- Category: Statements
Violence against women is endemic in Bangladesh. Women and girls are subjected to domestic violence, rape, dowry and its related violence, acid violence, stalking and sexual harassment, etc. As per a 2015 survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, more than 80% of married women in the country are abused at least once in their married life, be it
physically, sexually, financially or emotionally.
- Category: Statements
Published: 00:05, Nov 20,2017 | Updated: 00:08, Nov 20,2017
POLICE investigators saying that they have found no evidence of any criminal gang being involved in the abduction of North South University teacher Mubashar Hasan Caesar, which took place on November 7, points to a pertinent, yet concerning issue. The teacher, who is an anti-extremism analyst, was picked up from in front of the IDB Building in the capital city 10 minutes after he had left the building. The incident, like any other incidents of enforced disappearance, caused a stir, with family, friends, rights and civic groups demanding that the government should find him out. He still remains untraced. But now that the police have fund no ‘criminal gang’ being involved in the incident, it is the duty of the government and the law enforcement agencies to find out who the people were that have criminally picked him up and where he has been kept. On the other front, Aniruddha Kumar Roy, a businessman and honorary consul of Belarus to Bangladesh, who went missing on August 27, has finally reached, or has been re hed, near his house at Gulshan in the capital. Aniruddha seems to be one of the few of about 402 people who, as rights group Odhikar puts it, disappeared between January 2009 and October 2017 and returned.
- Category: Statements
Published: 00:05, Nov 14,2017 | Updated: 00:50, Nov 14,2017
ENFORCED disappearances coming to be a dominant feature is gravely concerning. At least six people disappeared from Gulshan, Khilgaon and Agargaon in the capital city in November 5–8. Rights group Odhikar, as New Age reported on Monday, comes up with a figure of 402 people going missing between January 2009 and October 2017. There were two cases of enforced disappearances reported in 2009, 18 in 2010, 31 in 2011, 26 in 2012, 54 in 2013, 39 in 2014, 66 in 2015, 91 in 2016 and 74 in the first 10 months of 2017, as the rights group puts its statistics based on such incidents reported in national newspapers. Fifty-two of them were later found dead, 198 could be traced or were shown arrested and 152 still remain untraced. And 36 of such people went missing only in 2017. Another rights group, Ain O Salish Kendra, comes up with a figure of 202 for enforced disappearances between January 2015 and September 2017. But people cannot simply disappear. Someone somewhere should know what has happened to them. Odhikar says at the Rapid Action Battalion and the police picked up 80 per cent of the 402 people who disappeared; in the remaining cases, as the rights group puts it, there are ‘law enforcement agencies’ and ‘people from the government’ involved.
- Category: Press Releases
Press Release: 2nd November, 2017
SHRC Orders Government to Investigate 2080 unmarked graves and mass graves of Poonch and Rajouri districts
Association of Parent of Disappeared Persons (APDP) welcomes the recent 24th October, 2017 order of State Human Rights Commission [SHRC] regarding the existence of unmarked and mass graves in Jammu and Kashmir. On 24th October 2017, in response to a petition filed by APDP regarding the presence of 3844 [Poonch with 2717 Graves and Rajouri with 1127] unmarked graves in Poonch and Rajouri Districts of Jammu and Kashmir, SHRC in its order once again acknowledged the presence of unknown, unmarked and mass graves in Jammu and Kashmir and has directed the government for a comprehensive investigation including DNA [Deoxyribonucleic Acid] Testing, Carbon dating and other forensic techniques.
- Category: Statements
The Asian Federation Against Enforced Disappearance (AFAD) expresses its utter dismay that the case against the alleged abductor of forced disappeared victim Jonas Burgos lost in the lower court. This is a travesty of justice and a manifestation of the longstanding culture of impunity that is deeply embedded in Philippine society. The 9-page decision penned by Presiding Judge Alfonso C. Ruiz of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QCRTC), Branch 216, absolved Major Harry Baliaga Jr. of the crime of arbitrary detention of activist Jonas Burgos. This absolution passed despite the presence of a witness who identified Baliaga as the abductor of Jonas in a restaurant inside a Quezon City Mall, as well as other circumstantial evidence that connected the former to the abduction of the latter.
- Category: Statements
10 October 2017
The Asian Federation against Enforced Disappearances (AFAD) congratulates Odhikar Bangladesh on its 23rd founding anniversary. Odhikar which means “rights” in the Bangla language has been in the forefront of the struggle for human rights in Bangladesh for 23 long years. The precarious and high risk political situation in Bangladesh has not been an obstacle in your fight for a democratic country where rights are respected and protected.
- Category: Statements
Statement from Odhikar
Dhaka, October 09, 2017: Odhikar commemorates its 23rd founding anniversary on 10th October. It was established on this day in 1994 with the vision of a society based on the rights and responsibilities of State and citizens. Odhikar is striving to achieve this goal through human rights activities, based on the foundations established by principles of justice and rule of law, international declarations, conventions and treaties. For 23 years, has been diligently working to protect and promote the rights of the people through awareness, documentation, monitoring, research and advocacy.
- Category: Press Releases
AFAD calls on the Nepal government to withdraw the promotion of Col. Lama who is in fact more worthy of being demoted from his rank as military colonel if not stripped of his position in the military. The military force is an important organization to protect the rights of the people under the new government but AFAD believes that the present coalition government of the Maoist and Congress is not mindful of this important role and is more bent on neglecting its duties to prosecute officials who have been involved in human rights violations.