SAGE Series in Human Rights Audits of Peace Processes

The SAGE Series in Human Rights Audits of Peace Processes provides an overview of peace-audit study and explores why many peace processes fail. It provides comparative analyses of peace processes in South Asia drawn from field-based audit exercises in four regions: Northeast India; Balochistan, Pakistan; Madhesh, Nepal; and Chittagong Hills Tracts, Bangladesh.  By placing conflict-affected peoples’ perspectives and experiences at the center, the five volumes explore the gaps between the national elite’s vision of conflict management, pacification, and restoring normalcy vis-à-vis peoples’ expectations of systemic change in the factors that drove the conflicts.  The volumes question the success of peacemaking processes, indexing them on the quality of democracy by looking at peoples’ rights and entitlements.  They set forth ways in which peace accords can be made to deliver a more inclusive, non-exploitative, and just peace. This set is an exhaustive resource for scholars and researchers working in the area of Peace and Conflict Studies, Strategic/Security Studies, South Asian Studies, and Political Science. It will be of interest to policymakers, human rights activists, and journalists alike.   This set includes: Volume I - Making War, Making Peace: Conflict Resolution in South Asia Volume II - Bridging State and Nation: Peace Accords in India’s Northeast Volume III - Balochistan: A Case Study of Pakistan’s Peacemaking Praxis Volume IV - Confronting the Federal Sphinx in Nepal: Madhesh-Tarai Volume V - Conflict and Partition: Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

Rita Manchanda is an established writer, scholar-researcher, and human rights activist specializing in conflicts and peace-building in South Asia with particular attention to vulnerable and marginalized groups, that is, women, minorities, indigenous peoples, and forcibly displaced persons.Professor Manchanda has over 15 years of experience as a Senior Executive and Research Director with the regional NGO “South Asia Forum for Human Rights” (SAFHR), directing and coordinating a diverse portfolio of programs, including “Human Rights Audits of Peace Processes,” “Women, Conflict, and Peace,” “Media in Conflict,” and “Rights-based Approaches to Poverty Reduction.” Also, during the last decade and a half, she had been the gender advisor, Commonwealth Technical Fund (2004–05), and consultant in projects with UN Women (2010–11, 2012– 13, 2014), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP 2014–15), Centre for Humanitarian Dialogues (2011, 2012), and SAFERWORLD (2015, 2016). She has lectured on conflict resolution at Rotary Centre for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution, Chulalongkorn University (2014), Welthungerhilfe (WHH; 2014), Lady Shri Ram College (2008–16), and SAFHR: Human Rights and Peace Orientation Course (2000–08). Her more recent publication SAGE Series in Human Rights Audits of Peace Processes undertaken by SAFHR and published by SAGE (2015), is a field-based audit study of peace-making in Northeast (India), Balochistan (Pakistan), Madhesh (Nepal), and Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bangladesh). Among her many books and articles are Women War and Peace in South Asia: Beyond Victimhood to Agency, a pioneering study on feminist theorizing and praxis on conflict and peace-building (SAGE 2001), and Naga Women in the Peace Process (SAGE 2004).