The overall objective of EURASIA-Net is to enhance the requisite knowledge-base for new policies and instruments to reduce ethnic-religious conflicts and to foster stability and security in South Asia. Achievements in this area are likely to create a favourable environment for cooperation with Europe and to contribute to repositioning Europe as a pro-active political interlocutor.


Based on the analysis of the present situation, and on the challenges the European and South Asian research communities share in the domain of regional integration for the promotion of human and minority rights, three specific objectives have been identified:

1. To develop a better understanding of regional South Asian attempts to define (by the research community) and implement (by decision-makers and activists) new supranational instruments for the protection and promotion of human rights, with a particular focus on cross-border minority issues.

2. To sustain Euro-Asiatic research cooperation and exchange on those issues and to enlarge the discussion forum to encompass politicians and human rights activists.

3. To create a framework for future research cooperation between Europe and South Asia that is twofold: (a) a Joint Research Agenda and (b) a modus operandi based on mutual knowledge and understanding.

4. To establish a "South Asian Council on Minorities" within the SAARC organisation.