Islamabad, as a goodwill gesture, had released these prisoners from a Karachi jail on Sunday, following which the Edhi Foundation took their responsibility.

An Indian prisoner Kanji, who was among those released, said he was first afraid about being handed over to some unknown people, but he was in for a surprise as upon their release they were given food, cash and gifts by the foundation’s volunteers.

“I wish governments of both the countries would behave like the volunteers of Edhi Foundation,” Kanji said. Another fisherman Karsan said, “I may forget the time spent in jail but not the love and affection shown by Edhi Foundation volunteers. They didn’t know us and yet they gave us Rs 5,000 each along with gifts. They were generous.”

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This is part of a campaign that was organized by BRAC on the eve of United Nation Global Road Safety Week 2017 which was observed during May 8 – 14 across the world. This year’s UN road safety campaign theme was “Save Lives – #SlowDown”.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) chairman Md Moshiar Rahman inaugurated the event, followed by a discussion on the significance of the week at the south plaza of National Parliament. Danish Ambassador to Bangladesh Mikael Hemniti Winther, Asian Injury Thailand chairperson Ratanawadee Winther, BRAC Road Safety programme’s director Ahmed Najmul Hussain and its advocacy programme’s director KAM Morshed, among others were also present.

This was followed by a motor cycle rally involving 200 bikers who carried colorful flags, placards and banners that boldly displayed UN’s campaign slogan. During the rally, they engaged with drivers of buses, cars and three-wheeler s to spread the message of slowing down speeds to prevent loss of lives.BRTA’s chairman said the high speed is the key reason behind deadly accidents. Safe speed of vehicles could help save hundreds of lives every year.

Winther said the campaign will draw the attention of the policy makers about the burning issues related to road safety and will develop simple, low-cost interventions to address these. He urged the drivers for going slow, saving lives of both others and themselves.

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Caritas Bangladesh, the social arm of the Catholic Church, is collaborating with government officials and is on standby to provide support where necessary. Mazharul Islam, disaster management officer at Caritas Chittagong said they have prepared a primary situation report on the affected people and losses. “This year, flooding was fast but it seems to be short-lived. Depending on flood damage and government support, we will offer our helping hand to people in need,” Islam said.

Daniel Snal, disaster management officer at Caritas Sylhet said they are monitoring the flood situation and have prepared a primary report for further action. “Between 300,000 and 400,000 people have been stranded by floods in the northeastern Sylhet region and hundreds of families have been evacuated. The government has started distributing relief material to the poor and for other people in need we will offer aid where the authorities feel the necessity,” Snal said. “We have prepared a primary flood assessment report to collect donations and to get government permission. If we are allowed, we will offer aid and rehabilitate the most needy people,” he added.

The government of Bangladesh has deployed disaster response teams to meet the emergency, distributing relief material and overseeing government shelters where some 2,000 families have been temporarily housed.

Low-lying Bangladesh is located at the floodplains of world’s largest river system, making it vulnerable to natural disasters like cyclones and flooding every year.

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The members of ASA completing 10 consecutive years of borrowing successfully with the organization but unable to continue their membership due to age-bar would get BDT 10,000 as retirement benefit from ASA. If any spouse of an ASA borrower becomes disabled as a result of an accident then the unpaid loan of the member will be written off. Further, family of each deceased member will be provided BDT 5,000 for managing funeral cost.

ASA disbursed an amount of BDT 24,000 crore as loans during 2016 and at the end of the year its loan outstanding was BDT 13,346 crore which was the highest amount of outstanding in the MFIs of the country. ASA also spent an amount of BDT 40 crore from its surplus earning to implement Non-financial program including primary healthcare, primary education, sanitation, physiotherapy etc. during 2016. One million people, mostly the underprivileged were benefited out of the non-financial program of ASA.

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On January 26, 2014, the Bangladesh cabinet announced the recognition of a third gender category in its gazette with a single-sentence: “The Government of Bangladesh has recognized the Hijra community of Bangladesh as a Hijra sex.” This circular represented a significant step toward securing a range of human rights for Bangladesh’s hijras—people who, assigned “male” at birth, identify as feminine later in life and prefer to be recognized as hijra or a third gender.

This promising move, however, was undermined by what came next. Bangladesh does not have a policy outlining the measures individuals must take to legally change the gender marker on their official documents from “male” to “hijra,” and there is no clarity about who qualifies as a hijra. Absent such guidelines, officials involved in implementing the hijra circular have acted on their personal understandings of what hijra means.

This report documents the harms that can ensue, focusing on the unintended but nonetheless destructive and rights-abusing consequences of the government’s first attempt to implement the “hijra” category through an employment program.

A major boon for a population usually consigned to begging, ritual performances at ceremonies, and sex work, and who invariably rely on hijra leaders (or “gurus”) for protection.

At first welcoming this potentially empowering development, hijras seeking government jobs lined up for the initial interview. Things did not go well from the start. Candidates told Human Rights Watch that they felt humiliated by ill-informed Social Welfare Department officials during the initial interviews, which were conducted in December 2014. Many said that they were harassed and asked inappropriate questions about their gender identity and sexuality.

This experience led some to alter their appearance toward more masculine self-presentation for subsequent steps in the process, hoping to increase their chances of being hired. Turvi A., a hijra who spends her daily life dressed as a woman, said: “[The government officials] had said that others would be scared of me, so I changed myself. All in the hopes of getting the job.” After her interview she decided she would dress as a man—including for the medical exam.

Then in January 2015 the health ministry issued a memorandum requesting that “necessary steps are taken to identify authentic hijras by conducting a thorough medical check-up.” And in June 2015, the dozen hijras who were selected from the initial interviews followed orders to report to a government hospital for the required medical exams.

During these so-called “examinations,” physicians ordered non-medical hospital staff such as custodians to touch the hijras’ genitals while groups of staff and other patients observed and jeered—sometimes in private rooms, sometimes in public spaces. Hospital staff instructed some of the hijras to return multiple times, stretching over a number of weeks, to undergo additional examinations.

Following these abuses at the hospital, photographs of the 12 hijras were released to online and print media, which claimed the hijras were “really men” who were committing fraud to attain government jobs. Some hijras reported that publication of the photos sparked increased harassment from the general public and economic hardship for those involved—even informal economic activities were compromised as former begging and sex work clients refused to engage with the hijras following the exposure.

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The report includes a global index ranking 172 countries based on where childhood is most and least threatened. In South Asia, Bangladesh ranks behind Maldives, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India, and ahead of Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Childhoods in Niger and in West and Central Africa being most threatened, while in Norway and other European countries like Slovenia, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden being least threatened.

The report says over two-thirds of the world’s stunted children live in only 10 countries. Of these India has the most with 48.2 million children while Bangladesh has the eighth highest with 5.5 million stunted children.

The report also finds that globally one girl under 15 gets married in every seven seconds, and in Bangladesh, 44 percent of girls aged 15-19 are married. Every year, around 17 million adolescent girls give birth and half of all adolescent births occur in just seven countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and the United States.

Stolen Childhoods found that at least 700 million children around the globe — and possibly hundreds of millions more — have had the promise of a full childhood brought to an early end.

The reasons vary from extreme violence and conflict, often driving families from their homes; early marriage and pregnancy; child labour, poor health and not being able to go to school.

“Despite progress on global goals, children in Bangladesh are still suffering and dying from diseases, and experiencing harsh discrimination, which are taking away their childhoods. It is unacceptable that in 2017 many children in Bangladesh and around the world still do not have their right to be safe, learn, grow and play. We must, and we can, do better than this,” says Mark Pierce, Country Director, Save the Children in Bangladesh.

“In 2015, the world made a promise that by 2030, all children would be in school, protected, and healthy, regardless of who they are, and where they live. Although this is an ambitious target, it’s within reach if governments invest in all children to guarantee they have the full childhood they deserve.”

Save the Children is an international child rights organization working for children since 1919. The aid agency runs programmes that work with the most marginalised and excluded children in hard-to-reach places around the world including Bangladesh, providing them with access to health, shelter, education, vocational programmes and protection from harm.

In line with its Every Last Child campaign, Save the Children is calling on the Bangladesh government to ensure that no child dies from preventable or treatable causes or is subjected to extreme violence; is robbed of a future as a result of malnutrition, early or forced marriage, early pregnancy, or forced labour; and that they have access to a quality education.

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This follow-up panel survey aims to critically examine the progress around rehabilitation and reintegration of Rana Plaza survivors and families of deceased.

The specific objectives of the current study are as follows:
• To capture the progress around socio-economic rehabilitation of the survivors and families of the deceased through a panel survey.
• To track the status of changes in the policy architecture and progressive reforms around labor rights and work place safety
• To explore way-forward for re-thinking and accelerating the reform initiatives

The survey was conducted on survivors and families of deceased. The sample sizes were 1403 and 607 for survivors and families of deceased. Out of the 1403 survivors surveyed, 34.8 percent were men and 65.2 percent were women with majority (over 70 percent) aged below 30 years. In the case of families of deceased, respondents were mostly spouse, father or brother.

In the current survey, 13.1 percent said their condition is getting worse, 74.5 percent of the respondents said their physical health was somewhat stable and 12.4 were completely stable and. Of the 13.1 percent who reported that their condition is deteriorating in the current survey listed headache, pain in hand and leg, back pain as some of the major problems. The trend of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 surveys show that physical health status of the survivors is improving and in some cases, it is completely stable.

In terms of psychosocial health, 30.8 percent are still in trauma in comparison to 58.4 percent survivors last year. Currently 57.2 percent reported that they are more or less stable and 12.0 percent have recovered fully.

The present study found that 57.6 percent survivors are engaged in various types of wage and self-employment. 42.4 percent survivors claimed that they are unemployed when the survey conducted. Those who are unemployed cited physical weakness (48.1 percent) and mental weakness (33.4 percent) as the main reasons for being unemployed. Employment rate has increased in the last five years, though the progress is still slow.

4.8 percent earn less than the minimum wage of 5300 BDT. 42 percent of the survivors have an average monthly income of 5301-10301BDT and 31.6 percent earn between 10301-15300 BDT. The situation has improved significantly since 2015 when 76 percent earned less than 5300 BDT. Average expenditure for survivors is 10,560 BDT with major costs incurred for food, followed by house-rent, children’s education and treatment.

