HR Commission Bill passed

Parliament on Thursday passed the much-talked-about Human Rights Commission Bill 2009 giving legal coverage to the existing commission to help it safeguard the people’s constitutional rights to live with dignity.
The House passed the bill by voice vote as law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister Shafique Ahmed placed it for endorsement. The bill was earlier reviewed and amended by a parliamentary panel.
The Human Rights Commission was formed on November 18, 2008 in line with the Human Rights Commission Ordinance promulgated by the military-controlled interim regime.
With the passage of the bill, the commission is now empowered to summon people in person while investigating allegations of rights violation and it will enjoy the powers of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908. It will also have the power to seek reports from the government from time to time on human rights situation.
In absence of lawmakers of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which stayed away from the House throughout the budget session, independent lawmaker Fazlul Azim took the floor to suggest that public opinion should have been sought on the bill.
The House rejected his plea by voice vote, as the law minister said that the bill needs to be passed without delay to make the existing commission functional.
According to the new law, the commission will have a chairman and not more than six other members. The chairman and one of the members will be full timers, while the rest five will be honorary.
The commission will enjoy financial independence and will need no approval of the government for its expenditures.
Earlier, the parliamentary committee, in a number of meetings during the last three months, came up with 12-point suggestions to make the human rights commission truly functional. The bill was placed in the House on March 2.
The law stipulates that the chairman and members of the commission would be drawn from people who are working for judiciary, human rights, education and social services. This body may have at least one representation each from ethnic groups and women.
The age limit of the members would be now 35 years, which was previously at 50, to encourage ‘young and energetic’ people to work for human rights protection.
According to the law, speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad will head a seven-member select committee to recommend names for the posts of chairman and members of the rights body. He will be aided by law and home ministers and chairman of the law commission. Two lawmakers — one each from the treasury and opposition benches will be members of the select committee that will also include the law commission chairman and cabinet secretary.
The commission will have its own investigation mechanism to probe allegations of violation of the human rights and it will have wings down to upazila headquarters across the country. It will have the authority to launch investigation into any allegation against the law enforcing agencies on its own or based on allegations.
The armed forces are, however, kept out of the purview of the law.

Courtesy of NewAgebd