Update

***French President Hosts Reception for Human Rights Defenders at Élysée Palace***Human Rights Lawyer Shahanur Islam Joins Hands with ARDHIS for Bangladeshi LGBTQI Asylum Seekers in France***New Platform to Fight Discrimination Against LGBTQI+ Community in Bangladesh***Human Rights Advocates Meet with French Ambassador to the Council of Europe ***Bangladesh Needs to Make Further Progress Towards Gender Equality***JusticeMakers Bangladesh calls for justice and protection for religious minorities in Bangladesh***French Human Rights Ambassador Honours HR Defenders at Paris***JusticeMakers Bangladesh is deeply concerned over the harassment against student of Islamic University in Bangladesh***JusticeMakers Bangladesh urges to withdraw the ban of Prity's book "Jonmo O Jonir Itihas" immediately***JusticeMakers Bangladesh expresses deep concern, condemnation and protest over the vandalism 14 Hindu temples in Thakurgaon***JusticeMakers Bangladesh deeply concern over the threat of crossfire to the lawyer Aminul Gani Tito in Dhaka***JusticeMakers Bangladesh gravely concerns over the attacked on CEO of BELA***JusticeMakers Bangladesh gravely concerns over the disappearance of lawyer in Dhaka***JusticeMakers Bangladesh Urges Immidiate Release of Arrested Transgenders in Dhaka***JusticeMakers Bangladesh concerns over viciously attacked on lawyer Abdur Rashid Mollah at Dhaka***JusticeMakers Bangladesh gravely concerned over attacked on indigenous people at Bogura***JusticeMakers Bangladesh welcomes the decision of Metropolitan Magistrate to acquit four Transgenders in Dhaka***JusticeMakers Bangladesh Protests and concerns Over the Abduction and Torture of Two Trans-women in Meherpur***Shahanur Islam attended the 21st World Summit on Participatory Democracy at Grenoble, France***

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

FACT FINDING REPORT:Human rights lawyer Mr. Shahanur Islam along with his two comrades physically attacked during an investigation: Looted their all belongings


Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights  is deeply concerned about the recent incident of physical assault and threats of Mr. Shahanur Islam, BIHR’s Executive Director and lawyer in Bangladesh.

During an investigation on the 9th of January, 2011 Mr. Shahanur Islam and his two fact-finding officers were physically attacked, threatened and looted all their valuable belongings in Thakurgaon district.This incident is unfortunately one of many that has taken place over the past few years, where Mr. Islam has been exposed to threats and assault as a result of his work to protect minorities in the country. Human rights defenders are frequently subjected to harassment from authorities in Bangladesh. The incident must be investigated and appropriate sanctions be meted to the police authority in question. BIHR urges for the immediate intervention to ensure the protection of human rights defenders and lawyers in their daily work in Bangladesh.

Monday, January 17, 2011

BIHR & HRDP celebrates the International Human Rights Day in Khulna

Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) and Human Rights development Project-Khulna (HRDP) supported by Global Human Rights Defense (GHRD), Netherlands celebrates the International Human Rights Day 2010 in Khulna, the southern region of Bangladesh. As the part of the celebration of this day it has organized a Human Chain followed by the Rally, on the theme of “Speak up: Stop Discrimination” to raise even more awareness about rights and opportunity for the women & girl to show support to those women & girl who are often victimized in violence in Bangladeshi society.

The Human Chain and Rally took place in front of the Cemetery Road, Khulna around at 9.30 am, the organization and more than four hundred people of different ethnic, religious, race, profession, sex, institution, age attend the event. Among them, more than 150 women victim of torture and organized violence from five different victim association namely Sonali Victim Association, Progoti Victim Association, Sheikhpara Victim Association, Diyara Victim Association & Banargati Victim Association who were rehabilitated by Bangladesh Rehabilitation Centre for Trauma Victims (BRCT) and acting as a human rights defender in local level were attend the event.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

JusticeMakers Inspire Each Other via Skype

Following the success of the inaugural JusticeMaker conference call with partners from South Asia and the Caucasus, Thomas Halusa (Singapore) and Wouter Krujis (Geneva) organized a second call in order to give another group of JusticeMakers the opportunity to be inspired by the progress of their colleagues’ projects. The conference call took place on 26 November 2010, with participation from Oanh Hoang Ngo (Vietnam), Jae de la Cruz (Philippines), Ajeng Larasati (Indonesia) and Shahanur Islam (Bangladesh). Their brainstorming session highlighted their innovative practices and unique approaches, and how these could be adapted for use in different countries.

