Human rights

Human rights

Opinion / Security in custody still non-existent

Repeated instances of mob beatings of political detainees expose govt's failure to provide their safety

8m ago

HRW report details sorry state of immigration detainees in Malaysia

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report has detailed the damning state of immigration detention centres in Malaysia that house thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, listing claims of human rights violations and abuse

1y ago

Pandemic and prisons: the powder keg

Human-Kind is under attack. People of all races, colours, countries, religions and social classes stand on a common platform to face the massive onslaught of the coronavirus.

5y ago

Protect human rights during the pandemic

In a situation where the covid-19 virus has overwhelmed some of the world’s best resourced healthcare systems, Bangladesh—like other developing countries—must brace for the worst.

5y ago

Concern for Kajol during the pandemic

Does anyone know what had happened to Utpal Das? If you cannot remember who Utpal is, no one would blame you.

5y ago

Domestic violence during the time of corona

The Covid-19 pandemic has opened our eyes to many vulnerabilities. With home quarantine proving to be a successful strategy, we are finally catching up and practicing it. Bangladeshi narratives about home quarantine now discuss how home is the safest place to ensure sanitisation, hygiene and disinfection.

5y ago

Coronavirus threat: Tea workers’ say no to work

The tea workers of Shamshernagar Tea Garden in Kamalganj upazila, Moulvibazar, took matters into their own hands in defiance of the garden management and stopped work from March 27.

5y ago

Covid-19 and the Rohingya refugee crisis

All around the world, the numbers are climbing. Each day registers thousands of new cases and lives lost. In Europe, now the epicenter of the pandemic, governments know that the worst is yet to come and are implementing increasingly restrictive measures to enforce social distancing and isolation.

5y ago

Sordid admission, cryptic apology

"There were quite a few cadres (armed goons) and hoodlums in Savar. Now the situation is still as water. No one dares to utter a word. I have put five persons to cross fire and have prepared the list of another 14."

7y ago

Some thoughts on health budget

By all accounts, healthcare is a policy priority for Bangladesh but compared to other sectors, resource allocation in this sector is quite insufficient.

7y ago

Enforced disappearance - The burden of proof

According to several past reports published by Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and Swedish Media, there has been a rise...

7y ago

Missing daughters

At 26 years of age, Bimala, from a remote village in Western Nepal, gives birth to her sixth child and falls unconscious when she learns that the child is, yet again, a girl.

7y ago

Rebuilding lives using indigenous wisdom

It's been a month since heavy torrential downpours caused a landslide and mudflow in the hill districts of Rangamati, Chittagong and

7y ago

Eight years old - How is the Right to Information Act faring?

"The freedom of a nation cannot be upheld by laws alone, but also by the light of the nation and knowledge of their use." These words by Anders Chydenius, a Swedish enlightenment thinker and politician of the eighteenth century, had set the ball rolling for the adoption of world's first freedom of information law in Sweden and Finland in 1766. Since then around 115 countries/territories have enacted similar transparency laws.

7y ago

Protection of enforced disappearance victims: Bangladesh needs legal reforms

Once again Bangladesh has come under the spotlight in international media, unfortunately not in a positive way.

7y ago

The burden of guilt

So much has been said and written about sexual harassment of late. Much of it attributed to sexual harassment on campuses of colleges and universities, particularly in North America, and left the voice of the abused in silence. In all these writings, less has been said about the hyper-sexualised society where we often overlook the importance of consent when it comes to sexual behaviour. Thoughts get tangled in trying to analyse on whom does the blame of such abuses lie.

7y ago

Why child domestic workers are prime victims

The photo of a battered young maid with black eyes swollen to the extreme shook the conscience of those who saw it circulating on social media the past week (“Tortured domestic help moved to Dhaka CMH”, The Daily Star, July 4, 2017). The child was identified as 11-year-old Sabina Akhter from Tangail district, who was working as a maid in an army officer's house for the last six months in the capital's Mirpur DOHS area.

7y ago

Some unanswered questions

These are questions which should have been answered. Shaon's death and his parents' allegations point towards torture in custody of someone who seems to have been as much a victim of the attack as the others. After a year, it should have been resolved and communicated if Chowkidar's death was an accident or part of the raid to kill the militants.

7y ago