Breaking the Silence
Read an article that reflects the voices of the women of Burma. The Women's League of Burma (WLB), an umbrella organization of 11 women's groups of Burma in exile, wrote this paper for the forty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women held in March 2002.

Their World, Their Eyes
This research, conducted by Sita Venkateswar, includes images and writings of Nepalese children working as domestic and carpet factory workers in Kathmandu.

Renewing the City: Efforts to Improve Life in Calcutta’s Urban Slums
V Ramaswamy is a business executive, public policy consultant, community development worker and teacher. This article explains his work with a number of social and people’s organizations, campaigns and movements promoting housing improvement in Calcutta. He is also Chairman of Howrah Pilot Project and Secretary of the Metropolitan Assembly for Social Development, Calcutta.

There Are No Human Rights Without Women's Rights
A presentation by Ivy Josiah, Executive Director, Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) at the SUHAKAM Forum entitled Human Rights for the Disadvantaged on Human Rights Day in Malaysia, 9 September 2001 Asia Society thanks WAO for permission to reprint this article.

Learning to Keep on Learning from Experiences on the Ground...
Reflective of the idea of ASIP's Reports from the Field initiative, these thoughts on the importance of sharing knowledge from grassroots efforts were written by Somsook Boonyabancha, Secretary General for the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights since it was formed in 1988.

What is a "Slum"? An Etymological Tour around Asia Also from Asian Coalition on Housing Rights, read this fascinating article on translations and meanings of the word "slum" from several Asian languages.

Looking for a simple place to sit: Community-based Toilet Design, Construction and Upkeep in India
These excerpts from a newsletter entitled Toilet Talk describe the work of three Asian Coalition on Housing Rights affiliated organizations in India: the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF), Mahila Milan (MM) and Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC).

Indigenous Peoples, the Environment and Human Rights in the Philippines: the Cordillera Experience
Cordillera, a region in the northern part of The Philippines, has been home to a grassroots movement of indigenous peoples fighting for their human rights. Read more in this article by Joan Carling, Chairperson, Cordillera Peoples Alliance-Philippines.

Islamic Family Law and Justice for Muslim Women
This report was contributed by Sisters In Islam (SIS), Malaysia, from their Regional Workshop on Conference on Islamic Family Law and Justice for Muslim Women held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in June 2001. Discussants from a variety of countries consider marriage, polygamy, divorce, financial provisions and custody under the laws of each of their nations. SIS, Malaysia also contributed: Step Forward for the Women of Malaysia reporting on the July, 2001 amendment to the constitution of Malaysia to eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender.

Ashok Khosla: Beyond Public-Private Partnerships This article, originally published in the Development Alternatives newsletter, explores one way forward to create a path to sustainability--cooperation between government and the private sector to deliver necessary social services.

From Scorched Earth To Flooded Earth: The Generals' Dam On Burma's Salween River
This article prepared for the Global Commission on Dams by Salween Watch, a local Burmese NGO, explores the controversial plan to build a dam on the Salween River in eastern Burma.

Child Workers In Asia
This overview explains the workings of a unique group of NGOs cooperating across fourteen countries in Asia to share of expertise and experiences to jointly respond to the exploitation of working children in the region.

The Story of Hari Acharya
Hari Acharya is a young activist and refugee from the small South Asian nation of Bhutan. Since being forcefully evicted by the country's Bhuddist monarchy in 1992, Hari has been speaking out and taking action to help repatriate the world's largest per capita refugee population.

No Human Being Is Illegal
An article about Burmese refugees by Nang Lao Liang Won, explores the exigencies which force many to migrate as well as the conditions under which they live in Thailand. The author, who works for the Migrant Assistance Programme, also explains the work of this organization in rehabilitating refugees in the area.

Trafficking of Children for Prostitution and the UNICEF response
Ruchira Gupta, Project Officer at UNICEF in New York, explores the underworld of trafficking in women and children into prostitution. In Asia alone about a million women and children are trafficked every year. Societies must recognise that the root causes of trafficking often lie in unequal treatment of women and girl-children, discrimination against minorities, and economic policies which fail to ensure universal access to education and legal protection.

Microcredit in West Papua
Trickle Up has been coordinating a micro-enterprise project funded by USAID in West Papua since November 1999. During this period, Trickle Up, with the assistance of 15 local NGO Project Partners, has helped 3,000 West Papuan families to either start or expand a small business to increase the capacity of local Papuan NGOs and the level of civic participation of the Papuan community through micro-enterprise development.

Health and Human Rights in Afghanistan
Physicians for Human Rights has worked with women's issues in Afghanistan. Read this document for an update of their previous work concerning the health and well being of Afghan women, based on a recently completed population-based survey of Afghan women and men.