The primary topic of conversation was the best way to interact with governments. Each JusticeMaker had different experiences of this, based on the significant variances in their project targets and processes. Shahanur, whose project focuses on raising awareness about torture and highlighting Bangladesh’s commitments to international treaties, takes a high-profile approach. His latest success, having four police officers arrested for the torture of a human rights activist, emphasizes the very proactive nature of his project. He uses the media to publicize instances of torture. He has had successes in fostering partnerships with the police, and periodically exchanges information with the local superintendent about the legal aid situation in Dhaka. By finding amiable partners in the police force, Shahanur is adhering to the IBJ method of “change from within.” By using a collaborative approach, he is likely to garner more partners in long term, thus helping to ensure that torture is eradicated from Bangladesh.

Oanh’s project focuses on analyzing the legal rights of juvenile and indigent detainees in and around Hanoi. She also intends to provide training for lawyers on this issue, and her work requires a lot of government interaction. Oanh’s application highlighted the fact that well-trained lawyers are needed to ensure that a sound juvenile legal aid network in Vietnam can be established. In order to achieve this, she has collaborated with the Bar Association, Ministry of Justice, and universities. The first training she held was attended by various dignitaries, including the Vice Chief Judge of Bacnih Province, the Head of the Appeal and Procuracy Department for the Hanoi prosecutor, the Vice-President of the Vietnam Bar Association, the Vice-Chief of the Vietnam Legal Aid Bureau, and two international lawyers from Warsaw, Poland. More than 200 lawyers-in-training were also present. By collaborating with the government to run these sessions, Oanh is able to foster long-term relationships and governmental support for other such initiatives. Oanh’s work to establish a strong support network can help ensure that her changes in Vietnamese juvenile justice will ultimately by systemic and long-lasting.

Government plays a central role in Ajeng’s project implementation as well. Ajeng focuses on ensuring that pre-trial detainees around Jakarta are educated about the legal system and their rights. She has to enter prisons and work hand-in-hand with detainees to complete her training sessions and achieve her goals. Although prison officials have welcomed her plans and have even invited her to enter the jails several months ahead of her planned visits, Ajeng has run into some bureaucratic challenges. In Indonesia, a person wishing to enter a jail needs permission from the Director General of Prisons. Bureaucratic delays in receiving this permission have slowed down her project implementation.

For Jae, whose project is to create a network of paralegals to support farmers’ rights in the rural Philippines, the problem at hand isn’t bureaucracy, but democracy. The recent elections in the Philippines have resulted in a change in government, and consequently most of the provincial officials have been replaced. Because many agreements that Jae had reached with these officials had been conducted verbally, with few paper records of decisions made, some of Jae’s immediate plans have to be re-assessed. Her plans to organize a round-table discussion between police, military, the Supreme Court and the Justice Department have to be re-started. Jae intends to avoid this issue in future by keeping concrete records of all the steps she’s taken.  Despite this setback, Jae’s is hopeful about the future success of her project due to recent positive signs about the Filipino justice system. In a recent landmark decision, the Supreme Court temporarily suspended a judge that was deemed corrupt. This is the first in hopefully many steps towards the establishment of a more efficient legal system.

Dealing with bureaucracy is presents a challenge for all JusticeMakers. However, both Ajeng and Jae have found innovative ways to deal with it. Ajeng’s work is often adversely affected by corruption, which is pervasive in Indonesia, but she has developed an ingenious way of coping with these difficulties. When officials ask for bribes, Ajeng asks for an automated invoice to satisfy her NGO’s funders. This approach solves the problem in a non-confrontational way, and puts out the message that Ajeng won’t be affected by corrupt officials.

Jae manages to efficiently navigate the Philippines’ dense bureaucracy by befriending court officials. This allows her to receive information quickly, as employees of the courts are more willing to help her on the basis of their personal friendship. Jae has also procured a demand letter, which, when shown to officials, forces bureaucrats to provide the necessary material. Because this is a more acrimonious approach, and tends to take longer, Jae uses it only as a last resort.

In addition to discussions about governmental relations, IBJ wanted to hear from the JusticeMakers how they used media or P.R. to publicize their projects.  The JusticeMakers who participated in the second conference call all had very different experiences with the media. Jae, for example, tends not to interact with media to spread her project’s message: farmers in the rural Philippines do not often use radio, newspapers or the internet; thus using a media source would not particularly add to her project’s reach. On the other hand, Shahanur utilizes media sources heavily to emphasize his project and its impact. By managing to stay in within the public’s sphere of interest, the effectiveness of his project has improved.

By interacting with each through the call, all the JusticeMakers were able to find hope in the passion and commitment of their peers. Ideas, such as Ajeng’s, of asking for receipts when people are soliciting a bribe, are adaptable and effective. Interactions such as these help lay the foundation for the fellowship IBJ hopes to inspire throughout the JusticeMaker community.