Compared to families of deceased, most survivors do not have any savings left of the financial support they received. In the last ten months, 97 survivors received trainings, 121 people received psychosocial counseling and 115 received health support. ActionAid Bangladesh was among other organizations that provided these support.

In terms of the future plan, 41.8 percent survivors who are currently unemployed opted to expand or start their own business and 26.2 percent had no plans. The second section of the report tried to track the status of the reforms.

The closure of the Rana Plaza Claims Administration may be an indicator of success in terms of completing all payments, however as the High Court’s decision on the compensation issue is yet to be resolved; some argue that the payment made so far is monetary support and not compensation in real terms. Other reforms included the amendment of the labour law which addressing the freedom of association and measures to bolster occupational health and safety.

However there is no mechanism to monitor some of these provisions despite the rules being framed in 2015. On the positive side a long-term health support programme for all survivors is in place and the discussion for an employee injury benefit scheme has been initiated an detailed feasibility study is being conducted.

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Every academic/scientific study of corporal punishmentin public and private schools has concluded that corporal punishment does not make for better discipline or for better education. In many instances, the effect is the exact opposite.  One unanimous conclusion, however, is that students subjected to school corporal punishment may suffer long-term psychological damage—some even for a lifetime.

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Tahsina’s father was a trader of cow at the local market. In a business day, he makes a great loss in his business which cased of selling off their cultivable land, after that he remained sick, after three month sufferings Tofazzal Mridha father of Tahsina passed away, Tahsina’s mother had made a big loan for her father’s treatment. To repay the loan she was bound to sell their only asset home. Now their lives in their uncle’s home.

After the great shock, the family without an income survived on handouts and sympathy. Tahsina had no future and getting an education was beyond question. Whilst Tahsina under Help the needy charitable trust orphan sponsorship program, Tahsina is able to provide all the necessities that Tahsina’s mother once struggled to provide.

Tahsina making good progress in her study, now she has high hope to be a teacher in the future. Your generous sponsorship helps Tahsina’s education, clothing, food and health care. Tahsina and her mother’s life turned around from misery to one of hope and aspiration, all of which has been made possible with a regular support from Tahsina’s sponsor. The family grateful and thanks to help the needy charitable trust and RAF for such great and magnanimous initiative

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In the presence of Ms Nasrin Ara Surat Amin, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Social Affairs; Mr IkhtiyarAsnalov, Head of Delegation, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Bangladesh;Mr. Faruque Hassan, Senior Vice President, BGMEA and other guests, they presented findings of a research on the current health and socio-economic statuses of the supported 515 Rana Plaza survivors. Two separate researches were conducted on this particular issue. One of them was done by GIZ in collaboration with CRP and four other NGOs on 515 Rana Plaza survivors, and the other one was conducted by CRP alone on 509 individuals.

Till date, 509 survivors of the Rana Plaza collapse have been provided with treatment and 390 people with vocational training. It was revealed at the event that the majority of the supported Rana Plaza survivors are currently engaged in entrepreneurial businesses earning a substantial amount for their livelihoods. According to the survey, 71 per cent of the respondent of Rana Plaza survivors are earning at present, most of whom are running their own business, while six per cent have gone back to the Ready-Made Garments (RMG) industry. About 13 per cent of the respondents are currently jobless because of their fragile mental health. GIZ intends to support these marginalised people through CRP’s Inclusive Job Centre located in Mirpur.

In his speech, Mr Shafiqul Islam, Executive Director, CRP, emphasised on emergency rehabilitation support and long-term socio-economic reintegration assistance to the Rana Plaza survivors. CRP is committed to continue the need-based support as per the recent study findings.

So far BGMEA has spent Tk 15 Crore (approximately) for salary, treatment and rehabilitation of the victims of Rana Plaza collapse.

Dr Jochen Weikert, Programme Coordinator, GIZ, said, ‘‘We are glad to find out that most of the 515 survivors we supported together with our partners found their livelihoods and social inclusion. Now we use our learnings from the last three years to give hopeto other people with disabilities. With the establishment of an Inclusive Job Centre, we expand our work towards an inclusive workforce and equal opportunities in the RMG industry in Bangladesh.’’

A panel discussion followed by a discussion session gave the audience an opportunity to get an overview of the current statuses of the people affected by the Rana Plaza building collapse. Participants also included representatives from CRP’s Prosthetics and Orthotics department, different vocational training initiatives and organisations of people with disabilities who discussed their experiences with the guests.

Bookmarks containing stories and photos of Rana Plaza survivors were circulated among the guests. These bookmarks illustrated the efforts of GIZ, CRP andGanaUnnayan Kendra (GUK) over the last three years.

Currently the textile industry in Bangladesh offers many employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, considerably improving their circumstances by enabling them to participate in society. At the same time, there is an urgent need for suitably trained personnel in the industry.

Promotion of Social and Environmental Standards in the Industry (PSES), a joint project of the governments of Bangladesh and Germany, is addressing this situation with an “Inclusive Job Centre” that matches persons with disabilities who are prepared to work in the textile industry with suitable training opportunities and employment. This project is implemented by GIZ, which works on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).PSES targets factories interested in employing persons with disabilities and helps find individuals filling up relevant vacancies.

Inclusive Job Centre’s professionals have already assessed 220 persons with disabilities in the last four months. Among the assessed 38 were placed in employment in the RMG factories and six were placed in vocational skills training. Inclusive Job Centre has supported the Rana Plaza survivors in their employment in the RMG factories.

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They also urged the Bangladesh Prime Minister to demand a clear and effective guideline of financial arrangement that is required to make the SDGs successful, specially in the least developing countries. These demands were placed from a human chain titled ‘Dear PM, tell our voice in UN: Legally Binding Climate Agreement is Indispensible for SDG Implementation’ which was organized by EquityBD and supported by CANSA and Action 2015. 23 organizations participated in the event.

A written statement on behalf of the organizers were read out by Mustafa Kamal Akanda of EquityBD, among others Badrul Alam of Bangladesh Krishak Federation, Subal Sarkar of Bangladesh Bhumihin Somity, Jayed Iqbal Khan of Bangladesh Krishak Federation, Aminur Rasul Babul of Unnayan Dhara, Kader Hazari of ARPAN, Abdul wahab of Jatiyo Sromik Jot, Kazi Hafizur Rahman of Public Service Institute also spoke at the occasion.

Mustafa Kamal Akanda Said, Bangladesh is losing 2-3 billion dollar each year due to the Climate Change impact, though Bangladesh is not responsible for the climate change. Since there is no legally binding arrangements, countries responsible for climate change are not wiling to reduce carbon emission, which results about 60% increase in the Carbon emission.

To reduce carbon emission and to save the countries like Bangladesh a legally binding Climate Treaty is must and it is indispensible towards the implementation of SDGs. No development goals can be fulfilled without proper arrangement on facing the challenge of climate change.

Bangladesh is also experiencing a huge number of climate forced migrants, there should be a separate protocoled under the UN recognizing these migrants as Universal Natural Person. As almost all the World leaders will be in the summit, our Prime Minister should use the opportunity to raise the issues on behalf of the people of Bangladesh and also of the LDC countries.

Aminur Rasul Babul said, it was calculated that to achieve MDGs Bangladesh would need 3.5 billion foreign aid per year, but Bangladesh got aid of only 1.58 billion dollar. It is evident that, rich countries failed to fulfill their commitment of fanatical support towards least developed countries. To achieve SDGs financial and technical support will be needed, this time a clear and effective structural arrangement of financial support from the rich countries must be there.

We demand this arrangement from this summit. Badrul Alam Said, Farmers are not responsible for climate change yet they the sufferer. We are paying for consumerism of the rich countries. As the leader of agriculture based country, our prime minister should raise this issue.

Kazi Hafizur Rahman said, To ensure effective achievement of SDGs,least development countries should be equipped with capcity of facing the challenges of climate change. Rich countries should recognize their historical responsibilities and they must come forward to ensure financial and technical support to the LDCs in this regard.

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NGO News Desk (

The first abnormal category is that of the Italian Government and its political parties, which violate the temporary civil administration over the Free Territory and the rights of other States, suffocating the international Free Port to the benefit of Italian ports. They are doing it since decades, and we are standing to prevent them from continuing that.

On the contrary, the second abnormal category of antagonists is new: it consists in local groups of ignorant meddlers, fools and violent individuals in search of votes and political advantages who pretend to defend the Free Territory and the international Free Port with actions that, as a matter of fact, are useless, reckless and damaging. As well as being supported by Italian authorities.

The damaging strike of 26 and 27 August

On 26 and 27 August, they carried out a strike of Dockers, which is useless, unjustified and damaging, since the agreements requested had already been archived some days before. In facts, alongside with unaware citizens, at the demonstration of the strikers there were also violent agitators who attacked the police to claim they were attacked, going as far as accusing the police to have slowed down an ambulance that was providing urgent aid.

Also, the useless strike had been scheduled on the busiest day for the container terminal of the Molo VII (Dock VII) to cause the maximum possible damage. And the result is that one of the main foreign customers
considers that the Port of Trieste is no longer reliable and decided to divert to other ports a traffic of 8,000 containers each month, which results in the loss of about 60 jobs.

Annex VIII as an excuse

The responsible of this disastrous strike did also justify it with the generic request to enforce the provisions of Annex VIII of the Treaty of Peace of 1947, which regulate the international Free Port of the Free Territory of Trieste. But the analysis of their declarations makes it clear that they don’t know the subject and they misrepresent it to support political claims for autonomy in Italy.

This seems to be also the reason why the organizers of the reckless and violent strike were surprisingly accredited as “autonomist” political negotiators by the local representatives and press of the Italian Government in Trieste: the Prefect F.A. Garufi, the Commissar of the Port Authority Zeno d’Agostino, the regional department of Italian TV RAI as well as newspapers “Il Piccolo” and “Primorski dnevnik”.

The “autonomist” operation of Italian authorities

For instance, Italian provisional authorities are organizing an “autonomist” coalition of fake supporters of independence and others for local elections to be held in 2016, drawn upon the “Lista per Trieste” of 1976-2006, to
attempt using it to contrast the legal and political-diplomatic, successful action of the Free Trieste Movement, which, on the contrary, supports the Free Territory of Trieste and the International Free Port.

To do this, administering Italian authorities are helping the violent agitators with a scandalous judicial impunity (see LINK) and by other, more or less questionable means.

Still, it cannot be tolerated that Italian authorities go as far as encouraging reckless sabotages of the activities of the port and of its enterprises, as the whole current and future economy of Trieste depends on these.

