaim, as well as criticism. The Court has even been charged with overreaching itself and intruding into the domains of the executive and the legislature. In an era of globalization and judicial activism, the experience of India, offers a valuable perspective on the role judges play in a vibrant democracy.
What explains the choices that India’s Supreme Court justices make? Do judges make distinctions between the religious and political affiliations of the accused when adjudicating anti-terror cases? If so, why, and under what conditions?
In an era of globalization, India’s experience offers a valuable perspective on the role judges play in a vibrant democracy. Hear Shylashri Shankar address these questions, in a talk drawing from her recent book, Scaling Justice: India’s Supreme Court, Anti-Terror Laws, and Social Rights.
Shylashri Shankar is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. She was previously an Assistant Professor in the Government Department at the University of Texas at Austin, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre on Religion and Democracy at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. She has received degrees from the University of Delhi, University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Columbia University. She is the author of Scaling Justice: India’s Supreme Court, Anti-Terror Laws, and Social Rights (Oxford Univ. Press 2008). She has written several articles in edited books on secularism, the judiciary in India and Sri Lanka, India’s courts and religious conversion, cross-judicial borrowing and national constitutions, among others. She has also written op-eds in national newspapers and magazines on democratic transition and consolidation in South Asia and the Middle East, judicial independence, ethnic conflict, and terrorism.
* * *
When: Mon, Jan 11, 2010, 4:30pm
Where: Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law, Rm 340(reception to follow in 3rd Floor Gallery)3320 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
Posted in calendar January 5th, 2010 Trackback
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PANEL: AALS Session on Law and South Asia, Sat Jan 9 2010 @ 3:30pm
Jan
9
3:30 pm
Open Program on Law and South Asian StudiesAnnual Meeting, Association of American Law SchoolsNew Orleans, LASaturday, January 9, 2010
This session will consist of (1) a panel on contemporary issues in constitutional law and fundamental rights in South Asia (the papers from which will be published in the Drexel Law Review as part of its Symposium on Law and South Asia) and (2) a short business meeting on the formation of the proposed AALS Section on Law and South Asian Studies.
Opening Remarks:
Marc Galanter, John and Rylla Bosshard Professor of Law and South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, and Centennial Professor, Department of Law, London School of Economics and Political Science
Panelists:
Sehla Ashai, Staff Attorney, National Immigrant Justice Center, Heartland Alliance, Chicago, IL — “Competing Constitutions: The State Subject Controversy of Jammu and Kashmir”
Payal Shah, Legal Fellow for Asia, Center for Reproductive Rights, New York, NY — “Maternal Mortality in Nepal: A Case for Using International Law for Accountability and Justice”
Shylashri Shankar, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi, India — “The Spirit of the Constitution: Engaging with Foreign Judgments: India, Sri Lanka, and South Africa”
Elisabeth Wickeri, Executive Director, Leitner Center for International Law & Justice, Fordham University Law School, New York, NY — “Towards a Lasting Peace in Nepal: Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in the New Constitution”
Moderator:
Anil Kalhan, Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law, Philadelphia, PA
Registration and other details for the AALS Annual Meeting are available here.
Posted in calendar November 29th, 2009 Trackback
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DREXEL EVENT: How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America, Thu Dec 3 @ 4:30pm
Dec ’09
3
4:30 pm
How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?Being Young and Arab in America
Just over a century ago, W.E.B. Du Bois posed a probing question in his classic The Souls of Black Folk: “How does it feel to be a problem?” he asked. Today, Arab and Muslim Americans, the newest minorities in the American imagination, are the latest “problem” of American society, and their answers to Du Bois’s question increasingly define what being American means today.
