Introduction : Human rights is a concept that has been
constantly evolving throughout human history. It was in ancient Greece where
the concept of human rights began to take a greater meaning than the prevention
of arbitrary persecution. Human rights became synonymous with natural rights.
This idea of natural rights continued in ancient Rome, where the Roman Jurist
Ulpian believed that natural rights belonged to every person, whether they were
a Roman citizen or not. Many United states presidents such as Abraham Lincoln,
Johnson, Jimmy Carte have taken strong stands for human rights. In other
countries leaders like Nelson Mandela have brought about great changes under
the banner of human rights.
The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights :
On
December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted
by the 56 members of the United Nations. The UDHR, commonly referred to as the
international ‘Mngna Carta’ The influence of the UDHR has been substantial. Its
principles have been incorporated into the constitutions of most of the more
than 185 nations now in the UN. Although a declaration is not a legally binding
document, the universal declaration has achieved the status of customary
international law because people regard it as a common standard of achievement
for all people and all nation.
The Human Rights Covenants : With
the goal of establishing mechanisms for enforcing the UDHR, the UN Commission
on Human Rights proceeded to draft two treaties the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its optional protocol and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The
ICCPR focuses on such issues as the right to life, freedom of speech, religion
and voting. The ICESCR focuses on such as food, education, health and shelter.
Both covenants trumpet the extension of rights to all persons and prohibit
discrimination. As of 1197, over 130 nations have rarified these covenants.
Constitutional framework
The
Constitution of Bangladesh, which embodies the principles and provisions of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is the supreme law of the Republic. It
guarantees human rights to all its citizen without any discrimination.
The
fundamental rights envisaged in the Constitution of Bangladesh reflect the human rights prescribed by international
human rights law. They include, among others, the right to equality before the
law and equal protection of the law; prohibition of discrimination on grounds
of race, religion, caste or sex; the right not to be detrimentally affected in
respect of life, liberty, body, reputation or property; freedom of movement, of
assembly, of association, of thought and conscience, of speech, of profession
or occupation, and of religion; prohibition of forced labors; and equal
opportunity in public employment.
The
Constitution also sets out the fundamental principles of State policy. It
requires the State to be a democracy. It also requires the State to ensure,
inter alia, women’s participation in national life, free and compulsory
education, public health, equality of opportunity, work as a right and duty,
rural development and the promotion of local government institutions, and
respect for international law. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh has, on a number
of occasions, upheld these fundamental principles in protecting the rights of
the citizen of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh
has so far failed to implement the promises made before the international
community in the Human
Rights Council, on key human
rights issues. The
elected government of
Bangladesh, within weeks
of coming to
office in first
week of January
2009, sent a
high profile delegation, headed
by the Foreign
Minister of Bangladesh,
Dr. Dipu Moni
to Geneva to
the first Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) of
Bangladesh at UN
Human Rights Council.
Her presence was
noted by other government representatives, as
Bangladesh had just successfully emerged out of two-years of quasi-military rule under a so-called ‘Caretaker
Government’. Expectations at that time were high as the
Awami League made
lofty promises during
the general election
to the people,
to change the course of
governance and it had won
unprecedented and overwhelming
seats in the
National Parliament. Despite
this, human rights
violations continue unabated
in Bangladesh –
including extrajudicial deaths,
torture and cruel
treatment in law
enforcement custody, and
acts of violence perpetrated on women and children. Reasons for such continuance include, among
others, lack of political will,
denial by the
Government authorities, corruption
and impunity. This
mid-term assessment report
highlights some of these issues of human rights violations.
The common features of Human
Rights violations in Bangladesh
Extrajudicial Killing:
The
Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni made commitments of ‘zero tolerance’ regarding
extrajudicial killings at the Universal
Periodic Review Session (UPR) in Geneva in February 2009 and in the UN Human Rights Council on March 01, 2010 and
also when Bangladesh got elected for a 2 nd
term to the UN Human Rights Council on May 12, 2009. In the UPR session
on February 03, 2009, Foreign Minister Dr.