It is the same Italian authorities that are attempting to destroy, even by illegal means, the qualified and responsible workshop of initiatives of the Free Trieste Movement, which promotes, even with the 20,000 signatures it has already collected, the full enforcement of the sovereignty of the FreeTerritory and the functioning of its international Free Port, as well as paying attention to favorite and to not damage the current activities of the port.

The real reasons of the crisis

The protection of the current port activities in the port of Trieste is necessary for the very fact that the administering Italian Government does dramatically put them at stake by imposing, illegally, the oppressive, corrupted and failing legal, economic and fiscal system of the State of Italy to the Free Territory of Trieste.

A failing system that in Trieste, besides sabotaging the regime of international Free Port, imposes to port enterprises costs that are enormously superior to these of the nearby ports of Koper (Slovenia) and Rijeka (Croatia), two active competitors that have the same body of international users.

It is enough reminding that in Koper and Rijeka the three main managerial costs of a container terminal, which are work force, fuel and energy, are 30/35% inferior, with pier facilities that, when it comes to Koper, the Slovenian Government is quickly expanding on the surface and on 18 meters seabed, while in Trieste the administering Italian Government prevents their realization, like it does in the Northern Free Port, or limits its promises to their realization with construction times from 10 to 35 years.

The consequences for enterprises

These behaviors of the administering Italian Government have two fundamental consequences on the enterprises that operate within the port of Trieste: to remain on the market they must apply the same charges as Koper and Rijeka, but paying the increased Italian costs, with a consequent reduction of their revenues, and in order to be competitive on market they must show levels of production and reliability superior to these of Koper and of Rijeka.

As long as the Italian administration over Trieste continues, and with it the administration over the port and economy of the whole Free Territory, the survival conditions of port enterprises and of the Free Territory itself are
extreme, require economic sacrifices, extraordinary efforts for both trades and marketing, as well as remaining conditioned not only to the objective productivity and reliability of the port, but also to the strategic perceptions
of their customers.

This is dramatically demonstrated by the fact that the useless and violent political strike of 26-27 August, did not only driven an important customer to remove from the port of Trieste 8,000 containers and 60 jobs, but it does
also risk to induce other customers to make similar decisions, also upon new advantageous commercial offers with which Koper and Rijeka might use the situation to their own advantage.

Conclusions and liabilities

This means that the competent activity of the Free Trieste Movement for the implementation of the laws that establish the Free Territory of Trieste, its international Free Port and the consequent rights of other States over it
can actually consolidate the short-mid term strategic interest of international customers. And, actually, this is already happening.

But it does also mean that the reckless activities of the local political idiots who, ignorant as they are, believe to realize the Free Territory and the Free Port, or to obtain autonomies within Italy with demonstrations, trivial political actions and violent behaviors can easily cause enormous and immediate damages to the enterprises, to the port and to the whole local economy.

Now, the Italian administering authorities of the Free Territory of Trieste can chose to keep supporting those dangerous idiots with political accredits, scandalous judicial impunities, money and media coverage to attempt sabotaging both the international Free Port and the action of the Free Trieste Movement. But they must also assume all liabilities for it, both to other States and to port enterprises. (Press Release)

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NGO News Report

Let’s sum up: workers demanded the application of current laws, fully in force. The Italian government did not reply to that request. The Italian government instead sent a police squad from outside Trieste with repressive intent.
It is now very much clear to everyone: Italy has no intention to comply to International laws on the Free Port of Trieste, and it is therefore needed for the International community to URGENTLY act upon the current situation, before it escalates even further.

TRIEST NGO expects to intervene in the next few months in Geneva, in order to explain the current serious and illegal situation to UN committees, as well as to start an inquiry procedure against Italy.

—
Italy signed the 1947 Treaty of Peace and 1954 London Memorandum, agreeing to precise obligations towards the citizens of Trieste, and towards the administration of the Free Port of Trieste.

These laws — namely, Annex VIII to the Treaty of Peace — are today fully in force, as confirmed by the Italian judiciary system and by the US State Department, among others. Yet, the Italian government has not been applying such laws for decades, and more and more citizens of the Territory of Trieste can not possibly stand the current state of things.

The city of Trieste lost almost one third of its population, in the last few decades, thanks to the lack of development of (and subsequent lack of employment from) its Free Port. (Press Release)

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NGO News Report ::

The training was jointly organised by the Prison Directorate of Bangladesh and Improvement of the Real Situation of Overcrowding in Prisons in Bangladesh (IRSOP), a joint project of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). 15 prison officials attended the training including the Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Senior Jail Super, Jail Super, Assistant Surgeon and Jailors.

The objective of the training was to develop a group of trainers with the basic skills, information and expertise needed to deliver effective experience-based training workshops on the topics included in the training programme of the prison directorate. International consultant Mr Hans H Wahl facilitated the ToT according to international standards and covered major topics related to good prison management, dynamic security and legal assistance.

Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin, Inspector General (IG) of Prisons, attended the certificate-giving ceremony as the Chief Guest. Ms Promita Sengupta, Programme Coordinator, GIZ, was also present at the ceremony.

The trainees said that the ToT increased their knowledge of key theoretical principles, how to design a training, as well as related skills on topics such as meeting management, group dynamics and effective communication.

In his closing remarks the IG of Prisons mentioned, “Participants who attended this ToT will return to the Bangladesh Prisons Department and achieve a huge impact with what they have learnt. If the culture, management and rewards system support the necessary behavioral change, then the trainees will be able to apply what they have learnt.”

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NGO News Report ::

Today ICVA (International Council for Voluntary Associations), BNfWHS and COAST jointly has organized a seminar title “Principles of Partnership : Learning and Way Forward” in Brac center, where local, national and international NGO leaders given emphasize Mutual Accountability relation in Partnership. The seminar was moderated by Dr Jamie Munn and Mrs Jessica Darby from ICVA and Rezaul Karim Chowdhury from BNfWHS and COAST. Mrs Rokeya Kabir of ADAB, Mr Snehal Soneji from Oxfam, Mr Jerome Sayar of CLS, Ms. Hasin Jahan from Practical Action, Nayeem Warha from Disaster Forum, Mr Khaled Hasan from PKSF, Mr Abdul Awal from CDF, Mr Abdul Awal from NRDS and Kazi Sahidur from UN OCHA have spoken as panelist.

Mrs. Nurun Nahar Lovely from DSK (Dustha Shastho Kendro) given the presentations on the key findings of BNfWHS field level consultations, which given emphasize on equality and dignity based partnership especially with international NGOs (INGOs), donor organizations, and UN organizations. Dr Jamie Munn of ICVA has given background on Principles of Partnership which was adopted during 2007 almost all INGOs, donor organizations and UN organizations, basically which are Equality, Transparency, Result Oriented Approach, Responsibility and Complementarities. On the eve WHS held in Istanbul May 2016, ICVA globally reviewing this principles in different region.

Mrs Rokeya Kabir said that INGOs should have more development education in their own country to have more positive attitude toward development aid. Mr Snehal Soneji of Oxfam has said that he is fully agreed on the spirit that INGOs should not go for competition with local NGOs to raise fund in national level. He said that local NGOs should raise fund targeting local middle class in the country. Ms Hasin Jahan said that local NGOs should take targeted program to the young generations. Mr Nayeem Gowhar Warha express worries of developing sub contracting culture and top down and domination approach of some INGOs and bilateral donor agencies.

Mr Abdul Awal of CDF mentioned that Bangladeshi micro finance NGOs doing more on holistic development so principles of partnership important for them. Mr Hasan Khaled of PKSF said that leadership commitment and flexibility is fundamental in partnership. Kazi Sahidur Rahman of UN OCHA mentioned that , all development stakeholder will have the need of a platform to continue this discourse. Mr Abdul Awal of NRDS mentioned that basically development partnership will have to be integrated to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) from next year.

In conclusion Rezaul Karim Chowdhury from COAST and BNfWHS said that the discourse will continue up to grass root level, as there is a need of minimum coordination and understanding of all development stakeholders especially among INGOs, Local NGOs and UN agencies, as NGOs or development organizations are the main vehicles to promote human rights, secularism and democracy.

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The Press conference titled “Memorandum of 11 coastal organizations to the Shipping Minister demanding safe river way during the EID Stop operation of lunch with faulty design, ensure registration of all passengers” was jointly organized by Akash, Arpan, Udayan Bangladesh, Green Belt Trust, Safe water way movement, DOCAP, PULS Bangladesh, SOMAJ, CDP, Safe water way implementation alliance and COAST Trust.

Mustafa Kamal Akanda of COAST Trust moderated the press conference while Md. Mujibul Haque Munir of the Safe water way implementation alliance presented the keynotes. The other speakers were Aminur Rasul Babul of Safe River Way Movement, Badrul Alam of Bangladesh Krishak Federation and Abdul Kader ajari of Arpan.

In his keynote presentation Mujibul Haque Munir said, 8tth July is the balck day for the river way communications of Bangladesh. On 8th July of 2003 a launch named MV Nasrin was capsized while it was going to Bhola from Dhaka with home bound people during the Eid vacation. From a survey of Safe River Way Alliance it was found that about 402 people were killed or missing in only Bhola district due to that accident. About 128 families lost their only source of earning, about 6 children lost almost all of their family members including their father, mother and siblings. Banggaldesh also experienced some other launch accidents during the Eid vacation, Koko, MV Saludding and Pinak 6 capsized during Eid Vacation. To avoid such unaccepted deaths we must take initiatives in advance. We don’t want to see such deaths in this Eid.

From the Press Conference some specific demands were placed such as-Until Eid no new fitness certificate should be provided, documents of master, driver and launch must be properly checked prior to operation, overloading must be controlled, boarding passengers from the middle of the river must be banned.

Aminur Rasul Babul said , Corrupted officials have centralized the approval and monitoring systems of the vessels only to ensure their bribed income. Appropriate actions against launch owners have not been taken. A fund is running on in the name of passengers’ welfare collecting fund from general passengers. We must know where this fund is being utilized.

Abdul Kader Hajari said, abut 35% of total passengers of Bangladesh use the river way, it carries 70% of goods. So river way is very important for our economy. We should ensure a safer river way for the sake of the economy of the country.

Badrul Alam said, huge people of the coastal areas depend on the river way. But this river ways causes serious lose for them. We don’t want to lose anything in this year. This year Eid vacation is during a bad weather season, we have to be careful bout it. So some immediate measures must be taken.

