Role of NGOs in Promoting Human Rights in Bangladesh: Amnesty International & BSAF SUBMITTED TO: Professor Dr. Mostofa Hasan, Chairman Department of Social Work Jagannath University, Bangladesh. PREPARED BY: A .M.M Rakibul Hasan JAGANNATH UNIVERSITY Many NGOs in Bangladesh have been actively working to protect and uphold human rights, particularly the rights of women and children for several years. They are very active in creating awareness among the policy-makers and actors working among the general masses. They are trying to reform laws to eliminate social, legal and political discrimination on the basis of gender, class, ethnicity, race and religion. They carry out advocacy at different levels i.e., local, national and international through awareness building, lobbying and mass communication. Few NGOs also provide legal aids to the poor and victims, particularly to women, workers and children in the forms of counseling, mediation and litigation. Since awareness about rights and responsibility is the key means to protect rights and establish justice, many NGOs have awareness campaign on issues like human rights and constitutional laws, family laws, women rights and violence against women and children. As the protection of human rights is an integral part of democracy, human rights defenders play an important role in promoting the rule of law through defending peoples rights and by continuing their efforts to set standards to ensure that no rights are violated by either state or non-state actors. Until the early 1990s, however, human rights activism in Bangladesh was confined, practically speaking, to only a number of legal professionals. Their human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were operated with an elitist and legalist outlook rather than a service-based approach. As a result, there was a type of client-patron relationship between victims of human rights violations and these organizations, which became active only when there were political or vested interests for the benefit of certain elites. During the nine years of struggle against autocracy in Bangladesh, more and more young and dedicated people became interested in issues related to human rights. It is no wonder then that with the end of autocracy the elitist domination of human rights activism based on a client-patron relationship ceased to flourish. From a historical point of view, the people of Bangladesh for hundreds of years were engaged in a struggle for dignity, equality and cultural diversity and in a struggle against discrimination, deprivation and exploitation. However, a concerted effort for human rights activism has not been made. Therefore, human rights organizations in Bangladesh are passing through a process of learning by doing. They carry out investigations, monitor incidents of human rights abuse, conduct research, campaigns and training workshops along with advocacy and lobbying within the country and undertake networking with international and regional organizations. In addition, human rights defenders play an important role in campaigns against torture by law enforcement agencies, the violation of the rights of women and children, gender-based discrimination, political violence and arbitrary arrests and detention as well as participate in election monitoring to ensure free and fair elections. Bangladeshi human rights defenders do not generally face risks, like physical harassment. They suffer mostly from intimidation by the government, non-cooperation and obstructions from state actors and insecurity from non-state actors, such as armed hooligans, especially when they conduct fact-finding missions on torture or killings. Basically due to the criminalization of politics and lack of a tolerant and participatory democracy, state authorities have become the largest perpetrator of human rights violations in Bangladesh. Even in violations by non-state actors, one can always find some political affiliation or patronization of the perpetrators by the major political parties. It does not matter whether they are in power or in the opposition. As a result, human rights defenders are considered as an enemy of the State and of the ruling elites. The major political parties tend to polarize human rights defenders in accordance with political divisions in the country. When human rights defenders report on violations by the party in power, they very often receive appreciation from the opposition; but when they protest the violation of human rights by any supporter or worker belonging to an opposition political party, they tend to be branded as pro-government sympathizers. Empirical findings have proved that the ruling parties always are inclined to become hostile and the opposition tries to be friendly to human rights defenders. With every change in government, the political parties change their attitude dramatically. It is only the law enforcement agencies which maintain the same cultural mindset as they enjoy a type of informal impunity. According to them, human rights defenders create embarrassment for their professional life. They do not miss any opportunity to brand human rights defenders as agents or provocateurs when there is a report published with major findings against them. Despite this hostility with political and state actors, human rights defenders have been successful in putting pressure on state and political actors to set a human rights agenda and to change policy on many issues, like cancellation of the public safety law, the enactment of a law against the abuse of women and children and acid-throwing and a pre-election promise to establish an independent National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Since democracy and respect for human rights are constitutionally the fundamental principles of Bangladesh, it has ratified almost all of the major international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). In reality, however, even after 25 years of the adoption of the Geneva Guidelines and13 years after the adoption of the Paris Principles on national human rights institutions, there is no National Human Rights Commission or ombudsman in Bangladesh. Human Rights and Humanitarian NGOs of Bangladesh: 1. Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights 2. Bangladesh Human Right Commission (BHRC) 3. Institute of Democratic Rights 4. Jatyo Mohila Ain-Jibi Samity 5. Amnesty International 6. Bangladesh Shishu Adikhar Forum 7. Work for Better Tomorrow Foundation (WBTF ) 8. Integrated Service for Development of Children and Mothers (ISDCM) 9. Community Development Friend (CDF) 10. Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) 11. Ayoti Mohila O Shishu Kollyan Sangstha (AMSKS) 12. Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) 13. BRAC 14. THE HUNGER PROJECT 15. Bangladesh Rehabilitation Centre for Trauma Victims (BRCT) 16. Gono Kallayan Parishad (GKP) 17. Human Development Foundation (HDF) 18. Destitute Development Foundation (DDF ) 19. Coastal Development Partnership (CDP) 20. Manabik Shahajya Sangstha (MSS) 21. Media Information and Communication Centre of Bangladesh (MICCB) 22. Participatory Research & Action Network (PRAN) 23. Human Rights and Humanitarian Services Organization (HRCBM) 24. Karmojibi Nari (KN) 25. Steps Towards Development (Steps) 26. Bangladesh Association of Rural and Social Advancement (BARSA) 27. Odhikar Detail Activities of NGOs: Documentation and Networking: All NGO has a documentation team that keeps the organization updated with human rights abuses published in the major national dailies. The work of the documentation unit is to gather and document relevant information for investigation purposes from both the daily papers and personal and organizational sources/contacts, including human rights defenders. These are included in annual human rights reports and monthly reports of human rights violations, which are distributed to the media for publication and to other NGOs. Fact Finding: NGO’s fact-finding activities cover instances of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment and abuse of some specific laws leading to human rights violations, repression against innocent people and application of unnecessary force by law enforcement agencies. They identifies incidents of human rights violations, which are reported in the newspapers but need further enquiry and information to clearly establish the actual abuse faced by the victims, causes behind the abuse and the persons responsible. While the media focuses on human rights violations more from a journalistic perspective confined within reporting the incident only, the fact-finding goes deep into the incidents from socio-legal perspective. Research: The Research Unit at NGO is responsible for the archival preservation and enhancement of the fact finding reports. This involves the inclusion of legal rights, available data and statistics from previous years and recommendations into the main text of the fact finding reports as well as translation and editing work. The work also involves the preparation of human rights reports, collection of data regarding various human rights abuses throughout the year and writing and publication of various articles on human rights abuses for public knowledge. Another activity of the Research Unit is to keep international and regional human rights organizations. Election Monitoring and Observation: Encourage the electorate to vote freely and without fear to popularize the concept that the country needs the vote of every citizen. It also aims at campaigning and monitoring for free and fair conduct of the electoral process to ensure voters rights. NGOs maintain a close liaison with the Bangladesh Election Commission. Many NGO has been monitoring national and local government elections in Bangladesh since 1996. The monitoring work is not only limited to Election Day, but also covers pre and post election periods. Media Campaign: All NGO regularly conducts media campaigns for the protection and promotion of human rights. The data collected by the organization are published is both Bangla and English language dailies on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. Articles written by both staff and members of the organization are published in special edition pages and legal rights supplements of national dailies as well. Human Rights Defenders Training: The aim of the training programme was to create a grass-roots and local human rights network. Apart from training on human rights issues, fact-finding and report-writing, Human rights defenders are also given training on election monitoring prior to every national election. Advocacy: Through regular discussion meetings on various issues of human rights and their abuse, NGO brings together various groups of people, including policy makers, politicians, lawyers, human rights activists and NGO activists, journalists from popular daily newspapers and victims of human rights abuse. The findings and recommendations are discussed and the policy-makers are asked for comments and suggestions. Urgent Appeals: To campaign against major violations of human rights and also to put pressure on state actors for swift remedy for victims NGOs send urgent appeals across the globe through its network and website. NGOs also respond to urgent appeals sent by other organizations. Internships /Volunteers: NGOs provide an internship/volunteer programme for local and international students, researchers and activists who are interested in doing filed and desk research work as human rights defenders in Bangladesh. NGOs provide a safe working environment for the interns/volunteers. Good Governance: One of the main focuses of NGOs is promotion of good governance. Without protecting human rights, ensuring good governance is impossible and vice versa seminars, workshops and discussion meetings, including round table meetings with dailies, to promote the issue of good governance. Publications NGOs publishe its research, investigation findings and monthly and annual reports on the state of human rights in Bangladesh in the form of bulletins books and reports.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 09:02:21 +0000
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