Dipu Moni said
that the government
would show “zero
tolerance” to extra-judicial killing or torture and death in custody. She
stated "We do not condone any such incident and will bring the responsible officials to
justice."
However,
extrajudicial killings continued in the last 2 years of this government.
Members of the law enforcement agencies
– the police, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the like - continued to kill so-called ‘criminal suspects’ and others
outside the purview of the judicial process.
Such deaths are reported in the
papers as deaths due to ‘crossfire’ or ‘encounter’ – but Odhikar fact finding
reports and on-site investigations can
prove otherwise. Extrajudicial killings continue, despite repeated assurances
by the Government to end
this, at various
forums including the
Universal Periodic Review
(UPR) Session of the UN Human
Rights Council. During the period of January – June 2012,
according to information
gathered by Odhikar,
47 persons were
killed extra-judicially by law
enforcement agencies. On an average 07 persons were killed extra judicially
every month.
Torture and Death in Custody:
There
is no definition of ‘torture’ in the penal laws of Bangladesh, although the
Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh states unconditionally,
that no person shall be subjected to torture
or any cruel,
inhuman or degrading
treatment. However, cruel and
degrading treatment and acts
amounting to ‘torture’ as defined in the UN Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment (CAT), are extremely common in the hands of the law enforcement
agencies in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is
a party to
the CAT 11 , but
the declaration made
by the Government
regarding Article 14 of the Convention, shows that it is not willing to
compensate victims of torture or their
families. It is
a form of denial that
acts of torture
occur in Bangladesh.
Furthermore, the Government has not signed the Optional Protocol to the
Convention against Torture, showing further lack of commitment. Penal laws in Bangladesh do provide for
punishment for officials who inflict ‘hurt’ and ‘grievous hurt’ to extort
information. However, these are mere
words on paper.
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The Death Penalty:
There are
several crimes in
Bangladesh which carry
a mandatory death
penalty and several
more where the
death penalty is
the maximum sentence.
Lack of transparency,
corruption and torture plague the criminal justice system and affect
the decisions given by the lower judiciary. As a result, there have been cases
where the order of the death sentence is not justified or has been arbitrarily imposed. Furthermore, the way in which the penalty is
executed is also traumatic – and not just for the condemned. It is the practice to use other sentenced
prisoners as executioners.
Torture, inhuman and degrading
treatments:
Torture
is pervasive in Bangladesh. It has become standard practice for law enforcement agencies and is routinely applied as a tool
used for various purposes by the law men, to
question a suspect,
extract confessions, making
false statements, extorting
money, repress government’s
opponents etc, and
regarded as indispensable
to maintain security,
law and order.
Torture has become
a less costly
and efficient alternative
to investigations. There
are no accurate
estimations of the
number of victims
of tortures and inhuman treatments at a given time,
however very serious incidents are
reported.
Human rights and counter terrorism:
The
unelected and unconstitutional military controlled Caretaker Government
introduced the Anti
Terrorism Ordinance, 2008
giving sweeping powers
to law enforcement agencies, over and above wide powers of
arrests and detentions already enjoined. The Ordinance has serious implications for
fundamental freedoms and rights of fair trials. It provided broad definition of terrorism covering
acts intending to harm the unity, harmony, security and sovereignty of Bangladesh,
including property crimes, targeted attacks on individuals.
It provided convictions
based on mere
suspicion for financing
terrorism, without regard to
establishing guilt beyond reasonable doubt, while the court could not even grant provisional release or bail, once
arrested under this law.
Allegations of disappearances after being picked
by members of law enforcing agencies:
According to
information gathered by
Odhikar, 15 persons
were allegedly disappeared
between January – June 2012. Some incidents are as follows:
A
farmer named Nazrul Islam (38) was allegedly picked up by men identifying themselves as members of RAB from Jhaol
village under Kamarkhand Upazila in Sirajganj
district. This allegation was made on June 18, 2012 when the family of
Nazrul Islam held
a press conference
in Sirajganj Press
Club. Nurul Islam,
elder brother of Nazrul Islam told the press conference that on June 13,
2012 at around 6.00 pm two men named
Golam Rabbani of Aryamohon village and
Babu Munshi of
Kalia Kandapara village
called his brother
out from work
and took him
to the Jhaol
rail crossing. During
this time two
men riding on
a motorbike tried
to forcibly pick
Nazrul up at
gun point. Local
inhabitants present there
tried to stop
them, but stepped
back when they
showed them RAB identity cards. Later when the family
contacted RAB they were informed
that RAB had
not arrest anyone
named Nazrul Islam.