Mustafa Kamal Akannd said, To ensure safer river way some immediate steps are needed, as well as some long term initiatives have also to be implemented. The management of the river was must be decentralized.

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They also demanded a UN initiative to organize global summit with participation of all countries in this regard. The organizations placed the demands from a press conference held today in the National Press Club.

The press conference titled ‘Appeal to Bangladesh delegation on the eve of Addis Ababa conference on development Financing: Demand international political body to control illict capital flow’ was moderated by Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of EquityBD, while key note was presented by Sayed Aminul haque of the same organziation. Among others, M Fayez of Jatiyo Sramik Federaion, Aminur Rasul Babul of Unnayan Dhara Trust, Md. Mujibul Haque Munir of Bangladesh Peasant Coalition, Mustafa Kamal Akanda of COAST Trust also spoke at the occassion.

In his key note presenation Aminul Haque said, rich countries have common but different responsibiities reagrding the poverty eradication of the poor countres . In SDGs there is a proposal of mobilizing domestic resources. But domestic resource mobilization can’t be effective if there is no appropriate measures to control global tax dodging and illicit capital flight. The organizers also deamanded elimination of global discriminatory trade rules.

From the press conference some other specific demands were also placed such as: Elimination of double taxation policy, Rich countries must provide 1.0% of their GNI for the development of the poor countries, foreign aid must be unconditional, public investment in the service sector must be expedite, foreign debt of poor countries must be cancelled.

Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said, Due to ‘Race to Bottom Practice’ among many countries, especially among developed countries, countries like Bangladesh is losing huge amount of capital that is more then foreign aid. So, Bangladesh delegates must demand an international tax and bank transparency standard, which should be set by UN or a global body.

M Fayez said, rich countries must be honest to their commitment in supporting least developed countries. Aminur Rasul Babul said, for a country like Bangladesh development financing is very important as for its problem like climate change impact Bangladesh is not at all responsible.

The press conference was jointly organized by Online Knowledge Society, BILS, EquityBD, Udayan Bangladesh, Unnyayan Dhara, ADB International, CLEAN, Jatiyo Sramik Jote, Readymade Garment Workers’ Federation, Banchte Shekha Nari, Bangladesh Krishak Federation, Bangladesh Bhumihin Somity, Bangladesh Sramik Federation, Development Synergy Institute, Awaz, Jono Oddyan Kendro, Bangladesh Sromik Federation, Bhasoman Nari Sramik Union, Jago Bangladesh garments Sramik Federation and Mehenoti Garments Sromik Federation.

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The seminar titled Bangladeshi NGOs on World Humanitarian Summit: Partnership Based on Equality and Dignity for Sustainable Capacity for Disaster Risk Reduction and Response organizers also emphasis effectiveness and innovations on the humanitarian activities.

The seminar was moderated by Rezaul Karim Cowdhury of COAST Trust, it was presided by Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Chairman, PKSF and Md. Shah Kamal, Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief was the chief guest of the occasion. Mr. Jeremy Wellard, Representative from the regional office of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) in Bangkok was present as the special guest.

The seminar was jointly organized mainly by SSS, SKS, FDA, NIRAPAD, PIDIM, Dhaka Ahsania Mission, TMSS, Palli Mangal Karmasuchi, Wave Foundation, Brac, RDRS, ASA, ISDI, ORA, Sajida Foundation, Sangram, Sankalpo Trust, SDI, DSK, RIC, Dak Diye Jai, Dwip Unnayan Sangstha, Pirojpur Gono Unnayan Samity, PRADIPAN, UDDIPAN, NDP and COAST Trust. These 34 NGOs organized themselves for participation in the WHS (World Humanitarian Summit) discourse as declared by UN, the South and Central Asia regional consultation will be held in Tazakistan during July 2015 and global summit will be happened in Istanbul May 2016.

The group conducted field level consultations and individual interviews in 16 districts of Bangladesh on various issues of Natural Disaster. In total 3500 people from various sections took part in the process.

Mr Azim of SDI presented the summary of the findings form field level, major points in this regard are as follows, national NGOs should be considered as partner rather then sub contractors, international NGOs should not compete with national NGOs for project and funding in national level, institutional and capacity building funding should be given to national NGOs for sustainable local level capacities.

They have also mentioned slow on set disaster like drought, salinity, and river erosion received little attention from donors. Finding also said that Red Crescent volunterrism should be depoliticied, there should be capacity building in local government level for coordination in respect of humanitarian actions. They also demand that there should internal displacement policy and UN should come up with new protocol for climate and disaster displaced people.

Ministry Secretary Md. Shah Kamal said, we are confident that our capacities have been strengthened in natural disaster management like cyclone, now we have to prepare ourselves of earthquake. Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said, this WHS discourse should also be linked to climate summit and UN initiative on sustainable development goals, he emphasize that Bangladeshi National NGOs should should reflect Bangladeshi poor voice in global level as because these poor is not responsible for this fate.

Mr Jeremy Wallard of UN OCHA Asia said that, Bangladeshi NGOs voice in WHS process is important as it is the country that faces most brunt of the natural disasters. Other speakers of seminar was Emranul Haque Chowdhury of Uddipan, Rafiqul Alam of DUS, Kazi Sahidur Rahman of UN OCHA, Arvin Barun Banarjee of PIDIM Foundation, HM Noman of DORP and Shamsul Haque of SDI.

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The press conference is moderated by Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of EquityBD while position paper is read out by Ahsanul Karim of same organization. Other speakers of the press conference are Aminur Rasul Babul of Unnayan Dhara Trust, Prodip Kumar Roy of Online Knowledge Society and Md. Badrul Alam of Bangladesh Krisak Federation.

On behalf of the group, Md. Ahasanul Karim made eight point demands, those are (i). Any Bangladesh citizen holding duel passport must submit their detail annual information on bank and assets. Punishment should be imposed if tax evasion found. (ii). Govt. have to prepare a white paper and make it public on how many Bangladeshi people have taken “Malaysian Second Home and other citizenship process” through financing transaction from country. (iii). Inter-governmental agreement to be signed with different countries e.g. with Switzerland to exchange bank transaction information of Bangladeshi people as well as foreigners those are working in Bangladesh. (iv). Develop legal procedure and stop illicit finance through “Hundi Process” and dismiss the staff of govt. and non-govt. who are involved in this illegal process. (v). Govt. should replicate Indian initiative and introduce TIN (Tax Identification Number) for any purchasing or transaction above US$ 2000. If any irregularities are found, assets should be seized instantaneously. (vi). Investigation should be done to trace out the money flow and White Paper to be disclosed on financial plundering by “Bismillah, Hall Mark and other state banks and share market”. (vii). Government’s audit to be conducted on national and multinational companies and disclose a report on how much amount have been repatriating through under invoicing & over invoicing process. (Viii). Government should investigate the mobile banking and its financial transactions, because it is assuming to involve with money laundering through human trafficking in other South Asian countries.

Md. Ahsanul Karim mentioned that a total of US$18.41 billion had been siphoned off Bangladesh in 10 years since 2003 through trade miss-invoicing, corruption, bribery and tax evasion by a recent report of Washington-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI). That means, government could earn near about BDT 36,000 core as additional revenue and will able to invest in the development program.

Md. Badrul Alam of Krisak Federation said that enhancing domestic revenue is urgent as we fail to mobilize resource to our national ADP (Annual Development Program) without foreign loan. Mr. Prodip K. Roy said that the Bangladeshi citizen deposited Tk 3,236 core in 2013 that disclosed by Swiss National Bank report which is 62% increased than the year 2012 and demanded to disclose the details for transparency.

Mr. Aminur Rasul Babul said that under the “My Second Home” program of Malaysia total about 2370 nos of Bangladeshi citizens have taken this advantage since 2002 to 2013. He mentioned that about BDT10,000 crore has been transferred to Malaysia for flat and plot purchase.

Moderator of the press conference said that, for the sake of our garments worker and migrated labor people, govt. should stop illicit finance flow and ensure investing these amounts for our poor people and their socio-economic development, because they are earning foreign currencies for us.

The twenty one civil society organizations of this allise are Arpan, Online Knowledge Society, EquityBD, Udayan-BD, Bangladesh Sramik Federation, DSO, CDP, Krisani Sava, Jatio Sramik Jote, DOKAP, Nature Campaign-BD, Prantojan, BAFLF, Bangladesh Krisak Federation, Bangladesh Bhumihin Somiti, VOICE, Labor Resource Center, Sirajganj Flood Forum, Synergy Institute and Humanity Watch.

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The High Commissioner of Canada to Bangladesh Mr. Benoît-Pierre Laramée visited ASF on April 27th to hand over the cheque to Acid Survivors Foundation.

Mr. Benoît-Pierre Laramée stated, “The Government of Canada has proudly supported the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) since its founding in 1999. We are happy to see that ASF has been successful in reducing the number of acid attacks and in helping acid survivors to reintegrate into society. The High Commission is proud that Canadian volunteers participated at the rickshaw relay to raise funds for supporting the ASF survivors. The advancement, promotion and defense of the human rights of women and girls is a key priority for the Government of Canada”

ASF’s Executive Director Selina Ahmed thanked the High Commission staff, sponsors and volunteers who participated in the Rickshaw Relay. Selina Ahmed stated, “ASF runs a 20 bed hospital where survivors of acid violence are able to receive free of cost medical treatment. ASF also provides legal and rehabilitation support to acid survivors” She further stated “Support and cooperation from the Government, Media and Civil Society has made it possible to reduce the number of acid attacks in Bangladesh”.

During the visit The High Commissioner, Mr. Benoît-Pierre Laramée and the event coordinator Lisa Lee met with acid survivors in ASF’s hospital.

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The human chain was organized in front of the National Press Club by Arpan, Oline knowledge society, COAST Trust, EquityBd, Udayan Bangladesh, Bangladesh Labour Federation, SDO, Coastal Development Partnership, Kishani Sobha, DOCAP, National Labour Alliance, Nature Campaign Bangladesh, Prantojon, BAFLF, Bangladesh Krishak Federation, Voice, labour Resource Centre, Sirajgonj Flood Forum, Sangram, Synergy Institute and Humanity Watch.

