Protect people Rights chief spurs govt, reacts at murder of Bishwajit on int'l HR day

Your Right To Know
Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Staff Correspondent

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Mizanur Rahman yesterday demanded that the government arrests and takes punitive measures against the persons responsible for the killing of Bishwajit Das.

"When we are observing International Human Rights Day, we remember Bishwajit with profound sorrow and sympathy. It is the responsibility of the state to protect people's life, and when it [state] fails, the failures leave us utterly disgraced," he said.

Bishwajit was killed on Sunday in an attack allegedly by a group of Bangladesh Chhatra League activists, who took him for a pro-blockade activist.

The NHRC chief said "Whatever may be the reason or excuse, taking law into own hands for killing people cannot be supported at all in a civilised society and in the human rights point of view."

He was speaking at a discussion organised by NHRC at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre marking the International Human Rights Day, 2012.

Mizanur said "We have to rethink the politics for which a 24-year old dies and whether it is for people's welfare or not.

"If the politicians love their country, its people, and the independence, we would like to appeal them not to do politics that puts people's life in peril."

The NHRC has so far received 586 complaints in the current year and solved 356 complaints, he said, adding that the number of complaints has risen by 300 percent in the last two and a half years.

"It probably indicates something. Possibly, we have been able to create a space, a sense of expectation from this commission," he told his audience.

Cabinet Secretary M Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, who was present at the discussion, said active participation of other stakeholders including lawmakers, civil society members, the media and non-government organisations is needed for raising awareness about human rights.

UNDP Country Director Stefan Priesner said there is much to be done to improve human rights situation in Bangladesh with participation of vulnerable groups.

Danish Ambassador Svend Olling, NHRC full-time member Kazi Reazul Hoque, among others, spoke at the occasion.

At another discussion programme in Chittagong, speakers observed that it would be possible to ensure human rights for everybody if all people including the deprived ones raise their voice collectively.

NHRC in association with the UNDP, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, DANIDA and Sweden, district administration and a local NGO organised the discussion at Chittagong Shilpakala Academy.

The theme of this year's International Human Rights Day is "Inclusion and right to participate in public life".