Rule of law and human rights
The prime minister last Saturday issued a stern warning against extortion and tender manipulations by student activists saying that such acts would no longer be tolerated. The warning came in the wake of media reports of student and youth wings of the ruling party indulging in extortion and tender manipulations in different parts of the country. I salute her for her sincere observation of those who are engaged in such heinous activities
On the flip side of the above episode, police shut down Drik Gallery in the capital just before the start of a photo exhibition on extra judicial killings by the Rapid Action Battalion, saying the exhibition would create unrest. Drik Gallery officials told the media that the gallery was closed, which was set to start the exhibition of photos by Shahidul Alam styled 'Crossfire'. The organisers said a police team entered the premises of Drik Gallery without permission and asked the authorities to cancel the exhibition immediately. But the Drik authorities refused to shut the gallery as the photos on display were symbolic and allegorical. Police could not show any warrant, court order or any executive order, they said. As police barricaded the entrance of the gallery, the organisers opened a street exhibition outside Drik Gallery. Noted Indian writer and human rights activist Mahasweta Devi inaugurated the event.
They are individuals, groups of people or organisations who promote and protect human rights in many different ways and in different capacities, through peaceful and non-violent means. They uncover violations, subject them to public scrutiny and press for those responsible to be accountable.
They empower individuals and communities to claim their basic entitlements as human beings. They represent some of the most marginalized civil society groups from the tribal people to the landless rural workers and women's groups. However, because of their work they face a range of challenges. They are subjected to death threats and torture, persecuted through the use of the judicial system and silenced through the introduction of security laws.
In the recent past, smear campaigns and defamatory tactics have also been used to de-legitimise the works of defenders, with the media often colluding in the dissemination of slanderous accusations and attacks on their personal integrity and political independence. However, we are also now living in a new hostile environment. As countless examples show, a large area in the country is witnessing armed conflicts, often on a massive scale, in which civilian lives and livelihoods are increasingly the principal casualty. It is in such an environment that the work of human rights activists is most needed, yet often least respected. In an atmosphere of tense polarization, their impartiality is called into question.
However, in the present phase of Bangladeshi polity, human rights defenders, social justice movements and development practitioners are more at the receiving end when they take the language and tools of rights into the sphere of economic and social policy. On issues of land, water, forests and mining, our government is hostile to the very concept of economic and social rights as enforceable entitlements. The experiences involved in identifying violations, attributing responsibility and proposing measures for redress and prevention in these arenas lead us to also view these rights as less enforceable through legal means.
In all the cases of attacks on human rights defenders, there is a broader people's resistance and activists also fight their cases. However, the main point is that the governments have the obligation to protect human rights defenders as a special category.
True, our rights activists have many skills and years of honed experience; there is no mystery or mystique to defending human rights. We all hold the potential of becoming human rights defenders.
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