The human chain was moderated by Mustafa Kamal Akanda of EquityBD while Ahsanul Karim from the same organization presented the key note on behalf of the organizers. Among others Badrul Alam of Bangladesh Krishak Federation, Subal Sarkar of Bangladesh Bhumihin Somity, Sanat K Bhowmik of COAST Trust and Zayed Iqbal Khan of Bangladesh Krishak Federation also spoke on the occasion.

Ahsanul Karim said, Bangladesh government finalized the VAT law in 2012 according to IMF prescription which is supposed to be effective from financial year of 2015-2016. This law proposes 15% flat rate which will result prices hikes of various essentials. IMF does not make this type of prescription for the welfare of countries like Bangladesh; rather intention of these prescriptions is to ensure interests of multinational companies.

Badrul Alam said, the new VAT law will create additional burden for the farmers and agriculture of Bangladesh. Direct tax must be collected form multinational companies rather than imposing new tax burden for the poor.

Various multinational companies are evading taxes using various techniques. For example, four cell phone operators have evaded about 3100 crore taka, British American Tobacco evaded 1924 crore taka. These taxes have to be collected Subal Sarkar said, the main intention of IMF is not development, rather to bring Bangladesh in the trap of loan.

Their prescriptions in various countries have been failed. 18 Sub-Saharan countries are implementing VAT laws according to IMF prescription, but they have been failed clearly to achieve the goals of making the tax-GDP ratio 18-20%. Research shows, tax-GDP ratio in these countries have been decreased!

Sanat Kumar Bhowmik said, contribution of direct tax in Bangladesh is lower than other developing countries. In India direct tax is 35% of total revenue collection, Sri Lanka 38%, in rich countries it is about 70%. Focus should be given on direct tax rather than to indirect taxes like VAT, because these taxes impose additional burden on poor people.

Some other demands have also been placed from the human chain such as, no expansion of VAT on essentials, separate tax unit formation, Tax ombudsman, reduction of non-development expenditures, string actions against black money.

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On 23 April 2015, GIZ joined forces with the Centre for the Rehabilitation for the Paralysed (CRP) to commemorate the second anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse, at the CRP premises in Mirpur, Dhaka. During the event, Guest of Honour, His Excellency Dr Thomas Prinz, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, reiterated Germany’s long-term commitment to the development of Bangladesh – “The German Government has supported more than 500 people who were affected by the building collapse. However, in dealing with the tragedy, we have learned an important lesson: to include people with disabilities is not a temporary, incident-driven task. It is a continuous process”.

Mr Reaz Bin Mahmood, Vice President, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) stated, “People with disabilities are not disabled, rather they are differently-abled. If they are provided with little cooperation, they can be an asset to our economy and society.” He also added, “Skilled workforce can be a key for BGMEA to reach the target of USD 50 billion exports by 2021.”

Dr Valerie Taylor, the founder of CRP, emphasised the need to learn from the past, make the most of the present, and plan ahead for the future, ensuring as far as is humanly possible that such a disaster is never repeated.

CRP, which partners with GIZ to rehabilitate Rana Plaza survivors, presented a statement on the support provided to the Rana Plaza survivors. It committed to continue supporting such initiatives in the future.

The event was also attended by Dr Jochen Weikert, Programme Coordinator, GIZ; Ms Christine Cipolla, Head of Delegation, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); and survivors of the Rana Plaza building collapse.

After a panel discussion with the survivors, Dr Valerie Taylor inaugurated an exhibition with trained entrepreneurs who were affected by the Rana Plaza incident. Representatives from CRP’s Prosthetics and Orthotics Department and different vocational and inclusive training initiatives then discussed their experiences.

GIZ has also supported the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Coordination Cell of the Rana Plaza Trust Fund to implement a compensation scheme for the victims of the Rana Plaza tragedy. After completing professional trainings, the victims have used the compensation payments as capital to successfully operate their own businesses.

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The survey shows that 61.2 percent of the people still need to visit doctors, clinic or NGO run facilities on regular basis. Most of them (59.1 percent) are still suffering from depression & trauma. This suggests that physical wounds may have healed in the two years, but the trauma and shock from the incident is harder to recover from.

The survey was revealed on Wednesday (22nd April) at BRAC Cnetre Inn, Bangladesh in a Multi-logue just before the second anniversary of Rana Plaza Tragedy.

ActoinAid Bangladesh has conducted the survey on 1414 survivors. Among them 915 are women & 499 are men.

Of the 1414 survivors, 70.6 percent responded that they are somewhat healed. While 22.6 percent reported that their condition is getting worse.

The survey report shows that 55 percent survivors are still unemployed. While 44 percent survivors got engaged in various types of jobs. Currently 54.4 percent respondents are facing difficulties to meet their daily needs. 2% cannot meet their daily needs at all.

In the multilogue followed by survey findings sharing, stakeholder from Govt., national & international non-govt. organization, garments owner, buyers, researchers were present.

Farah Kabir, Country Director of ActionAid Bangladesh, said, “The situation of survivors are worse. The survivors don’t go to work. Physically they are in bad situation. We should take the responsibility to help them go on with their lives. Govt., Garments Factory owners, other partners should work together”.

In the discussion, compensation was a big issue. Survey shows, in last one and half year, Rana Plaza Donor Trust Fund was set up to ensure compensation for the affected people with a preliminary target of USD 40 million, which was later fixed at USD 30 million. In cash and kind PM’s relief fund provided BDT 22,93,58,720/- out of BDT 127 crore (BDT 1270 million)(as of April 9, 2015, Press Wing of PM’s Office) Altogether USD 21.5 million was supposed to be disbursed. Current deficit USD 8.5 million.

The survivors, present in the multi-logue, claimed that they didn’t get proper compensation.

Dr. Mojtaba Kazazi, Executive Commissioner-Rana Plaza Coordination Committee, said, “We have received many letters for compensation than the actual figure. So it takes times. The compensation depends on the loss and damage of the survivors”.

Ishrafil Alam, Member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Labor and Employment, said, “Compensation is a endless debate. After the Rana Plaza Collapse, many parties wanted to give money. But we don’t get enough”.

“Incidents can happen. But it should not be continued. Victims are not getting the justice. It needs to be addressed. We want industrialization. But we don’t want our industrialization by death like Rana Plaza”, said Mr. Ishrafil.

Md. Shahidullah Azim, Vice President, BGMEA, said, “We have been working closely with factory owners and other stake holders to ensure security of workers. We don’t want any repetition of Rana Plaza”.

“To improve the situation of survivors and garment industry of Bangladesh, most important factor is ensuring accountability. for that the govt., owners and buyers should work together”, said Mr. Tuomo Poutiainen, Programme Manager of ILO Bangladesh.

Amanur Rahman, deputy director of ActionAid Bangladesh, presented the survey findings. Survey findings suggest some initiatives. Those are; realization and delivery of full compensation is required to address the mid-term and long-term needs; further health & livelihood support to the survivors is required to resume normal life and work; a high level multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism including GO, NGO, Trade Union, Brand, Manufacturer and Development Partner should be in place to oversee the national labour regulations and compliance auditing.

This is the 3rd time follow up survey done by ActionAid Bangladesh on Rana Plaza disaster. The incident happened on 24 April 2013 where 1,129 people lost their lives and 2,515 injured people were rescued.

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Aiming to implement the existing tobacco control law to prevent the illegal promotion of tobacco and tobacco products, stopping the use of tobacco and demanding the adoption of the FCTC article 5.3 directives during all sorts of commercial activities undertaken by tobacco companies, a Policy Dialogue titled ‘Tobacco Cos’ Tricky Tactics and Law Violation: Our Responsibilities to Protect Public Health’, with the joint initiative of PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) and Anti Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA), has been held at the VIP lounge of the National Press Club, Dhaka. Mr. Saber Hossain Chowdhury, the Parliament Member for Dhaka-9 constituency attended the event as the chief guest, while Dr. Habibe Millat, Parliament Member of Sirajganj-2 constituency with Abul Kalam Mohammad Ahsanul Haque Chowdhury of Rangpur-2 constituency, and Md. Nabi Newaz of Jhenidah-3 constituency were the special guests at the Policy Dialogue. WHO Technical Officer (Tobacco Control) in Bangladesh, Dr. Mahfuzul Huq, Taifur Rahman- Country Director (Bangladesh) for Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), former coordinator of the National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC) under Health and Family Welfare Ministry – Amin Ul Ahsan were the special discussants at the event. Md. Hasan Shahriar, Coordinator of PROGGA presented the key note at the Policy Dialogue and it was presided over by Mozammel Hossain, Editor of the Daily Shokaler Khabor, and it was moderated by Nadira Kiron, Co-convener of ATMA.

It was said at the dialogue that although there are strict restrictions in Bangladesh over tobacco products’ advertisements, promotions and sponsorship, there are no such legal restrictions about stopping the allurements and nosiness of the tobacco companies. Consequently, the tobacco companies are adopting different innovative tricky techniques across the country to expand their business. They are also hampering the tobacco control law implementation. Although the FCTC Article 5.3 directs the government to formulate necessary rules and regulations to prevent the tobacco companies’ interference, there are no reflections of the directives in the law. As a result, the law could not bring the desired result and the public health is getting damaged. According to WHO (2004), around 57,000 people die as the direct result of tobacco use and around 382,000 people turn crippled.

Saber Hossain Chowdhury MP, Dhaka-9 at his speech said that tobacco companies are unusual companies that sell products to hasten the death of humans. So, they are very cunningly violating the existing tobacco control law and promoting their products and leading the youths and the public health as well towards hazards. He urged the authority to stringently apply the tobacco control law. By the same time, he also demanded to formulate a ‘National Tobacco Control Policy’ which will be able to reduce the demands of tobacco, and on the other side it will be effective to control the production too.

Besides, he also underscored to allocate budget for the National Tobacco Control Cell (under the Health Ministry) so that the activities undertaken by the government could be implemented effectively. He also promised to continue work under the `National Platform’ and placing tobacco tax related proposal in the upcoming Parliament Session for the National Budget 2015-16.

Dr. Habibe Millat MP Sirajganj-2, in his speech said that the existing law should be strictly enforced to stop the advertisements and promotions of tobacco products and simultaneously social campaigns should be undertaken to familiarize the rules and regulations of the law among the commoners to get the best result of the law. Abul Kalam Mohammad Ahsanul Haque MP, Rangpur-2 constituency said that declaration of tobacco products’ sale ban beside the educational institutions is a must to save the youths from the tobacco aggression. Mr. Md. Nabi Newaz MP of Jhenidah-3 constituency said, we want to save people as we are law makers, and thus we will work together to control tobacco both inside and outside of the Parliament.