In a wholly revealing portrait of a community that lives next door and yet a world away, Moustafa Bayoumi introduces us to the individual lives of seven twentysomething men and women living in Brooklyn, home to the largest number of Arab Americans in the United States. Through telling real stories about young people in Brooklyn, Bayoumi jettisons the stereotypes and clichés that constantly surround Arabs and Muslims and allows us instead to enter their worlds and experience their lives. [link]
Panelists:
- Moustafa Bayoumi, Associate Professor of English, Brooklyn College- Jimmy Yan, General Counsel, Office of Manhattan Borough President- Yasmin Dwedar
* * *
When: Thu, Dec 3, 2009, 4:30pm
Where: Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law, Rm 140(reception and book signing to follow in 3rd Floor Gallery)3320 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
Posted in calendar November 24th, 2009 Trackback
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CALL FOR PAPERS: Drexel Law Review Symposium on Law and South Asia
Call for Papers – Drexel Law Review Symposium on Law and South Asia:
The Drexel Law Review is pleased to announce a symposium issue focusing on law and policy in South Asia to be published during Spring/Summer 2010. We invite the submission of articles, essays, and book reviews on any topic related to law or public policy in one or more countries in South Asia, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim, or Sri Lanka.
Submission guidelines:
There are no minimum or maximum length requirements for submission, but we encourage submissions ranging between 10-65 journal pages (between 3,000 and 20,000 words, including text and footnotes). We encourage authors to target the lengths of their submissions to this range.
Please include with your submission (1) a short cover letter explaining your interest in publishing in the symposium issue and the scholarly contribution that your article makes, and (2) a curriculum vitae.
Articles should be fully supported and citations should conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (18th ed.) (http://www.legalbluebook.com)
We accept Adobe PDF or Microsoft Word submissions, but authors should be prepared to use Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007 during the editing process.
Submissions should be sent by email to lawrev@drexel.edu, with the subject heading: 2010 Symposium Submission. In the email, please include your name, institutional affiliation, email address, postal address, and phone number.
Please direct any questions to the Symposium Editor at lawrev@drexel.edu.
Submission deadline: Submissions will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis through December 31, 2009.
For more information about the Drexel Law Review visit:http://drexel.edu/law/lawreview
Inquiries should be directed to the Symposium Editor at lawrev@drexel.edu.
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2009/11/call-for-papers-articles-essays-and-reviews-about-south-asia.html
Posted in news October 27th, 2009 Trackback
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SAJAforum: PAKISTAN: An “Impending Humanitarian Disaster”
That’s what Audil Rashid and Mian Nazish Adnan sound the alarm about in the July 4, 2009 issue of the British medical journal The Lancet, following their recent visits to camps set up to house internally displaced persons (IDPs) fleeing the conflict zone in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. While Americans celebrate the Independence Day weekend with barbeques and fireworks, Rashid and Adnan paint a grim picture of the crisis in Pakistan:
From the very beginning it was evident that the government had underestimated the human cost of the military operation. As several camps were hastily set up to cater to the massive influx of IDPs, reports about the lack of even basic amenities in these camps began to emerge. Excessive heat (daytime temperatures soaring to 40°C and above), no electricity, food and water shortages, poor sanitation, and lack of proper health care are some of the immediate problems being faced by IDPs….
Lack of proper toilets and sanitation, unsafe drinking water, infrequent bathing, high air temperatures, inadequate disposal of solid waste, and the complete absence of a proper drainage system at the refugee camps are the main causes of worry for relief health workers. “This is the making of a disaster. These camps have been established on open tracts of land used for agricultural purposes. There are snakes, rats, and scorpions here. At night, when it is pitch dark because of no electricity, people sleep on the ground and are vulnerable to snakebites”, said M Idrees Mirza, a doctor who runs a private clinic in Rawalpindi city and is working voluntarily in thecamps.
“Conditions in these camps make them perfect breeding areas for mosquitoes and many varieties of insects. In my opinion, there is a very high probability of an outbreak of any disease like mumps, measles, scabies, malaria, diarrhoea, polio, and leishmaniasis”, said another health worker working for a respected NGO who spoke to The Lancet on condition of anonymity. “We need medicines, doctors, and qualified health workers. And we need them urgently. Any delays might result in a human catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.”….