A kidnapping case
was filed with Kamarkhand Police
Station in this connection.
On April
18, 2012, former
Member of Parliament
and Organizing Secretary
of the Central
Committee of BNP 9 ,
M Ilias Ali
and his driver
Ansar Ali were
allegedly picked up
by members of
law enforcing agencies
from Banani in
Dhaka city. Tahsina
Rushdir, wife of
Ilias Ali, claimed
that her husband
had been picked up by the ‘agency
of the government’.
Mass protest movements:
In
the last six months, there have been mass protest movements around the
country. Some incidents are as
follows:
On
June 2, 2012, the ruling party MP and the Whip of Parliament, Sheikh Abdul Ohab faced mass protests when he went to
Bhabodah Beel (lake) at Abhoynagar in
Jessore district to inaugurate the canal cutting work under the Tidal River Management (TRM) project. Thousands of people had gathered and attacked
the project personnel with sticks. Whip of the Parliament, Sheikh Abdul Ohab; Abhoynagar
Upazila Chairman, Abdul
Malek; and 50
other people, including police, were injured. Furthermore, the angry
people vandalised and set fire to 12
vehicles. The local inhabitants of Bhabodah suspect that the fisherfolk will be affected due to the passing of saltwater in
the lake; and houses will also be flooded
if the TRM project starts
The situation of Rohingyas:
On June
3, 2012, Rakhaines
attacked Rohingya Muslims
over a rumour
that three Rohingya
youths had killed
a Buddhist woman
after violating her,
in Mongdu Township
area under Arakan
Province in Burma
on June 1,
2012. On that day, the attackers killed 11 Muslims, by
stopping a bus in an area called
Tonag. A number
of attacks took
place in the
Rohingya majority Mongdu
Township and its
adjacent areas in
Arakan Province. Many
Rohingya homes were burnt and many people killed. Rohingya
women were reported raped. On June 15,
four Rohingya women were raped by Army at Nurullahpara in Mongdu town.
After this incident, hundreds of women, children and elderly
Rohingya tried to
enter into Bangladesh
by escaping from
Burma on boats.
Under the instruction
of the Government,
the Border Guard
Bangladesh is not
allowing them to
enter into Bangladesh.
Meanwhile Burmese border
guards, Nasaka Force,
are stopping the
Rohingyas from returning
to Burma. The
Rohingyas face a humanitarian
crisis.
Withdrawn of criminal case in the
name of ‘political consideration’:
The Government
is withdrawing cases
of murder, rape,
robbery, corruption, extortion and for keeping illegal arms,
perpetrated by ruling party activists, by
considering them to be ‘politically motivated cases’, bypassing the
Judiciary or any judicial process. Those
cases were withdrawn out of political consideration and placed for ‘future
consideration’. Almost all the cases were filed against the ruling
party leaders and
activists. Work on
the second stage
of recommendations, for ‘political harassment cases’ has also been
initiated.
Human rights violations by Indian
BSF:
Human rights
violations along the
India-Bangladesh border occurred
in the period from January to June 2012. The BSF
kill unarmed Bangladeshis either by
shooting or torturing
them; and also
abducted Bangladeshi citizens
from the border
areas. According to documentation
gathered by Odhikar, during this period, 14 Bangladeshi citizens were killed,
48 Bangladeshi citizens injured and 25 abducted allegedly by the BSF.
Arrest and Detention:
The detention in our country is a common phenomena. It is a effective tools
of government to suppress the opposition. Section 54 of CRPc is highly misuse
for prevention and detention of the opposition. The top 8 leaders of opposition
parties are imprisoned now for a periods of more than 2 years. The government
is still in hard point to let them free. As a result their right to movement,
right to assembly and association granted under article 36,37,38 are infringed.
