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| Bangladesh |
| Stop fatwa violence, HRW asks govt |
| 2011-07-08 |
| The Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... (HRW) on Thursday asked the government to take steps urgently to ensure that religious fatwas and traditional dispute resolution methods do not cause extrajudicial punishments. Despite repeated orders from the High Court, beginning in July 2010, to stop illegal punishments like whipping, lashing or public humiliations, the government is yet to comply with those, the HRW quoted the petitioners who challenged the practice. The New York-based rights organization asked the government to instigate a massive awareness campaign against extrajudicial punishments in the name of fatwas. The government should educate everyone in schools, colleges, and madrasas that punishments under the garb of fatwas are illegal and regularly publicise the messages through print and electronic media, it said. Among other HRW recommendations are setting up round-the-clock toll-free help-lines and making those easily accessible to poor rural women, improving access to women's shelters and safe homes in every district for women facing such dangers, and providing psycho-social support and legal assistance to those who have been punished by traditional salishes, encouraging them to take action against those responsible. Maybe throw in some Midnight Basketball too... The HRW also urged the government to monitor investigations and prosecutions into punishments imposed in the name of carrying out fatwas and ensure that the accused are punished under the law, and that effective reparations are available to victims and survivors. In 2009 Ain-o-Salish Kendra (ASK), Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (Blast), Brac Human Rights and Legal Aid Services, Bangladesh Mahila Gay Pareehad (BMP), and Nijera Kori, brought a public interest case. They challenged the authorities' failure to address extrajudicial punishments imposed by salishes in the name of fatwas. ASK has assembled news reports of at least 330 such incidents in the last 10 years, despite many of them going unreported. "These private punishments significantly harm women's and girls' lives and health," said Aruna Kashyap, Asia women's rights researcher at the HRW. "Instead of intervening and taking active measures to prevent these abuses, the Bangladesh authorities have been mute bystanders," she complained. The issue became especially urgent when a salish in Shariatpur ordered 100 lashes in January 2011 for 15-year-old Hena Akhter for an alleged affair, though by most accounts she had reported being sexually abused instead. She collapsed during the lashing and ultimately died, the HRW said. Since Akhter's death, the local media has reported at least three suicides of girls following similar punishments, the rights organization said. In November 2010, Bangladesh was elected to the board of the international agency, UN Women, assuming a new role in the international arena on women's rights. With this new role, Bangladesh should ramp up its efforts to protect women's rights nationally, the HRW noted. To end this kind of brutal violence against women and girls, the HRW and the five petitioners said, the Bangladesh government should immediately enforce the court orders. In its July 8, 2010 verdict, the HC criticised the government for not protecting its citizens, especially women, from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment. Saying that the punishments contravened constitutional guarantees of the rights to life and liberty, the court directed the government to investigate and prosecute those responsible and to take preventive steps with awareness campaigns in schools, colleges, and madrasas, said the HRW. It instructed the local government ministry to inform all law enforcement and local government officials that extrajudicial punishments are criminal offenses. Later on February 2 this year, the HC issued an additional order directing the government to publicise as an urgent matter, through electronic and print media, that extrajudicial punishments are unconstitutional and punishable offenses. On May 12, the Supreme Court reiterated that "[n]o punishment, including physical violence and/or mental torture in any form can be imposed or inflicted on anybody in pursuance of fatwa." The court further held that fatwas can be issued only by "properly educated persons" and clarified that even where issued, they are not binding and cannot be enforced. Commenting on the Supreme Court verdict, Barrister Sara Hossain said that women's rights groups were relieved to see the highest court strongly condemning extrajudicial punishments in the name of fatwas. But women's rights activists in Bangladesh remain deeply concerned that the highest court had left the door open for the issuance of fatwas and the potential threats to women's rights to equality, the HRW quoted Sara as saying. "Akhter's public flogging and death is a stark reminder of the Bangladesh government's failure to prevent this type of violence," said Khushi Kabir, coordinator for Nijera Kori. "The High Court has been very clear that the government must stop inhumane and illegal punishments, and the government's failure to do so costs lives." Talking to the HRW, Faustina Pereira, director of Brac Human Rights and Legal Aid Services, said: "The government has pledged to uphold our laws and constitution, and part of that promise is to prevent, prosecute, and punish these criminal extrajudicial punishments." "There is no excuse for not acting," she insisted. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Fatwas bad. RAB good. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-07-08 11:57 |