Eager to establish its writ over the Swat Valley, the government seems to have created a health crisis which it may not be able to overcome. [link; registration req'd]
Two letters in the same issue of The Lancet offer additional details. But as dire as the situation has become within the camps, K.M. Bile and Assad Hafeez note in one of those letters that the government camps house only 20 percent of the IDPs — who may now total as many as 2.5 million individuals, almost half of them children:
Without counting the great costs to themselves, families in the local community are looking after more than 1·73 million people, in accordance with the local tradition of hospitality. Most displaced people have been accommodated within family homes; others are in schools, mosques, and other community buildings…. Although a proportion of host families are related to or friends of the displaced people, many have welcomed strangers. [link; registration req'd]
Continue reading at SAJAforum….
Posted in asiamedia, sajaforum July 4th, 2009 Trackback
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Leitner Center Embarks on Project in Nepal
From the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School:
Land access, land tenure security, and related land rights are fundamental bases for the right to an adequate standard of living and are tied to the indigenous, ethnic, and cultural identities of peoples. Yet the problem of landlessness is growing worldwide: A quarter of the world’s population is landless. In Nepal, estimates suggest that over half the population is functionally landless.
For two weeks beginning May 9, Fordham Law School Professors Elisabeth Wickeri, Martha Rayner, and James Kainen will lead a delegation including eight law students on an overseas project to investigate and document the impact that inadequate access to land has on the rights of landless and land-poor people in Nepal, a country of 29 million in South Asia where landless people are disproportionately indigenous, of lower castes, and are women.
The Leitner Center delegation will document the impact that inadequate access to land has on human rights, including the rights to housing, food, water, and political participation. The delegation will also examine the evolving legal framework for landless people to secure their rights in a country emerging from ten years of conflict.
Professors Wickeri, Rayner, and Kainen will be joined by two additional human rights experts, Professors Anil Kalhan and Aoife Nolan. The Fordham Law School students participating in the documentation project are Crowley Scholars Amal Bouhabib, Corey Calabrese, Millie Canter, Benjamin Goldstein, Ganesh Krishna, Noushin Ketabi, David Mandel-Anthony, and Amisha Sharma. The delegation is happy to be working with the Kathmandu-based Community Self-Reliance Center.
The delegation will conduct wide-ranging interviews with members of the government, the judiciary, academics, lawyers, non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, land rights organizers, men and women in rural landless communities, landlords, and local leaders whose expertise will inform a deeper understanding of the issues.
The delegation spent the spring semester studying human rights and Nepali culture and history. Following the fieldwork, the Leitner Center will publish a report of their findings which will be distributed in Nepal and internationally.
The Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School promotes teaching, scholarship, and advocacy in the field of public international law. The Center sponsors programs designed to prepare law students for work as human rights lawyers and seeks to have a real and measurable impact on the level of respect for international human rights standards.
Contact: Elisabeth WickeriEmail: wickeri@law.fordham.eduWebsite: http://law.fordham.edu/Leitner.htm
Posted in news May 7th, 2009 Trackback
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SAJAforum: “Did you have something to do with that?”
Times Now correspondent Simrat Ghuman was “walking on air” after President Obama called on her to ask a question during his news conference at the G-20 summit in London. (Is it just me, or does that number seem to change every year, and entirely without warning?) Apparently, Ghuman was so high in the clouds that she couldn’t help but interrupt Obama’s answer:
QUESTION: Hi, Mr. President.
OBAMA: How are you?
QUESTION: Thank you for choosing me. I’m very well. I’m (inaudible) from the Times of India.
OBAMA: Wonderful.
QUESTION: You met with our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. What did you — what are you — what is America doing to help India battle terrorism emanating from Pakistan?
OBAMA: Well, first of all, your prime minister is a wonderful man.
QUESTION: Thank you. I agree.
(LAUGHTER)
I agree.
OBAMA: You know, did you have something to do with that?
