Saarc Charter of Democracy finalised
Senior officials of the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) yesterday came up with a draft charter to consolidate democratic process in the region following a two-day exercise in the capital.
“We have finalised the draft of the charter which was proposed earlier by Bangladesh and adopted by the last summit in Thimphu . . . it will be reviewed by the Saarc council of (foreign) ministers ahead of its endorsement in the next summit,” Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes told the newsmen.
Quayes, who chaired the two-day meeting, however, declined to elaborate the details of the draft charter as it was yet to be endorsed at the political level but said the representatives of all the member states joined the two-day exercise in preparing the draft aimed at “spread and preservation of democracy” in the region.
“All the member states of Saarc now enjoy democracy, so what could be a better time than this to draft a charter to spread and preserve democracy in the region,” he said.
Bangladesh originally floated the idea of adopting a charter of democracy for Saarc while it was formally proposed during the last summit of heads of government in Bhutan earlier this year when the regional forum had tasked Dhaka to formulate the draft.
In the subsequent months, Bangladeshi officials formulated the draft, which was given a “clean paper” shape during the past two days of exercise of official level representatives of the member states at a hotel here.
Asked what specific steps the draft suggested if any of the member states suffered a setback in their democratic process as democracy appeared fragile in several parts of the region earlier, Quayes evaded a direct answer but said the charter did not speak about democratic values but addressed issues of its preservation.
Replying to another question if the regional grouping took a political look with the drafting of the charter, the foreign secretary said nothing barred the Saarc in exploring its possibilities.
Director General of Saarc Desk in the foreign ministry Sufiur Rahman also spoke on the occasion explaining the conceptual background of the charter.
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