UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB
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Progressive Development of Women’s Human Rights in International Human Right Law and within United Nations System
No full textThis article begins by briefly tracing the trajectory of women’s human rights discourse starting from the post United Nations period to the present day, within the framework of International law institutions (Kelly, 2005, December: 475; Rampton, 2008 ). It will get insight into the process of reorientation of human rights law through the development of key International instruments that have caused to materialise the concept of women’s human rights. The strengths andweaknesses of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women will particularly be highlighted by comparing the Treaty with some of the mainstream human rights instruments. The article will focus on the recent increase in the efforts for gender mainstreaming in the various United Nations’ bodies. Finally it will argue that in order for any real progress to be made in terms of eradicating the systemic barriers to gender justice and to eliminate the constructive denial of women’s rights, the human rights regime must reconfigure its approaches in addressing the needs of women globally
Formation of the All India Muslim League and its Response to some Foreign Issues – 1906 – 1911
No full textThe All India Muslim League (AIML) was formed on December 30, 1906 mainly to protect and advance the political rights and interests of the Muslims of India but the extra-territorial issues also did not escape its attention. Therefore, references to the international issues continued to emerge in the AIML proceedings in the coming years. The first major international issue which attracted the AIML’s attention was mistreatment of the Indians in the Britishcolonies particularly in the Transvaal state of South Africa. The AIML urged the British cabinet to secure complete and equal rights and privileges of the British citizenship for the Indians with a permission to settle in the British colonies onequal terms with the ‘white races’. The Pan-Islamic sentiments also got reflected in the AIML proceedings. However, international concerns of the AIML, rather whole of the Muslim India, were best exhibited in the case of Turkey
Pak-Russia Relations: Lost Opportunities and Future Options
No full textPak-Russian relations have been marred by historical legacies, over-emphasized western dependence and Pakistan’s Indocentric approach. There have been many ups and downs in the history of their relations but most of the times they have perceived each other in negative mindset; Pakistan through the prism of western perception and the Soviets/Russia through the Indian eyes. Both countries have strong potential to improve their relations in the fast changing regional and global security environment but it depends how both countries utilize the new opportunities knocking their doors. Russian Federation is reasserting its role in its immediate sphere of influence and beyond, and Pakistan is looking for new avenues of opportunities in the face of US/western standoff. Therefore, both have geopolitical and strategic compulsions to improvetheir relations
Withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan (Endgame): Issues and challenges for Pakistan
No full textObama administration seems to have fulfilled the US agenda in Afghanistan: killing of Osama Bin Ladin, breaking the backbone of terrorism in the region, reconstruction and democratization of Afghanistan. President Obama asserted recently that Afghanistan no longer represents a terrorist threat to the US. According to him, “tide of war is receding” and that “America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home”. If, largely, the goals in Afghanistan are achieved, this means setting in motion a substantial withdrawal of the US forces. This would acknowledge the formal end of terrorism and a shift of his administration’s focus towards the fast-changing political and economic landscape in the US. His second woe can be accepted in harsh reality of domestic economic restrains. However, the tide of war against terrorism has not receded. This paper/ presentation will focus on the US announcement of the withdrawal of forces, the endgame in Afghanistan and its implications on Pakistan with a futuristic view
Decentralization and Women Empowerment: Exploring the Linkages
No full textEmpowerment is the most recent policy approach to women in development. It takes into account not only both the practical and strategic gender needs of women but also recognizes their triple role in development. In doing so it follows a bottom-up approach. Empowerment has a number of dimensions with political participation as being one of them. The political presence of women in politics, however, has a disappointing track record. This is because a number of existing structural, institutional and cultural factors offers constrain to their participation in politics. Women’s political presence and empowerment have some obvious links e.g. by having political presence in decision-making structures, women can influence the formulation of policies affecting other women in society. Decentralization provides greater opportunities for the citizen to participation in governance at the local level and hence could be a good policy option for enhancing women’s political participation. It does so by increasing descriptive representation of women, which in turn leads to women’s responsive policies
