In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Nearly 19 years after the establishment of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) at the 26th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Singapore in July 1993, the ARF just embarked on its first concrete elections mission, to observe the July 7 parliamentary elections in Timor-Leste.

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Presidential and parliamentary elections in Timor-Leste are scheduled for March and June of this year, respectively. With only two women among the twelve candidates contending for the largely ceremonial post as president…

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For the past few months, the capital of Timor-Leste, Dili, and indeed many parts of the rest of the tiny island nation, have experienced an increase in a particular kind of traffic. For the second-time, avid mountain bikers took to the streets in preparation for the 500-kilometer “Tour de Timor” mountain biking event from September [...]

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Since the London conference on Afghanistan last month, there has been a growing buzz among women’s rights activists about the continued perception that women are absent from policy decisions in Afghanistan, most recently at the negotiating table with the Taliban. To better understand these concerns, it is perhaps prudent to take a step back and [...]

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