(LAUGHTER)
You seem to kind of take credit for it a little bit there.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: We’re really proud of him, so…
OBAMA: Of course. You should be proud of him. I’m teasing you. I think he’s a very wise and decent man and has done a wonderful job in guiding India, even prior to being prime minister, along a path of extraordinary economic growth that is a marvel, I think, for all the world…. [link]
Must-see video of the entire exchange (including Obama’s full response) is above, and the rest of Obama’s answer appears after the jump. No word on whether Prime Minister Singh is now “walking on air” as well. However, the next time someone tells me that Sree Sreenivasan and Arun Venugopal are “wonderful men,” I’ll be tempted to interrupt and say “thank you.”
Unfortunately, Ghuman’s pride in her Prime Minister stole some of the media oxygen from the actual response to her own question. However, as the Associated Press notes, in his response Obama said that “in a nuclear age, at a time when perhaps the greatest enemy of both India and Pakistan should be poverty, … it may make sense to create a more effective dialogue between India and Pakistan.”
Continue reading at SAJAforum….
Posted in sajaforum April 3rd, 2009 Trackback
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SAJAforum: UN Official Alleges War Crimes in Sri Lanka’s Escalating Civil War
The civil war in Sri Lanka has attracted greater international scrutiny within the past week, with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay suggesting that both the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) may have committed war crimes:
Warning that the loss of life may reach “catastrophic levels,” [Pillay] urged the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels to halt hostilities to allow the evacuation of civilians trapped on the northeastern coast.
Pillay said the government had repeatedly shelled the designated “no-fire” zones for civilians and also cited reports the separatistguerrillas were holding civilians as human shields and had shot some as they tried to flee.
“Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and by the LTTE may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,” Pillay said in a statement.
“The world today is ever sensitive about such acts that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” added the formerU.N. war crimes judge, who is a member of the Tamil ethnic group and grew up in South Africa.
Pillay called on Sri Lanka’s government to grant full access to U.N. and other aid agencies to monitor human rights and humanitarian conditions amid reports of “severe malnutrition” among those trapped. [link]
Pillay stated that as many as 2,800 civilians have been killed and over 7,000 injured since January, and that as many as 180,000 civilians may be trapped in the conflict zone.
Others in the international community have raised similar concerns. According to the International Committee for the Red Cross, the humanitarian situation faced by civilians in the conflict zone is “deteriorating by the day.” Former special advisor to the UN Secretary General Lakhdar Brahimi says that the humanitarian crisis places Sri Lanka “on the brink of catastrophe.” In a phone call to to Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed “deep concern” about escalating civilian deaths and urged the Sri Lankan Army “not [to] fire into the civilian areas of the conflict zone.” The European Union has also called for a cease fire to permit trapped civilians to escape the fighting.
Sri Lanka disputes the UN’s figures — the LTTE, the government asserts, has “infiltrated certain personalities into these agencies” — and has rejected calls for a cease fire. More details are available in two stories from the BBC World Service’s Evening Report, linked above (and here and here). However, according to the Christian Science Monitor:
[T]he sensitive data aired by Ms. Pillay were based on firsthand daily reporting by UN national staff and aid workers trapped in the no-fire zone. A copy of a recent UN briefing paper that was obtained by the Monitor listed similar casualty figures and described mounting casualties in the squalid, densely packed coastal strip. “Daily incoming artillery and mortar fire has caused large number of casualties with a noted increase since 26 Feb,” it said.
The briefing paper said several weeks of food and medicine shortages had led to deaths from malnutrition and from preventable diseases. [link]
Meanwhile, SAJAer Angilee Shah has published a feature article in the Far Eastern Economic Review (which was reported from Colombo, Singapore, and Los Angeles with the support of a SAJA Reporting Fellowship) critically examining the consequences of the Rajapaksa government’s aggressive approach to prosecuting the civil war:
Continue reading at SAJAforum….
Posted in sajaforum March 20th, 2009 Trackback
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SAJAforum: BBC Journalists to Strike Over Proposed “Offshoring” of South Asia Services
Journalists from across all services of the BBC have resolved to hold two one-day strikes next month, prompted in large part by plans to “offshore” operations for the BBC World Service’s Hindi, Nepali, and Urdu language programming to Delhi, Kathmandu, and Islamabad. From the Guardian:
TV, radio and online news will be disrupted on Friday 3 April and Thursday 9 April after nearly 800 members of the National Union of Journalists chapel at the BBC today voted in favour of industrial action in a national ballot.
