The Human Rights Day will be observed in Bangladesh, as elsewhere in the world, today when the nation is passing through a political crisis resulting into killing of people in arsons while torture in custody and extrajudicial killing go unabated and freedom of press and expression remain at stake. The theme of the day this year is ‘20 Years Working for Your Rights.’ This marks 20 years since the United Nations General Assembly created the mandate of High Commissioner for the promotion and protection of all human rights in December 1993.
Many socio-cultural organisations took detailed programmes to mark the day.
Ain O Salish Kendra will hold awareness building programme across the country, said its officials.
Rights organisation Odhikar in a statement on the occasion of the day said that incidents of massive human rights violations were taking place in Bangladesh, while the world was preparing to observe the day.
Nearly 100 people were killed and several hundred were injured in the ongoing violence since October 25, after the opposition started fighting with the ruling Awami League and law enforcers for establishing non-party election-time administration, according to media reports.
Odhikar said that neither the government nor the opposition was taking responsibility for these casualties, but they were blaming each other.
Odhikar believed that the removal of the caretaker government system through 15th amendment to the constitution was the main reason for the ongoing political crisis.
Violence escalated across the country soon after the declaration of a one-sided election schedule on November 25, 2013 by the chief election commissioner, without any political solution among the political parties.
The law enforcement agencies must stop indiscriminate firing and torture in custody, Odhikar recommended.
It said the government is putting human rights defenders, journalist and other citizens in jail after arresting them under the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006, a repressive law that curtails freedom of speech and expression.
-With New Age input