Panel discussant, at the event, Dr Mahfuzul Huq, Technical Officer (Tobacco Control) of WHO said that around 300 to 400 crore taka has been being earned from the 1 percent health development surcharge and a portion of the revenue may be invested for the tobacco control in the country. Taifur Rahman, Country Director for CTFK in Bangladesh, said that we should not think the tobacco companies as a usual trading company as they sell deaths and the state should formulate rules and regulations to regulate them. Amin-Ul-Ahsan, former Coordinator for the NTCC said that the `authorized officers’ in law implementation should be more attentive and as all the offences are noticeable; there are opportunity to lodge cases if anyone seen violation of this law. Officials of the respective departments under the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, and mass media and tobacco control activists among others spoke at the occasion.

The Policy Dialogue demanded to implement the existing tobacco control law strictly, and to formulate and implement required regulations under the directives of the FCTC Article 5.3 to curb commercial activities of tobacco companies adopted aiming to increase the tobacco use in the country.

The events have been highlighted on both local and national media, and a compilation of the media coverage is attached herein for your convenience.

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Around hundreds of vehicles were stuck at the Khamar Bari intersection on Thursday at 10.00am. A bus driver of a minibus from Gabtoli (route # 22/A) was smoking cigarette sitting on his driving seat. His assistant was smoking another cigarette right on the entrance of the bus. Several women, who took their seats beside the driver, were trying to protect themselves by covering their noses from the cigarettes smokes attacking them from both the sides of the driver and his assistant.

Like this driver and his assistant, many of the people smoke on public transports or at public places, but smoking at such places or vehicles is a punishable offense after the Tobacco Control Rules, 2015 that has been passed in March 12 of the year.

To control the production, usages, trading and advertisement of tobacco and tobacco products, the government has formulated and passed the Smoking and Tobacco Products (Usages) Control Act in 2005 and the Rules for the act was formulated in 2006.

Due to some loopholes, the tobacco control law failed to work effectively. Thus, the law was amended accordingly in May, 2013. After 22 months of passing of the amended tobacco control law, its Rules have been passed in March 12, 2015. Earlier, it was told that the law cannot be implied properly for the want of Rules.

The new Rules contain sections to protect the females and children from the damages caused by passive smoking. Besides, the Rules has made a fine of Tk 300 for smoking at educational institutions, hospitals, office, court premises, covered workplaces and other public places and public transports.

Besides, the Rules also order to exhibit anti-smoking warnings ‘Do not smoke. It is a punishable offense’ both in Bengali and English language at the public places and public transports. There are penalty provisions too if the notices are ignored or not exhibited.

When asked about the tobacco control law implementation, S M Zahangir Alam Sarker, Additional Police Superintendent of DMP mass media cell, said “Public and private campaigns are required to raises awareness about the law. The law is being implemented in some cases. But it is not in full fledge for the want to publicity.”

PROGGA, a leading private research organization, works to enhance the capacity of mass media activists in tobacco control. A B M Zubair, Executive Director of PROGGA said, “People who are assigned with the law enforcement are unaware of the law and they lack willingness in implementation.” “Public awareness should be increased to get the desired result of the law”, added Zubair.

According to Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2009, around 4 crore and 13 lakh people aged above 15 years use tobacco. Following the WHO, 57,000 people in Bangladesh die of tobacco use and around 382,000 turns crippled.

Local and international tobacco companies are influencing the tobacco control activities in Bangladesh to sustain their business and consequently they are adopting different tricky measures too. Manipulation, direct and indirect political pressure, sponsorship on events, crating front groups to support them, financing in pro-tobacco research activities etc. are the very common methods that the tobacco companies adopt here. Marking the upcoming National Budget, they have started lobbying with the relevant bodies of the government so that they could get tax exemptions.

Tobacco companies are adopting different tricky measures to advertise their tobacco products in different parts of the country like displaying empty cigarette packets of retail stores in exchange of a monthly installment, offering small gifts to the cigarette sellers, decorating the stores, organizing concerts, arranging campaigns at the private universities in the guise of creating employment, the ‘CSR’ activities and many more.

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The seminar presided over Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Chairman of the Palli Karma Shahyak Foundation (PKSF) was jointly organized by Bangladesh Poribesh Angolan (BAPA), Bangladesh Indigenous People Network for Climate Change and Bio Diversity (BIPNetCCBD), Bangladesh Climate Change Journalist Forum (BCJF), Coastal Development Partnership (CDP), Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihood (CSRL), Equity and Justice Working Group Bangladesh (EquityBD), Forum for Environmental Journalist in Bangladesh (FEJB), Participatory Research and Development Initiative (PRDI) and Oxfam. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of EquityBD moderated the seminar while Sayed Aminul Haque of the same organization and Din M Shibley of Counter Photo presented the key notes.

Among others Ziaul Haque Mukta, Regional Policy Coordinator, Oxfam, Qumrul Islam Chowdhury of FEJB, Tanvir Ahmed of Oxfam, Anowar Islam babu of Jatiyo Krishak Jote, Dr. Ahsan Uddin of Centre for Global Changes.

In his key note presentation Sayed Aminul Haque mentioned that, Bangladesh has been experiencing climate induced mass displacements. It is predicted that, due to sea level rise 17.5% of total landmass will be inundated and about of 31.5 million people will be forced to be displaced.

It is also predicted that, due to river bank erosion displacement rate will be increased to 12.37% from 9.35 at present. The seasonal or temporary migrated population will be increased by from 10 % to 20%. Bangladesh itself hardly has sufficient ability to manage these climate induced displaced population, because of the high density of population already.

The density of population currently is 964 per sq Km which is feared to be 1300 per Sq Km within 2050. The key note presentations recommended, an internal displacement policy in this regard, which will help Bangladesh to pursue relocations and rehabilitations policy measures in international and UN level.

Qumrul Islam Chowdhury said that Bangladesh climate negotiation team has to be prepared from now that how they will be influencing the Warsaw International Frame Work on Loss and Damage which will be finalized in UNFCCC Conference of Parties to be held in Paris at the of 2015.

Ziaul Haque Mukta said, Bangladesh government has passed the Disaster Management Act which includes the issue of rehabilation on disaster related displacement, but there are hardly any details in rules. Prime Minister has been demanding separate international protocol on climate induced displaced but so far the foreign ministry is yet to submit any official submission on this regard in United Nations.

Dr. Ahsan Uddin Ahmed said, climate induced displacement has been recognized and proposed to work in the Cancun adaptation framework, but Bangladesh have been failed to take any advantages. We have the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategic Action Plan, but there are gaps on what specific adaptation plan related to regarding climate induced displacement in national level.

Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said, we had been able to play vital roles in the climate change negotiations during the previous five years. But from the last year we are a bit lagged behind in this regard. Concerned ministries and authorities and all should take initiative to revamp it.

He mentioned that Bangladesh has succeded to include climate change as a goal and one indicator related to climate induced displacement in Post 2015 discourse and in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). He said Nansen Initiative has given us an opportunity to pursue other states to on this agenda to place it UNFCCC Paris negotiations.

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To mark International Women’s Day 2015 and the 20-year anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, UN Women and ActionAid Bangladesh arranged a press conference yesterday on on “SEVEN: a documentary play” held at the National Parliament Media Centre

H.E. Hanne Fugl Eskjaer, Ambassador of Denmark, H.E. Merete Lundemo, Ambassador of Norway, Ms. Farah Kabir, Country Director, ActionAid Bangladesh, Ms. Rokia Rahman, President, Bangladesh Federation of Women Entrepreneurs, H.E. Wanja Campos da Nóbrega, Ambassador of Brazil, Ms Christine Hunter, Country Representative UN WOMEN Bangladesh.Ms Tove Eriksson, Project Manager, Seven On Tour were present in the press conference. The press conference was held to disclose the issue towards the media.

On the 6th of March seven prominent women in Bangladesh will lend their voices to these stories, and perform a reading of the play at the Chayyanaut Theatre. The documentary play “Seven” captures the challenges and obstacles faced by women activists from Russia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Guatemala and Cambodia, but it is these women’s strength and courage that really grips the audience.

Seven seeks to put women’s rights higher on political and social agenda by spreading these stories with the help of strong voices on stage. Seven has been performed in 32 countries, bringing together people from grass root organizations, governmental institutions and activist networks. It has been a catalyst for change, igniting new conversations on gender equality and women’s rights. To date Seven has been translated into 23 languages – Bangla is next!

In March 2014 in Dhaka women Ambassadors and heads of UN agencies performed Seven to mark International Women’s Day. It was a powerful moment for the audience of over 300 and for the readers. Building on this success, UN Women supported by the Swedish Embassy will translate the play into Bangla and use it to mobilize efforts to prevent violence against women.

To launch that, seven women leaders from Bangladesh and the international community will again do a reading for international women’s day, hoping to attract a diverse crowd with thoughts and ideas on key issues women’s rights in Bangladesh today.

UN Women recognises the readers for their leadership and initiatives in advancing gender equality in Bangladesh and for the continued support from our partners at the Embassy of Sweden, the Embassy of Denmark, the Embassy of Norway, the Embassy of Bhutan, the Embassy of Brazil and ActionAid Bangladesh and Hedda Produktion AB for this event.

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The Press conference titled “Decentralization of approval and monitoring system of the vessels and skilled drivers are enough to protect launch accidents ” was organized by Akash, Arpan, Udayan Bangladesh, Safe water way movement , DOCAP, PULS Bangladesh, SOMAJ, CDP, Safe water way implementation alliance and COAST Trust.

Aminur Rasul babul of Safe water way movement moderated the press conference while Md. Mujibul Haque Munir of the Safe water way implementation alliance presents the keynotes. The other speakers were Rezaul karim Chowdhury of EquityBD and Zayed Iqbal Khan of Bangladesh Krishak Federation.

In his keynote presentation Mujibul Haque Munir said, the recent incident of launch capsize is a structural killing, not a mere accident. The two vessels collided in clear day light while the river was also very calm. It was nothing but carelessness, stubbornness and unaccepted behaviour of the drivers. We have learnt that the MV Mustafa was running with a faulty and expired design. He said, immediately after every accident investigation committees are formed but we have got merely any result from those committees. So far about 500 such committees have been formed but only three reports was published. Many committees have not even submitted their report. Scenario of the recommendations came from these committees are also frustrating. There almost no action against respective govt official and launch owners found guilty.