From Confrontation to Collaboration: Contemporary Discourse on the State-Civil Society Relational Models1
No full textIn the contemporary development discourse, the concept of civil society is as much popular as debated and contested by activists and development practitioners as well as scholars and academicians. Presently, there are multiple and often conflictingunderstandings of civil society, especially in relation to the state, which have brought to the fore a wide range of state-civil society relational models. The present paper is aimed at identifying the characteristic features of these models. The study is an attempt to explore the varied strands and patterns in the relationship between the state and civil society, which impact on the functions and nature of both the sectors
A Conceptual Framework of the Dynamics of Democracy
No full textToday, the world has entered a phase of human history when long- cherished ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity appear increasingly difficult to realise. It is only in recent decades that the democratic framework for delivering the welfare and wellbeing is widely being questioned. This paper is an attempt to review the historical process and discuss the ideological phenomenon to understand the real spirit of democracy. The author has tried to trace out the approaches, basic and elementary concepts and terminologies related to theideological foundations of the democracy. The research is focused on analyzing the thoughts and components related to formation of political democratic system as wel as discussing its theoretical basis. The study includes the main and best known democratic political systems, which constitute the origin of the idea of democracy
Bureaucratic Derogatory and Administrative Hierarchy Appraisal with reference to Sub-Continent
No full textThe study of the bureaucracy as administrative hierarchy designed by British in the political context is the main object of this paper. This chain of command has impersonal behavior with respect to public. It increased powers, by lack of initiative and flexibility by unresponsiveness to human needs and public opinion. Corruption in bureaucracy is increased by tendency to defer decisions to superior and to impede with red-taps. This paper is an attempt to analyze the overall effects of corruption in bureaucracy on the output of political process in the subcontinent. Another main focus of this paper is to analyze the power of non-political elements in politics. Therefore, for the purpose of analysis, we have adapted the historical, analytical and comparative approaches. It is hoped that the outcome of this analysis can provide a solid foundation to extend the spectrum of this research on this issue
Bureaucratic Derogatory and Administrative Hierarchy Appraisal with reference to Sub-Continent
No full textThe study of the bureaucracy as administrative hierarchy designed by British in the political context is the main object of this paper. This chain of command has impersonal behavior with respect to public. It increased powers, by lack of initiative and flexibility by unresponsiveness to human needs and public opinion. Corruption in bureaucracy is increased by tendency to defer decisions to superior and to impede with red-taps. This paper is an attempt to analyze the overall effects of corruption in bureaucracy on the output of political process in the subcontinent. Another main focus of this paper is to analyze the power of non-political elements in politics. Therefore, for the purpose of analysis, we have adapted the historical, analytical and comparative approaches. It is hoped that the outcome of this analysis can provide a solid foundation to extend the spectrum of this research on this issue
The fall of the Soviet Union: The fall of a state or the fall of an ideology
No full textDuring the last century or so, two dominant doctrines i.e. Capitalism and Socialism had been in a state of constant confrontation resulting in engaging the two Super powers, the United States and the Soviet Union in wars such as the Vietnam War and the Cold War. The Cold War that continued for several decadesfinally led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. This article was an attempt to question the so called perception of conceiving socialism as a major cause ofthe disintegration of the USSR. It was found that the Russian Model of Socialism (Communism) was different from the Socialism of Marx and Engel in a number of aspects. It had also received immense criticism from some of the prominent Marxists. Based on the review of literature, the article concludes that the failure of communism in the Soviet Union should by no means be considered as the failure of socialism and as such socialism has nothing to do with the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Instead, it is in fact the special model of socialism adopted and implemented in the Soviet Union that led to itsdisintegration. The basic line of argument here is that the Russian socialism was completely at odds with the socialism of Marx and Engels both in its spirit as wellas in practice