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Proceedings of the Conference on Democracy, Development and Peace |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 16 March 2009 |
An international consortium of Civil Society Organisations comprised of LDC Watch, South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE), Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA) and Korea Democratic Foundation (KDF) organised the Asia Regional Conference on Democracy, Development and Peace from 10-12 November 2008 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The objective of the conference was to contribute towards strengthening democracy, sustainable development and peace in Asia. The conference was attended mainly by the delegates from political parties, academia and civil society organisations from across the Asia-Pacific region. |
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Seminar on "Transnational Marriages and Human Insecurity in Taiwan" |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 12 January 2009 |
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Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA) invites you to a talk on Transnational Marriages and Human Insecurity in Taiwan by Chen, Hung Ying January 20, 2008, 4 pm onwards #7417 New Millennium Building, SungKongHoe University Introduction of Programme:
The significant characteristic of the existing transnational marriage policy in Taiwan is divided along the lines of nationalities. Inhumane restrictions inbuilt into different laws and policies have affected various social-cultural aspects of marriage migrants' life, an example being 8 years of required time (recently revised to 6 years) for Mainland Chinese spouses to get their citizenships which is also double the period required than other foreign spouses. Such policy orientation is deeply embedded in the consciousness of nationalism. Furthermore, this policy orientation represents the discriminative condition of transnational marriages in contrast to the local ones, and these subtle policy barriers provide opportunities for the authority to examine and select the qualification of getting citizenship even after the marriage. However, to go beyond the oppressions emanating from the legal structure, we need to acknowledge the need of unraveling the imbalanced government interventions which largely affect migrant families' life. At the same time, some of these policies on the surface appear to be benefiting the marriage migrants but in reality these policies drive them into a subordinate position vis-à-vis the Taiwanese. Similar to the socio-cultural contexts of South Korea, marriage migrants in Taiwan have long been shackled by implicit class discrimination based on the level of development in their countries of origins and of course, patriarchy. On the other hand, systematic oppressions have also provoked a series of responses from Taiwanese civil society and social movements. Through the process of participating in legislation, supervising policies, grass-root empowerment and street protests, the subjectivity of marriage migrants have emerged as different forms of struggles. To meaningfully engage with these issues it is imperative that we locate them in a larger perspective of existing atmosphere of human insecurity; for example the struggles between prevalent economic crisis and economic rights of migrants, and the anxious relationship in the receiving family vis-à-vis the migrant spouses arising out of lack of trust, different norms and suspicions …etc. Therefore, I would like to share the experiences of marriage migration by addressing 1) the changing patterns of marriage migration policy in Taiwan; 2) the dialogue and discourse between government, civil groups and society during the negotiating process in acquiring citizenship.
Introduction of Speaker: Hung-Ying Chen has been working in Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA) as a part of 2008 international working parnership programme of the Hao-Ran Foundation, Taiwan. She received her Master from the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning in Taiwan National University. Before coming to South Korea, she had participated in different community-based spatial projects related to marriage migrants and sex workers respectively. She has also participated in some civil groups as a volunteer from mid-2006, such as Trans-Asia Sisters Association, Taiwan (TASAT), Alliance of Human Rights Legislation for Immigrants and Migrants (AHRLIM) and Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS). |
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Asia Regional Conference on Democracy, Development and Peace |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 09 December 2008 |

An international consortium of Civil Society Organisations comprised of LDC Watch, South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE), Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA) and Korea Democratic Foundation (KDF) organised the Asia Regional Conference on Democracy, Development and Peace from 10-12 November 2008 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The objective of the conference was to contribute towards strengthening democracy, sustainable development and peace in Asia. The conference was attended mainly by the delegates from political parties, academia and civil society organisations from across the Asia-Pacific region. Mr. Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachand, the first Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, was the Chief Guest of the Conference. Similarly, Dr. Samir Amin delivered the Key Note address of the Conference. ARENA particularly focussed on one thematic session with the understanding that if democratization is not just spread of "really existing liberal democracy" to every corner of the world but rather extension along the lines of effective participation in collective decision, bringing more issues and areas of life under democratic practices, and authentic rather than symbolic control and representation of people; then the crucial issue is how to retrieve criticality in discourse of democracy which would compliment, encompass and provide with a critical edge to the democratic churnings at the grassroot to effectively give an emancipatory challenge to global and local coordinates of oppression and injustice; and at the same time acknowledging that "Civil Society" approaches in Asian societies suffer from serious lacunas and have failed to effectively push forward further democratization. Session: Indentifying Key Challenges and Moving Towards Alternative Democracy in Asia
Chair: Francis D. Lee, ARENA Presentations: i)The Labor Movement and Democratization in The Philippines: A Template for South East Asia - Ms. Verna Viajar, The Philippines ii)Sovereignity and Class: Coverging and contradictory Moments of the Democratic Challenges of the People of Bangladesh - Farhad Mazhar, Bangladesh iii)Impact of Globalization on State, Civil Society and Democracy: The Case of South Korea - Dr. Seungwon Lee, South Korea iv)Listening, Articulating and Building Democracy from Among the Marginalized and Voiceless - Andrew Aeria, Malaysia v)Radical Democracy: Recent experiments in Indonesia from Below - ken B. Kusumandaru vi)Is There Any Alternative to Democracy - Tian chua, Malaysia To read the presentation papers please click on the link below http://www.asia-democracy.org/papers/papers_presentations.htm |
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