Human dignity is not better protected in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, say rights organisations from these nations. However, rights groups in South Asia agree that the big international rights advocacy organisations cannot succeed in persuading regional governments to be more careful with human rights.

This is why they set up South Asia's first regional human rights body at a late July gathering of some 120 rights advocacy leaders, legal experts and senior politicians, at the medieval Neemrana Fort-palace. The South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) will be a regional people's human rights groups. It has raised hopes of a new start, like the grouping's acronym, which means `dawn' in the Urdu language spoken in parts of Pakistan and north India.

"Since the governments in the region lack creative thinking, it is for civil society to spearhead a movement for human rights," said well-known Pakistani rights activist, Asma Jahangir, a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Such an institution would ensure for South Asians, their socio-economic rights and dignity, she added.

Speakers at the meeting emphasised that a regional rights body would be better placed than international rights groups, in protecting human rights in South Asia. Regional governments have often dismissed criticism by foreign rights groups as based on `western values'.

"A regional institution will restore the self-respect and dignity of the common South Asian through proactive action in villages, slums, courts and the legislature," said Kamal Hossain of Pakistan.The activists passed a declaration saying that civil society has a right to guide and assist the state in all matters, including human rights.

The declaration speaks of "the grave human rights situation in South Asia, with its terrible legacy of persistent poverty deprivation, illiteracy, inequality, caste and social hierarchy, discrimination against women and exploitation of children". It adds that the situation is "further aggravated by authoritarian, militarist and sectarian tendencies amidst violence and state repression".

According to former Indian prime minister I K Gujral, South Asia was long in need of such a body "to handle issues that remained unresolved at the level of inter-governmental contact".

"This regional institution can develop as a track two initiative at pursuing government policies by non-governmental organisations," he said. South Asian rights advocates say that widespread human rights violations in South Asia are caused by the lack of an independent, broad-based network at the regional level. They believe that close historical, cultural and economic ties will make the work of SAHR easier.

Speakers at the meeting said it was ironic that South Asia had a serious human rights problem, considering that democracy was long established in the region. South Asians share many laws, customs and social values. Many human rights issues, such as peace, rule of law, cross-border migration, prisoners' rights and citizenship, demand bilateral and regional solutions.

These include the continued harassment of fishermen who are imprisoned for straying into each others' territorial waters by India and Pakistan.

Activists allege that although some of these fishermen have been released on a tit-for-tat basis, hundreds of them languish in prisons in each country.

Rights groups from India and Nepal raised the question of cross-border trafficking in women and children. They said it should be a priority concern for SAHR.

Custodial torture was said to be an issue demanding urgent attention. In this connection, Sri Lankan rights activists point out that emergency regulations enforced in the country since May, have led to the removal of several safeguards against arbitrary arrest and detention.

The regulation was introduced due to the stepped-up war since April, between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels. However, this has given a freer hand to law enforcers, say rights activists. Methods of torture have become more severe and at least two custodial deaths have been reported.

Wider powers given to security forces may also have resulted in an increase in "disappearances", say Sri Lankan rights advocates. The emergency rules, in fact, violate a number of international commitments by Sri Lanka, including several provisions of the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Sri Lanka acceded in 1980, they say.

The delegates also took note of the nuclearisation of the subcontinent and issued a strong call to India and Pakistan to give up nuclear weapons. They also demanded scrapping of laws that discriminate against women in the region. They urged the national governments to protect the right to livelihood of their majority poor people, and to save them from the effects of economic globalisation.

Those present at the Neemrana meeting chose a 15-member panel of three representatives from each of the five South Asian nations, to administer SAHR. Bhutan and Maldives were not represented. Till a permanent secretariat is set up, the body's day-to-day administration will be carried out by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.