Background

Despite of the active work of human rights defenders and the energetic participation of human rights institutions across South Asia, achieving human rights objectives, particularly in the post-conflict setting remains a daunting task. Almost all the countries in the South Asian region - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka face common challenges of impunity, endemic violence, and institutionalized discrimination in realizing their human rights goals. These challenges are further aggravated by the high prevalence of poverty, imbalanced development, political instabilities, slow economic growth rates, low literacy, widespread malnutrition, and rampant cases of gender - based violence along with discrimination in education, nutrition, health and employment.   Read more