More than 1,100 of the union’s nearly 4,000 members at the corporation took part in the vote, 77% of whom voted in favour of a strike.
The most urgent threat of compulsory cuts is at the World Service’s South Asian section, where up to 20 members are at risk, the union has said. Staff in Scotland are also understood to be under threat.
The NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear, said: “Journalists at the South Asian services have been fighting a heroic struggle against the outsourcing of their jobs … now they have the weight of thousands of NUJ members at the BBC behind them.” [link]
In late February, journalists within the South Asia services held their own one-day strike to protest the proposed restructuring. In addition to worrying about lost jobs in London, the journalists fear that shifting operations to the subcontinent would compromise the quality and independence of the BBC’s coverage:
Staff are concerned that moving production of these BBC language services abroad will result in poorer output and a loss of independence which is integral to the BBC World Service.
One member commented: “If the BBC’s succeeds in imposing change, the tendency will be for the output to become more and more India-centric, in the case of the India service, as they try to compete with local FM broadcasters.
“This moves away from the World Service’s USP: impartial news with a global perspective. Why should the British taxpayer end up paying for a local Indian radio station?” [link]
The International Federation of Journalists has echoed these concerns, asserting that “the BBC management’s off-shoring plans will put at risk seventy years of first-class journalism and expose their journalists to political and commercial pressures beyond their control.” On the eve of last month’s one-day strike, John McDonnell, a Labour MP for west London, elaborated upon these concerns even further:
Continue reading at SAJAforum….
Posted in sajaforum March 17th, 2009 Trackback
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SAJAforum: BREAKING NEWS – Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Reportedly to Be Restored as Chief Justice of Pakistan
Via Reuters (and Sadia Abbas), some breaking news from Pakistan:
The Pakistan government agreed on Monday to reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry as Supreme Court chief justice to end a political crisis that has gripped the Muslim nation, a government official said.
The official added that a constitutional package would also be presented.
President Asif Ali Zardari had hitherto stonewalled calls from the opposition led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and a lawyers’ movement to restore the judge.
Chaudhry was dismissed in late 2007 by then-president and army chiefPervez Musharraf, but Zardari regarded the judge as too politicized andfeared he could pose a threat to his own presidency if restored. [link]
No solid confirmation as yet, but Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is scheduled to address the nation shortly.
Continue reading at SAJAforum….
Posted in sajaforum March 15th, 2009 Trackback
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SAJAforum: Geo TV Blocked, Sherry Rehman Resigns
Everything old appears to be new again in Pakistan. The latest: government bans on independent television news coverage.
On the heels of an emergency crackdown earlier this week, in which the government of President Asif Ali Zardari responded to the “Long March” organized by the lawyers movement by banning public gatherings and reportedly detained hundreds of opposition lawyers and political workers, Zardari has also moved to block transmission of Geo TV throughout the country:
On the direct order of President Asif Ali Zardari, the transmission of the Geo News was blocked by cable operators in various parts of the country on Friday, which drew flak from across the country.
The transmission was blocked in some parts of Karachi, Hyderabad,Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta, Multan, Rawalakot, Muzaffarabad, Deepalpur, Sargodha, Nawabshah, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Dera Murad Jamali. [link]
Geo and other TV news channels were previously blocked — for much the same reasons as the present ban by Zardari — by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, first as the lawyers’ movement was gaining momentum in the spring of 2007 and later after Musharraf declared a state of “emergency” in November 2007.
The Geo ban has apparently prompted the resignation of Information Minister Sherry Rehman, a leading member of the Pakistan People’s Party and close confidante of the late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto:
Continue reading at SAJAforum….