Mr. Aminur Rasul Babul said, 38.57% dead passengers were male. Lives of the other members of the families without a male are beyond any description, specially in this patriarchal society a family. Who will take responsibilities of the harms and difficulties of these families? Launches smaller than 160 feet must not be allowed to carry passengers in important routs.

Rezual Karim Choudhury said , Corrupted officials have centralized the approval and monitoring systems of the vessels only to ensure their bribed income. Appropriate actions against launch owners have not been taken. A fund is running on in the name of passengers’ welfare collecting fund from general passengers. We must know where this fund is being utilized.

Some recommendations are placed in the press conference for consideration: (1) Bring the faulty launch builders and their designers under law and order and ensure punishment for the negligence of duties as it causes huge deaths; (2) Stop the unfit vessels immediately, ensure experienced drivers and seize the faulty and risky launches and hand over to concerned agencies; (3) Decentralize the designing, approval systems and the monitoring down to District and Upazila level; (4) Deploy enough police force to the Marine Magistrate Court; (5) Establish law for providing compensation to the families of died and wounded by the launch capsize; (6) Enforce registering every passengers before a launch start for; (7) Deploy additional inspectors and police in the jetties during Eid and Puja festivals and stormy seasons; and (8) Ensure highest coordination among all agencies involved in the waterways.

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A Health Ministry official, following the report, seeking anonymity said that the deadline extension of implementing pictorial warning on tobacco packets is highly harmful for public health.

The draft tobacco control Rules underwent extensive analysis for several months at the Health and Law Ministry where the tobacco companies have manipulated the Draft after their benefits, and even the Health Minister had met with the representatives of multinational tobacco company which is completely illegal according to the international anti-tobacco treaty FCTC, but the Health Minister, denied the allegation with an excuse that he is able to meet anyone as a public representative, read the report.

Earlier, the tobacco companies appointed different consultant (e.g. printer’s owners association) to advocate them with the excuses that pictorial warning implementation will be delayed as the required machineries will have to be bought from international market, and thus they sought 10 months from the Health Ministry official to implement the pictorial warning.

The report also mentions that the amendments on the tobacco control law are important but could not be enforced for the negligence of the relevant officials. A neighboring country – Pakistan has also implemented the pictorial warning and the tobacco companies in the country are using 40 per cent of the total space of the packets while it will be 85 per cent from March of this year, reads the report.

Anti-tobacco experts, after the news, are on the view that implementing pictorial warning on tobacco packets is not a difficult one for Bangladesh and if the frightening images are on the packets, it will be helpful to uphold the negative consequences of tobacco use among the commoners.

The report also says that researchers have found that such pictorial warnings will be able to attract attention of smokers for about 7000 times in average annually that will be helpful to help them giving up smoking.

The detail of the report is available on the following link:
https://www.bkagoj1.com/print-edition/2015/02/25/20693.php

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The UP member of Garjania Union Parishad said that children mostly engage into tobacco planting because of their poverty and even they miss their classes too. He also said that the guardians do not bother about the issue and many of the females and kids are getting affected with different diseases. The local agro-office is trying to prevent tobacco farming in the locality in different ways and continued their monitoring. It is reported that about 12,000 acres of lands have been used in Cox’sBazar, Ramu, Chakaria, Alikadam and the other surrounding areas and about 60,000 people are involved in the farming process and 20,000 of them are children. Even the doctors are on the view that labours engaged into tobacco farming may experience different diseases like cancer, bronchitis, asthma and other respiratory disorders, reads the report.

The detail of the report is available on the following link:
https://www.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/article/449521/%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%A3%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%B6%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95

Birds leaving nest for tobacco

Earlier, different types of birds used to visit the paddy field in Khagrachharhi district for hunting insects and left over paddies but they rarely appear on the areas as the paddy fields have turned into tobacco plantations, reads another report on The Daily Prothom Alo. Birds usually avoid tobacco fields and environment pollutions for using chemical insecticides on the fields have taken the birds to a fictional level. Birds are only seen in places where tobacco is not grown. Experts are on the view that for the rampant tobacco cultivation on the district, the birds will be extinct some day and the environmental balance will be destroyed too.

The detail of the report is available on the following link:
https://www.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/article/449473/%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B7%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A0%E0%A6%9B%E0%A6%BE%E0%A7%9C%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%96%E0%A6%BF–

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Following our previous years’ efforts, “Uddome Uttorone Shotokoti” kept continuing advocacy in 2015, and are organizing various events at villages and cities on 14 February, 2015. The campaign is organizing a press conference on 12 February, 2015 Thursday, at 11:00 am.

As the UN Human Rights report continues to draw attention of every nation to the fact that 1 in 3 women on the planet is being beaten or raped during her lifetime, the number adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. In this context, One Billion Rising gradually gained momentum as a worldwide movement.

In the years 2013 and 2014 people of Bangladesh identified them with the movement as “Uddome Uttorone Shotokoti”. They stood up, sought justice and demanded an end to violence together with more than a billion men and women in 206 countries in series of events organized around the world on 14 February, 2014.

Our agenda in 2015 is “Uddome Uttorane Shatokotir Biplob” (One Billion Rising REVOLUTION). We have seen that in Bangladesh our demand for justice carried a grave importance in the context of violence against women. Denial and delay in justice has been a common phenomena here. Police reports show that about 2,00,862 women were subjected to violence between 2002 to 2014. Violence conducted in many forms; i.e. acid attacks, kidnapping, rape, murder followed by gang rape, trafficking, killing & torture for dowry and political killings.

Data or report on how many of these cases have been tried and given justice to has never been published. In 2015 behind the smoke screen of the rising petrol bomb blasts, burning of buses and trucks, sabotage of economy and social peace, violence against women continues across the country and people barely notice or question such incidents. We therefore, call women and men to strengthen their solidarity to accelerate resistance nationwide to stop violence against women and girls.

At the press conference we will share with the representatives of the press, the concerns of people across the country about the increasing violence against women and girls and upcoming programs of “Uddome Uttorone Shatokoti-r Biplob”. It will be held on 12th February, 2015, Thursday at 11:00 am at the Sagor Runi Hall of Dhaka Reporters’ Unity. By ensuring active participation of your much esteemed Newspapers/ Television channels/Online news portals, and by communicating our concerns to the people of Bangladesh you have always been a great support to the rights campaign of women of Bangladesh and I hope you’ll do so this year too.

The panel on the press conference includes among others, Khushi Kabir, OBR Bangladesh Coordinator, Fawzia Khondoker, Core Committee member of SANGAT, and Farah Kabir, Country Director of ActionAid Bangladesh, Jobayed Hossain, Plan International, and Monica Jahan Bose, a Bangladeshi-American artist, lawyer, and activist.

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That’s the warning by more than a thousand organisations around the world which are launching a new campaign called action/2015 calling on local and world leaders to take urgent action to halt man-made climate change, eradicate poverty and address inequality.

The new calculation released by the action/2015 coalition shows that, even using relatively conservative scenarios,  the number of people living in extreme poverty – on less than $1.25 a day – could be reduced dramatically from over a billion to 360 million by 2030. Based on work by the University of Denver, in the year 2030, about 4 % of the global population would live in extreme poverty, (compared to 17% today) if critical policy choices on inequality, poverty investment and climate change are made this year and implemented thereafter.  Estimates of other researchers, looking at a longer list of variables, show that the eradication of extreme poverty is achievable for the first time in history – a key objective of the campaign.

However, if leaders fail to deliver and build on the growing momentum for ambitious deals at the UN Special Summit on Sustainable Development in September and the UN Climate talks in Paris in December, and scale back their efforts, the number of people living in extreme poverty could actually increase to 1.2 billion by 2030. This increase would be the first in a generation (since 1993) and almost a billion higher (886million) than if resolute action is taken. Under this scenario 1 in 3 of the world’s population would live under $2 a day.

Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Malala Fund co-founder, who put her life on the line for the right to education said;

‘People globally want an end to injustice, poverty and illiteracy. Our world is interconnected and youth are ready and mobilised more than ever to see real change take place. Together, we are demanding our leaders take action in 2015 and we must all do our part. I will continue to work tirelessly to call on world leaders to seize this opportunity to guarantee a free, quality primary and secondary education for every child. That is my goal and I hope that my voice will be heard as it is the voice of millions of children who want to go to school.’

Alongside Malala, dozens of high profile activists from Queen Rania Al Abdullah and Bono to Ben Affleck, Bill and Melinda Gates and Mo Ibrahim have backed the coalition of over a thousand organisations in more than 120 countries around the world. The campaign is calling on world leaders to agree plans to eradicate poverty, prevent dangerous climate change and tackle inequality at these summits.

action/2015 – announced by Malala when she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize – is one of the biggest campaigns ever to launch – combining environmental, human rights, development organisations and faith networks. From household names like Amnesty International and Save the Children to grassroots NGOs working with local communities, the movement aims to make sure the agreements of 2015 are shaped by the people.

Speaking for action/2015, Amitabh Behar, Indian anti-poverty activist said:

“If we get this wrong, we could see the number of people living in poverty increase for the first time in our generation. But if we get it right – tackle poverty, inequality and climate change – we could eradicate extreme poverty within a generation. With two summits of this importance within just months of each other, 2015 could be one of the most important years for our planet since the end of the Second World War, but only if we rise to the occasion.”

At part of the launch, activities are taking place in more than 50 countries all around the world from Lebanon and Liberia to Nigeria and Norway to South Africa and Sri Lanka.  Many of these are spearheaded by 15 year olds – a constituency who will be among the most affected by the agreements:

• In Bolivia, three coordinated rallies in Laz Paz will bring together younger and older people, each one representing one of the core issues of the campaign – climate change, inequality and poverty.
• In Costa Rica, young people will take to their bicycles to raise the profile of the campaign in a cycle rally which will deliver the message of the campaign to leaders and the public.
• In India, young people are meeting their leaders in 15 states and over 150 districts to deliver their messages of hope for 2015.
• In New York, the Secretary- General of the United Nations Ban Ki- moon will meet a group of 15 year olds to discuss why we need global action in 2015.
• In Nigeria, 15 year olds will present their hopes for the future to Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at a live concert;
• In Norway, a delegation of 15 year old campaigners from across the country will meet with Prime Minister Erna Solberg to challenge her to play her part in the summits and secure a safer future for people and planet in 2015;
• In Tanzania, 15 year olds will meet Vice President Mohamed Gharib Bilal to discuss their aspirations for the future and the action they want from political leaders in 2015;
• In Uganda young people will challenge the Speaker of Parliament to listen to their demands when they hand over a petition signed by over 10,000 young people;
• In the UK, some of Britain’s leading youth activists will meet Prime Minister David Cameron and Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Opposition, to urge them to seize the opportunities of 2015.

