Declaration Issued by the Forum of the South Asian Platform of Parliamentarian and People's Movement

Declaration Issued by the Forum of the
South Asian Platform of Parliamentarian and People's Movement
Kathmandu, Nepal
24 March 2007

Recalling historic movement of the establishment of the SAARC in 1983 and different regional documents and mechanism under its august initiatives,

Realizing, however, that the SAARC has not able to address the people's aspirations and became a formal talk forum,

Emphasizing the need to take initiatives from the people's perspectives for strengthening the SAARC Charter, its working modalities and space for sharing the people's agendas,

Requesting to pursue for common values, problems, standards and agendas in order to codify and institutionalize any mechanism to be establish,

We the delegates from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Nepal of the People's SAARC Parliamentary Platform hereby declare the followings:

Urge the SAARC, to attain its Charter to make it more pro-people and change its modalities for letting the people's agendas be allowed to be included during the discussions.

Urge all the parliamentarians of the South Asia Region to search for common issues, problems and agendas for further discussion, strengthening and bringing then at the Regional level for discussion through the People's SAARC Parliamentary Forum.

Urge the members of the Parliament of the South Asia to take initiatives for the establishment of a Parliaments Forum, of permanent nature, with its regular meetings, in the official capacity, to explore further initiatives to strengthen the Forum in the years to come.

Urge the members of the Parliament to work closely, on the common issues, with the Civil Society to address the issues of constitutionalism, rule of law, inclusiveness, equality and protection of human rights. Further, request that reform in the South Asia must be based in the historical context of our civilization.

Urge that democracy, independence of judiciary, protection of human rights, measure to tackle corruption and law enforcement authorities must be reformed and strengthened.

Urge that any armed conflict in the Region must be solved through dialogue.