Posted in sajaforum March 14th, 2009 Trackback
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SAJAforum: Quantifying India’s Encounter Deaths and Disappearances
In recent weeks, human rights violations in India have slowly been seeping into the mainstream Western consciousness — and not just because of Sergeant Srinivas. A flurry of media stories and human rights reports draws attention not only to particular extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and incidents involving torture at the hands of Indian police and security forces, but also to the prospect that such incidents may be part of more systematic patterns of abuse than is typically assumed.
Both the New York Times and Time have published stories within the past month discussing the prevalence of so-called “encounter killings” in India:
Numbering in the thousands every year, “encounters” or “encounter killings” are shootouts between the Indian police or army and any criminal element, from terrorists to petty thieves. Many Indians believe that at least some are stage-managed — with, say, a police officer placing a gun in the hands of a dead person — leading to the popular phrase, “fake encounter killing.”…
In almost all, India’s limited forensics capabilities make investigating the claims of either side hard to verify. But the national news media often accept the police’s version,which puts them in harmony with many in their middle-class audience who fear rising crime and terrorism. Meanwhile, Bollywood and Indian media lionize “encounter specialists” — soldiers or policemen who, like Dirty Harry, specialize in shootouts. [NYT]
* * *
Human rights activists have for years protested the growing incidence of encounters, some of them allegedly staged. “Encounters have become the norm,” says Vrinda Grover, lawyer and human rights activist. “They have become the police’s preferred method to deal with not just terrorists, but criminals of all kinds.” Legends of “encounter specialist” cops abound, and one of them was even the subject of the Bollywood film Ab Tak Chhappan (“So far 56″, implying the number of people he had killed).
Activists allege that in numerous instances, evidence has been planted after a shooting in order to justify police claims that officers had acted in self defense. Encounters are meant to be probed by a magistrate following a post-mortem, but critics point out that the investigative work in such probes is undertaken by the police themselves. They also allege that such tactics enjoy tacit approval from the authorities in areas plagued by insurgencies. [Time]
Continue reading at SAJAforum….
Posted in sajaforum March 13th, 2009 Trackback
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Déjà Vu All Over Again
(Posted at Dorf on Law)
Perhaps it’s fitting that Pakistan’s latest crisis has come just as the television series Battlestar Galactica (whose final episode airs next week) is drawing to a close. Between the Musharraf Supreme Court’s controversial decision to declare Pakistan Muslim League-N leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif ineligible to hold public office, President Asif Ali Zardari’s decision to crack down on the lawyers’ movement and other opponents, and the State Department’s apparent decision, at least initially, to respond to the crisis somewhat tepidly, one is left, wearily, with the irresistible sense that all of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.
To refresh our collective recollection, Zardari’s ascent to power last September came on the heels of an unprecedented movement in which Pakistan’s lawyers and ultimately its electorate decisively rejected then-General-cum-President Pervez Musharraf’s interference with the independence of Pakistan’s judiciary and his authoritarian, martial law-like crackdown on his opponents in the guise of “Emergency.” Like Benazir Bhutto before him, Zardari pledged on many occasions after the election to fulfill the key demands that stirred this mass movement to action: restoration of the judges unlawfully ousted by Musharraf, and in particular, restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Zardari also promised to roll back the powers accumulated in the presidency by Musharraf, restoring the supremacy of Pakistan’s parliament. Well over a year has passed since Pakistan’s electorate delivered that mandate. However, Zardari’s government has neither restored Chaudhry to his position, nor rolled back any of the other extraconstitutional actions taken by Musharraf during the Emergency, nor repealed the sweeping executive powers instituted by Musharraf.
Now, with Musharraf’s still-lingering Supreme Court declaring Zardari’s PML-N rivals ineligible to hold office, Zardari’s government has dismissed the PML-N government in Punjab and imposed Governor’s Rule, leading to civil and political unrest throughout the province. In response to this week’s second anniversary of Chaudhry’s suspension by Musharraf, the lawyers’ movement already had planned a second “Long March” on Islamabad, from March 12 to 16, seeking restoration of Pakistan’s pre-November 2007 constitution and reinstatement of all judges ousted during the Emergency.
