Editorial Desk :
It sounds incredible to see that local human rights organizations, most which are generously funded by foreign countries are not upto their obligation to protect human rights. They only issue pious statements or go to the court for enforcement of anybody’s human rights. But anybody else can also go to court. It is for the court to decide what it can do to help him in the prevailing political crisis where the judiciary is not as it should be. Our judiciary needs help to be strong and independent.
The question is: Do the human rights bodies exist only for seeking relief from the court? If the court is enough for enforcing human rights there will be no need for human rights bodies to exist.
The human rights organisations in Bangladesh including our own Human Rights Commission have been proving too weak, because the important ones are politically biased. Others are existing in name only. The human rights bodies will issue statements and then remain inactive. If human rights bodies are not active as a force themselves, then they do more harm than doing good. It is for the inactiveness of human rights bodies in Bangladesh that human rights violations have become so widespread and so dangerous.
The situation in the country should be frightening for those who feel any responsibility for human rights violations. The movement for democracy should have received full support of human rights bodies. That is not to say that the leaders of the movement are not above criticism when they violate human rights. But unbiased human rights bodies will also fight for the democratic opposition so that they can continue their movement peacefully. But that is not what we find in our human rights bodies.
There cannot be true protection of human rights without democracy and the rule of law. No democratic government can ask police to shoot at sight and engage in extra-judicial killings. Torture and harassment are going freely in police remand. Persons including political leaders are freely arrested. Cases of disappearance of important political leaders and businessmen are too many to be taken lightly by the human rights bodies. The police are so much used politically that some of them are getting involved in criminal activities.
The government also do not take our human rights bodies seriously. It knows how politically obliging most of them are.
Surely, human rights bodies are not existing for their own good life and easy income.
It sounds incredible to see that local human rights organizations, most which are generously funded by foreign countries are not upto their obligation to protect human rights. They only issue pious statements or go to the court for enforcement of anybody’s human rights. But anybody else can also go to court. It is for the court to decide what it can do to help him in the prevailing political crisis where the judiciary is not as it should be. Our judiciary needs help to be strong and independent.
The question is: Do the human rights bodies exist only for seeking relief from the court? If the court is enough for enforcing human rights there will be no need for human rights bodies to exist.
The human rights organisations in Bangladesh including our own Human Rights Commission have been proving too weak, because the important ones are politically biased. Others are existing in name only. The human rights bodies will issue statements and then remain inactive. If human rights bodies are not active as a force themselves, then they do more harm than doing good. It is for the inactiveness of human rights bodies in Bangladesh that human rights violations have become so widespread and so dangerous.
The situation in the country should be frightening for those who feel any responsibility for human rights violations. The movement for democracy should have received full support of human rights bodies. That is not to say that the leaders of the movement are not above criticism when they violate human rights. But unbiased human rights bodies will also fight for the democratic opposition so that they can continue their movement peacefully. But that is not what we find in our human rights bodies.
There cannot be true protection of human rights without democracy and the rule of law. No democratic government can ask police to shoot at sight and engage in extra-judicial killings. Torture and harassment are going freely in police remand. Persons including political leaders are freely arrested. Cases of disappearance of important political leaders and businessmen are too many to be taken lightly by the human rights bodies. The police are so much used politically that some of them are getting involved in criminal activities.
The government also do not take our human rights bodies seriously. It knows how politically obliging most of them are.
Surely, human rights bodies are not existing for their own good life and easy income.