Violence against Women:
During
January – June 2012, a significant number of women were the victims of rape,
dowry related violence,
acid violence, domestic
violence and sexual
harassment.
Dowry-related violence: During the months of January – June 2012, 420 women
were subjected to dowry related violence.
Of these women,
it has been
alleged that 135
women were killed
because of dowry,
275 were ill-treated
in various other
ways for dowry demands
and 10 women allegedly committed suicide. Furthermore, one man was killed and
nine men were injured in protest of dowry related violence during this period.
A two and half year old child suffered from burns when his mother was set on
fire by his father for dowry money.
Rape :During the
period January to
June 2012, a
total number of
419 females were reportedly
raped. Among them, 142 were women, 253 were children below the age of 16 and
the age of 23 victims could not be ascertained. Of the women, 21 were killed
after being raped, 49 were victims of gang rape. Out of the 253 child victims,
21 children were killed after being raped, 46 were victims of gang rape and one
woman and four children committed suicide.
Acid violence :
According to
information gathered by
Odhikar, during the
period of January
– June 2012, it was reported that
52 persons became victims of acid violence. Of these affected persons, 28 were
women, 12 were men, nine were girls and three were boys.
Human
Rights & Children’:
Child labor is prohibited in our country under the
child protection act 1985 but this act is violated from the independence of our
country. In a statistics it was seen that approximately 1 lakh children are
engaged in factories. Article 17 of our constitution ensures free and compulsory
education for all. But the children who are engage in child labor are being deprived
of the benefit of this article. The street children are also being deprived
because of the silence of the government. These street children consequently
are involving themselves in different forms of terrorism.
International obligations and cooperation with human rights mechanisms
Bangladesh
is party to seven core international human rights instruments but still
there are other
instruments that should
be ratified. Moreover,
cooperation both with
treaty body mechanisms
and Special Procedures
has been so
far disappointing. FIDH
and Odhikar call upon the
Government of Bangladesh to:
a) Ratify the Rome Statute of the international
Criminal Court, the Convention for the
Protection of All
Persons from Enforced
Disappearance, the Convention on Refugees and Stateless Persons.
b) Submit,
without further delay,
reports report on
ICESCR, overdue since
2000 and the second since 30/06/05, ICCPR, overdue since 06/12/01,
CERD, overdue since 11/07/02 and
subsequent reports, CAT, the second and third
periodic reports overdue since 04/11/03 and 04/11/07 respectively.
c) Invite
all Special Rapporteurs
who have requested
visits such as
SR on freedom
of opinion and
expression requested in
2003, SR on
adequate housing requested
in 2005, Independent
Expert on minority
issues, requested in
2006, SR on
Extrajudicial, Summery or
Arbitrary Executions, requested in 2006, SR on independence of
judges and lawyers, requested in 2007,
and SR on contemporary forms of slavery, requested in 2008.
d)Extend Standing Invitations to all thematic Special
Procedures and reply to all
questionnaires sent by Special Procedure mandate holders.
Human
Rights Committee
As we
noted in chapter I the principle of establishing a Human Rights Committee
(HRC), a permanent human rights body to implement the Covenant, only just
survived the drafting process. The HRC emerged as the only organ with express
function with respect to the Covenant and the Protocol. However, key changes
had been made in the Third Committee concerning the composition and functions
of the proposed Committee. This chapter examines the composition, organization,
functions, nature, and status of the HRC.
Article
28(1) of the Covenant provides for the establishment of a Human Rights Committee
to consist of eighteen members and to
carry out the functions provided for in the Covenant and the Protocol. The
members of the HRC shall both be elected and shall serve in their personal
capacity. Article 2 provides that members shall be of high moral character and
recognized competence in the field of human rights, consideration being given
to the usefulness of participation of some persons having legal experience. In
the election of the Committee, consideration shall be given to equitable geographical
distribution of membership and to the representation of the different forms of
civilization and of the principal legal systems.
The experience of international human rights organs
would suggest that the independence of the HRC members from government or other
institutional influence is fundamental to its nature and at least gives if the
potential to be effective. However, the Covenant does not stipulate that a
member must be personally independent of his government. In practice membership
of the HRC has included former cabinet and government ministers, members of
Parliament, former ambassadors, and senior government representatives.