Apparently feeling the political heat, Zardari then discovered his inner Musharraf — not on the golf course, as he previously had told the world he would have preferred, but rather in the authoritarian laws inherited from the British:
[P]olice and intelligence officials carried out early-morning raids across Punjab and Sindh, arresting more than 300 lawyers and political activists…. The crackdown began late Tuesday night, with the government invoking Section 144 of the 1860 Penal Code, a law from the British colonial era that forbids public gatherings of four or more people. As whispers of imminent arrests gathered momentum and local television channels exhibited lengthy lists of intended targets, many prominent lawyers and politicians went into hiding, just as they did during a crackdown operated by former President Pervez Musharraf….
Indeed, many of the people allegedly on the lists were last arrested in late 2007, when Musharraf imposed emergency rule….
Athar Minallah, a prominent lawyer, maneuvered himself out of being arrested from the driver’s seat of his car. “I locked myself in the car, and the police didn’t know how to get me,” he said. “So I called the television cameras who were only two minutes away. I began giving live interviews from the car, addressing the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, directly. After a while, Mr. Malik came down himself and shouted the police officers away.” [link]
Perhaps seeking to out-Musharraf Musharraf, Zardari’s government has even played the terrorism card.
During the 2008 campaign, President Obama sharply criticized the Bush administration’s approach to Pakistan, asserting that by
coddl[ing] Musharraf, we alienated the Pakistani population, because we were anti-democratic. We had a 20th-century mindset that basically said, ‘Well, you know, he may be a dictator, but he’s our dictator.”….
That’s going to change when I’m president of the United States. [link]
So how has the new administration responded to this week’s events? State Department spokesperson Robert Wood’s initial response did not go all that smoothly:
‘You haven’t been clear at all about where the US stands on what’s going on in Pakistan,’ said a journalist.
‘I have given you what our position is. I can’t give you an assessment of what’s taking place right at this moment on the ground,’ said Wood.
‘That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking, what is your position on reinstatement of the chief judge,’ the journalist asked.
‘That’s something that’s going to have to be determined by the Pakistanis in accordance with their laws and their constitution. I can’t go beyond that,’ said Wood.
‘But when President Musharraf installed a state of emergency to avoid the reinstatement of the judges, you had called for the reinstatement of the judges,’ the journalist reminded him.
‘Look, I’m giving you what the policy is right now. And as I’ve said, this is something that needs to be worked out within Pakistan’s political sphere in accordance with its laws. That’s about the best I can give you,’ said Wood. [link]
Still, to their credit, Wood and other diplomats, including special envoy Richard Holbrooke, have publicly expressed concern about Zardari’s restrictions on freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, and have urged Pakistan to act in accordance to the rule of law. Will it make any difference? As when the crisis over the judiciary first began, hum dekhenge. Again, and still.
Posted in dorf on law March 12th, 2009 Trackback
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SAJAforum: Religious pluralism and our new president
In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama made a point of proclaiming:
“[the United States's] patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.” [link]
This morning, at the Washington National Cathedral, the Inaugural Prayer Service extended Obama’s message of spiritual pluralism by including participants from a variety of different religious traditions. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, and Uma Mysorekar, president of the Hindu Temple Society of North America, were two of the six participants to give responsive prayers during the service.
SAJAforum readers may recall Mysorekar from her appearance on The Colbert Report and her efforts to have Diwali placed on New York City’s official “parking holiday” calendar. Mattson, who is a professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary, is “the first woman, the first nonimmigrant and the first Muslim convert” to be elected as ISNA’s president.