Membership of the HRC is part time. Although members of the HRC receive
emoluments from the United Nations rather than their respective national
governments the level of emoluments has been very low. The effect in practice
has been that membership of the HRC has been limited to persons receiving a
regular salary, for example, in academic or government posts. As the work of
the HRC is very demanding both in terms of difficulty and the time involved
there is an obvious case to be made for making membership of the HRC a
full-time salaried occupation. However, the continuous contact of members with
high level political and legal activity knowledge respective national systems
brings critically important practical knowledge and expertise to the HRC’s
considerations. It is submitted that the HRC should remain a part time body but
that its members should be properly remunerated having regard to the importance
of the Committee’s responsibilities
Human
Rights Committee – Members:
The Human Rights Committee is composed of 18
independent experts who are persons of high moral character and recognized
competence in the field of human rights.
Members are elected for a
term of four years by States parties in accordance with articles 28 to 39 of
the Covenant. Members serve in their personal capacity and may be re-elected if
nominated.
Monitoring
civil and political rights:
The Human Rights Committee is the body of independent
experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights by its State parties. All States parties are
obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being
implemented. States must report initially one year after acceding to the
Covenant and then whenever the Committee requests (usually every four years).
The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and
recommendations to the State party in the form of "concluding
observations”. In addition to the
reporting procedure, article 41 of the Covenant provides for the Committee to
consider inter-state
complaints. Furthermore, the First Optional Protocol to
the Covenant gives the Committee competence to examine individual
complaints with regard to alleged violations of the Covenant by
States parties to the Protocol. The full
competence of the Committee extends to the Second Optional Protocol
to the Covenant on the abolition of the death penalty with regard to States who
have accepted the Protocol. The
Committee meets in Geneva or New York and normally holds three sessions
per year. The Committee also publishes its interpretation of the content of
human rights provisions, known as general
comments on thematic issues or its methods of work.
Periodic
reporting is a most widespread and
established implementation technique for the international implementation of
human rights. The obligation to submit the repot is the only obligation which
states parties to the ICCPR. Assume ipso facto,
on ratification or accession. The national report submitted are considered
and examine by the human rights committee, the independent body of experts
established under the article of ICCPR. This chapter is analyses the reporting
procedure as it has developed in the practice of human rights committee.
The
reporting obligation is contained in article 40 of ICCPR which provides that-
1. The States Parties
to the present Covenant undertake to submit reports on the measures they have
adopted which give effect to the rights recognized herein and on the progress
made in the enjoyment of those rights: (a) Within one year of the entry into
force of the present Covenant for the States Parties concerned;
(b) Thereafter whenever
the Committee so requests.
2. All reports shall be
submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall transmit
them to the Committee for consideration. Reports shall indicate the factors and
difficulties, if any, affecting the implementation of the present Covenant.
3. The
Secretary-General of the United Nations may, after consultation with the
Committee, transmit to the specialized agencies concerned copies of such parts
of the reports as may fall within their field of competence.
4. The Committee shall
study the reports submitted by the States Parties to the present Covenant. It
shall transmit its reports, and such general comments as it may consider
appropriate, to the States Parties. The Committee may also transmit to the
Economic and Social Council these comments along with the copies of the reports
it has received from States Parties to the present Covenant.
5. The States Parties
to the present Covenant may submit to the Committee observations on any comments
that may be made in accordance with paragraph 4 of this article.
United Nations Human Rights Committee
The United
Nations Human Rights Committee is a United
Nations body of 18 experts that meets three times a year for
four-week sessions (spring session at UN headquarters in New York, summer and
fall sessions at the UN Office in Geneva) to consider the five-yearly reports
submitted by 162 UN member states on their compliance with the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR, and to examine
individual petitions concerning 112 States parties to the Optional Protocol. The
Committee is one of nine UN human rights treaty bodies, each
responsible for overseeing the implementation of a particular treaty. States
that have ratified or acceded to the First
Optional Protocol (currently 114 countries) have agreed to allow
persons within their jurisdiction to submit complaints to the Committee
requesting a determination whether provisions of the Covenant have been
violated. For those countries, the Human Rights Committee functions as a
mechanism for the international redress of human rights abuses, similar to the
regional mechanisms afforded by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
or the European Court of Human Rights.
The First Optional Protocol entered into force on 23 March 1976. The Second
Optional Protocol, in force since 11 July 1991, addresses the
abolition of the death penalty and has 74 states parties.
The Human Rights Committee
should not be confused with the more high-profile Commission on Human Rights,
a Charter-based mechanism, or its
replacement, the Human Rights Council.
Whereas the Commission on Human Rights was a political forum where states
debated all human rights concerns (since June 2006, replaced by the Council in
that function), the Human Rights Committee is a treaty-based
mechanism where a group of experts examines reports and rules on individual
communications pertaining only to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights. It remains disputed whether the Human Rights Committee's
"Views under artible 5(4) of the Optional Protocol" qualify as
decisions of a quasi-judicial body or simply constitute
authoritative interpretations on the merits of the cases brought before them. The
members of the Human Rights Committee, who must be "of high moral
character and recognized competence in the field of human rights", are
elected by the member states but on an individual basis, not as representatives
of their countries. They serve four-year terms, with one-half of their number
elected every second year at the General Assembly.
Recommendations
• There is an urgent need to ensure the
complete cessation of extra judicial killings, and acts amounting to torture and cruel and degrading
treatment in remand and custody.
Perpetrators of such crimes must
be tried and punished under the prevalent laws. Recommendations made by the High Court Division in the 2003 case
of BLAST Vs Bangladesh must be implemented.
Furthermore, the declaration made
by Bangladesh on Article 14 of the CAT
must be lifted and victims/families be given compensation
for crimes perpetrated by state actors.
• The
Private Members Bill
seeking criminalization of
‘torture’ must be
reviewed discussed and passed by Parliament.
• Law
enforcement agencies must
be allowed to
act independently and
not be dictated
by political will. This will put an end to arbitrary detention,
torture and extra judicial deaths of opposition
political activists – a trend which has,
sadly, taken root in the political arena
of Bangladesh.
• The
Government must take
steps to incorporate all
signed and ratified international
human rights instruments into
municipal laws.
• The
Government must ratify
OPCAT and other
core Optional Protocols
to ensure
transparency and maintain human rights.
• A
moratorium on the
Death Penalty is
a must –
if not a complete
repeal of capital
punishment.
• Full
independence of the
Judiciary is a
must and political
favourism when appointing
and promoting members of the
Judiciary must stop. This only dilutes
the strength and respect of the
judiciary and affects access to justice.
• Freedom of the media must be ensured to
maintain accountability and transparency. A proper investigation is needed into the incidents of
repression and torture towards journalists.
• The Government must take effective steps to
stop violence against women. Those involved in such
violence must be
brought under the
purview of the
law and the
victims must also
be provided with
necessary assistance including
adequate compensation. The
victims and witnesses must be provided protection so that
the perpetrator cannot exert fear upon them or inflict violence on them again.
• The
National Human Rights
Commission must be
strengthened and allowed
to act as
an independent body. The government must be committed to act upon
its recommendations and take proven
perpetrators to justice.
• Human right defenders must be allowed space
to carry out their activities. The aim
of HRDs is to assist the administration
by identifying weak spots. Unfortunately,
the Government does not take
too well to
constructive criticism, which
only paves the
way for more
abuse and more severe criticism.
Conclusion: Bangladesh has
been endeavoring to build a society that is free from all forms of exploitation
and in which human rights and fundamental freedom, equality and justice are secured.
Bangladesh holds that all human rights are universal, indivisible,
interdependent and mutually reinforcing. However, for a country like
Bangladesh, economic, social and cultural rights, and most importantly the
right to development, are of paramount importance it believes that the
realization of these rights will help ensure enjoyment of a whole range of
human rights including civil and political rights. With this conviction,
Bangladesh participated actively and constructively in the negotiation leading
up to the creation of human rights council and subsequently became one of its
funding members.
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