The video of the service is available here, and the text of both Mattson’s and Mysorekar’s responsive prayers appears in the official program for the service:
Continue reading at SAJAforum…
Posted in sajaforum January 21st, 2009 Trackback
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Wed Apr 21, 2010 (7:00 pm):NYC EVENT: SABANY Public Interest Fellowship Benefit, Apr 21 2010 @ 7:00pm
(Archive available here.)
articles
Rethinking Immigration Detention, 110 Colum. L. Rev. Sidebar __ (2010)
Constitution and "Extraconstitution": Emergency Powers in Postcolonial Pakistan and India, in Emergency Powers in Asia (Ramraj & Thiruvengadam eds., Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010)
The Fourth Amendment and Privacy Implications of Interior Immigration Enforcement, 41 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1137 (2008)
Immigration Enforcement and Federalism After September 11, 2001, in Immigration, Integration, and Security: America and Europe in Comparative Perspective (Chebel d’Appollonia & Reich eds., Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 2008)
Colonial Continuities: Human Rights, Antiterrorism, and Security Laws in India (Abridged Version), 62 Rec. Ass’n B. City N.Y. 375 (2007)
Colonial Continuities: Human Rights, Antiterrorism, and Security Laws in India, 20 Colum. J. Asian L. 93 (2006)
Debate Room: No Time to Desert Musharraf? Con: Distance Is the Best Policy, BusinessWeek, Dec. 31, 2007
Insisting on Elections in Pakistan Is Not Enough, New America Media, Nov. 9, 2007
Whither Pakistan’s Charter of Democracy?, AsiaMedia, Sep. 8, 2007
Musharraf’s Global War on Journalism, AsiaMedia, June 6, 2007
The Looming Clouds of Emergency?, AsiaMedia, May 18, 2007 links
Academics for Freedom
Action for a Progressive Pakistan
Adirondack Creamery
Aisha Sultan
Amardeep Singh
Amitava Kumar
Angilee Shah
Angry Asian Man
Annual Conference on South Asia – University of Wisconsin
Anupam Chander
Aseem Chhabra
AsiaMedia
Asian Law Institute
Association for Asian American Studies
Association of Asian Studies
Asylumlaw.org
BBC Asian Network (UK)
BBC Evening Report
Bender’s Immigration Bulletin
BollyWHAT?
Brimful
Center for South Asia – University of Wisconsin
Chapati Mystery
CHUP! Changing Up Pakistan
Criminal Law Professors Blog
Daisy Rockwell
Damali Ayo
Discrimination & National Security Initiative
Divided We Fall
Dorf on Law
Drexel University Center for Mobilities Research and Policy (mCenter)
Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law
Election Law @ Moritz
Emergency Times
Falcon’s Muse
Falu
Families for Freedom
Feminist Law Professors
Filmiholic
FindLaw’s Writ
First Amendment Center – Freedom Forum/Vanderbilt University
First Amendment Online – University of Minnesota
Global Voices – South Asia
Goldspot
Haider Hamoudi
Hari Kunzru
Health Justice NYC (New York Lawyers in the Public Interest)
Himal Southasian
Human Rights Tools
Hungry Desi
Immigration Law Professors Blog
IntLawGrrls
Ismat Sarah Mangla
Kiran Ahluwalia
Legal History Blog
Lives in Focus
Los Anjalis
Maitri
Manish Vij
Marc Galanter
Minal Hajratwala
New York Immigration Coalition
Nikki Bedi
Pakistaniat
Parijat Desai
Pia Sawhney
Pickled Politics (UK)
Pooja Makhijani
Preston Merchant
Project Mastana
Raj Goyle
Rez Abbasi
Richa Gulati
S. Mitra Kalita
SAALT Spot
Saira Rao
SAJAforum
Sakhi for South Asian Women
Sarai
Sayantani DasGupta
Sepia Mutiny
Shaheen Sheik
Siddhartha Mitter
Sikh Coalition
South Asia Center – University of Pennsylvania
South Asian Americans Leading Together
South Asian Bar Association of New York
South Asian Journalists Association
South Asian Philanthropy Project
Sree Sreenivasan
Susannah Pollvogt
Tasneem Nanji
Touro College Law Center – India Summer Abroad Program
Valarie Kaur
Vasugi Ganeshananthan
Verbal Privilege
Vijay Iyer
Wronging Rights
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