Speaking about why she got involved in the campaign, Maryam, a Nigerian child rights activist, who will turn 15 this year said:

“By 2030 I will be an adult, and may have children of my own. My generation might not be the ones making decisions today, but we will be the ones to make sure that our leaders take full responsibility for the actions they take this year. I and thousands like me are demanding they make the right choices, because our future is at stake. We ask that they make choices which are dictated by the needs of future generations and not choices that are dictated by short-term politics.”

Debora Souza, a Brazilian campaigner for action/2015 said:

“The world has tested and proven strategies which have successfully lifted millions out of poverty, and the global transition from the dirty fuels driving climate change to 100% clean renewables is already under way. Now it’s up to governments to accelerate those positive trends and make 2015 the year that brings the world closer to a safe and prosperous future for everybody.”

action/2015 is calling on the public to join them in their calls to ensure world leaders commit to a better world.  Throughout 2015, the campaign will provide ways for everyone everywhere to get involved in influencing the outcomes of these global debates that could achieve:

∑        An end to poverty in all its forms;

∑        The meeting of fundamental rights, tackling inequality and discrimination;

∑        An accelerated transition to 100% renewable energy;

∑        A world where everyone can participate and hold their leaders accountable.

 There are few important points below:

• The ‘almost 1 billion lives’ figure is calculated from best and worst scenarios based on different actions that could be taken affecting inequality, climate change, growth, aid and social investment. These variables are computed by the International Futures model developed at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for International Futures at the University of Denver.
• Under the best case scenario the number of people living in poverty could be reduced to 360m (4%) by 2030. In the worst case scenario the number of people living in poverty could increase to 1.2 billion, a difference of 886million.

 Additional examples of national activities:

• Around the world people will take to the streets in rallies and marches to demand action – including Liberia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Indonesia, Uganda, Belgium, El Salvador, Costa Rica and many more
• Bangladesh: A rally of over 1000 bicyclists will carry messages of the campaign to the Bangladesh Parliament before young people form a human chain around the building to make their demand for action in 2015;
• Lebanon: A human chain of a ‘15’ will be created in downtown Beirut.
• South Africa: In Soweto, 15 year olds will gather to urge their leaders to take action. In live broadcasts with well-known celebrities they will speak about their hopes for the future;

 If you need more information about this topic you can visit: www.action2015.org

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The convention proposed a draft “Data Protection Law”. The summary of the draft law has been presented by Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of VOICE while Advocate Tanzim Islam and a law department teacher of Eastern university Saimum Reza Piash highlighted some points of the draft and called for enacting to ensure citizens’ right to privacy..

The speakers said a fresh law has to be enacted to defend privacy rights, assured by article 43 of Bangladesh constitution. They mentioned that before making the law, the definition of personal information should be made more specific considering the national context and spirit. Protecting individual’s personal information has become more crucial than ever before. Privacy is essential for enabling individuals to express themselves freely. But the existing legal framework does not fully recognize the right to privacy and data protection. They emphasized on the critical awareness of the mass people regarding this issue.

Rustam Ali Foraji, MP, and also the Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Special Rights, told that privacy rights must be protected while government can take appropriate measure to enact a law. However, he also mentioned that right to privacy can be subject to restrictions or limitations under certain exceptional circumstances such as State surveillance measures for the purposes of administration of criminal justice, prevention of crime or combating terrorism. Such interference is permissible only if the criteria for permissible limitations under international human rights law are met, he added.

Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua criticized interception by the agencies that was imposed through an amendment brought in 2006. He told that interception confronts privacy rights and hence violates human rights. He added that State and private agencies should have a legal limit of seeking information from individuals and they must be held accountable. Since communication surveillance, such as mobile and email interceptions, violate right to privacy, he urged government to withdraw or limit the intelligence agencies’ authority over the personal communication of individuals.  He urged to the policy makers to maintain 13 International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance that include legality, adequacy, competent judicial authority, user notification, transparency, safeguard and public oversight.

Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Chief Moderator of EquityBD states according to Right to information Act, everyone has the right to get information about the all the aspects of the state agencies and organizations only other than the issues that have concerns related to national security or public interest; but no one has the right to intervene one’s personal information unless he or she willingly discloses them. He termed freedom of expression as the ‘Right to express oneself in accordance with his/her own choice and option’ adding, “Everyone should have the freedom   to opt whether or not to make personal information public.”

Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Convener, Nagarik Oikko, expresses his vigilant views concerning privacy rights prevailing in Bangladesh. He told that there must have a clear demarcation line between privacy rights and right to information so that the laws do not overlap and create bewilderment while dealing the issues. He also emphasized on the necessity of a nationwide campaign for awareness of the citizens so that the process can be more participatory. “Both security and privacy can adequately and simultaneously be ensured if we can determine them evidently” he added.

Senior journalist Saleem Samad told that surveillance hinders freedom of expression and it is contradictory to the constitutional obligation. Refering to his own story of being victim of surveillance, he urged to ensure right to privacy of individuals drawing references of victims vulnerable conditions at the society.

Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, while moderating the convention, said  that privacy rights and right to information never confront. No one including public and private organizations and agencies, should have the right to any interception and surveillance of email, messaging, telephony involving recording the conversations of clients’ messages until it appears as crucial for national security. He urged to enact privacy and data protection law mentioning that privacy is needed to ensure security while it is necessary to build a progressive democratic nation.

Among others, Saleem Samad, senior journalist, Khairuzzaman Kamal of BMSF, Bangladesh Manobadhikar Journalist Forum, Kawsaruddin, president of BIJF also spoke on the occasion.

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The Executive Director of Nari Unnayan Shakti Dr. Afroja Parvin was the chief discussant at the event. Dr. Afroja called the civil society to protest and prevent eve-teasing and sexual harassment especially in city public transport. Asian TV Narayanganj Correspondent Khaled Bin Firoz, Bijoy TV Correspondent Saifuddin Ahmed Muktar, Eminent social activist Kazi Mahbub Alam and Field volunteer leader of NUS Nasrin Akter Tumpa spokes on the occasion. Tumpa at the end of youth women urged government to resist violence and eve-teasing from Narayanganj.

Nari Unnayan Shakti has been working to prevent sexual harassment and eve-teasing in Dhaka, Chittagong, Narayanganj, Jessore  and Kustia. Besides, NUS is providing legal aid and Mock Trial service to the victims in Dhaka city.  

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Christmas is the most important day on the Christian calendar and celebrated with great enthusiasm, joy and cheer worldwide. For the orphan children at the Home of Hope orphanage and school in the Gazipur district it was no different – fun, games, entertainment, and good nourishing food for all.

“It was a delightful day for the children,” said anti corporal punishment crusader Sir Frank Peters. “Indoors there was special drama play enacted by the children with lots of song and dance and the participation of all present. Then outside there was an assortment of games in the playing fields in which Pastor Gilbert Baroi awarded prizes. Prize receiver or not, all the children were winners of a great time.

“To get to the play area you had to swim through a sea of young smiling well-wishers, most of whom only came up to my knees”, joked Sir Frank.

“Larry and Sharon Smith and Pastor Gilbert Baroi deserve a around of loud applause for their efforts to bring joy and cheer to the children.”

Sir Frank was accompanied to the orphanage by Ali Akbar, Moriam Ali and Rajowl Karim-Peters who co-ordinate free entertainment for children in Haydarabad.

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The rights-holders with whom AAB has walked the miles include women and men at the grassroots, indigenous peoples, Dalits, persons with disabilities, sex workers and their children, children living in socially excluded and geographically remote areas, industrial workers, smallholders and woman farmers, fisher folks, acid survivors, people affected by disasters in urban and rural areas, underprivileged youth, irregular migrants etc.

Throughout 30 years, AAB predominantly invested in leadership and democracy at the grassroots using Reflection-Action process as the tool for empowerment and mobilisation of people helping build their own agency envisioned towards exploring rights-based alternatives.

In this process of intervention, AAB continued to create state-community interface not only by addressing micro-level challenges resulted from macro-level policy prescriptions but also offering credible alternatives capitalising on people’s options and preferences in the field of education, health,
food right, women rights including the rights of the marginalised communities and governance in the larger scale. The
development endeavours put in place for the promotion of people’s alternatives and grassroots models helped advance the political influence in the following Policy processes:

1. incorporaion of rights of persons with disability in UNCRPD, and Disability Rights Law 2013
2. introducion and the promoion of the use of sign language in the naional media
3. inclusion of ‘river ambulance’ as a grassroots model in the Naional Health Policy 2011
4. tackling inclement weather condiion using ‘flexible school calendar’ in the haor areas
5. replicaion of ‘midday meal’ in 78 schools in 4 districts as a 2011 pilot for policy provision
6. ariculaion of people’s needs and prioriies in the Disaster Management Act 2011
7. formulaion of the Domesic Violence (Resistance and Protecion) Act 2010
8. inclusion of the Urdu-speaking communiies in the Ciizenship Amendment Act 2009
9. protecion of the fisher-folk’s rights including livelihood supports during fishing ban

Despite many achievements in the life of the marginalised and excluded people, the country has gone through phenomenal changes paricularly in the wake of neo-liberal development intervenions. This market-led approach has substanially affected the development landscape making the already exising heterogeneity of development trends much more complex in terms of vision, approach and strategy.

The worsening dominaion of the market has dispossessed rural, marginalised communiies from producive, common-property resources trading away people’s livelihoods. Rampant privaisaion of social sectors such as health, educaion has categorically reduced common people’s access. The potenial of the RMG sector as the main driver of the economy has fallen to ethical responsibility blurred by rigged rule and double standards in the global value chain. This has put decent employment and workers’ protecion into controversy.

Development is now at a crossroads – one way leading to the market-based approach, and the other to an enabling, people-centred development. Unfortunately, this juncture limits people from making choices for their individual and collecive development.

The trilogue, armed with this hindsight, intends to generate discourse involving Government representaives, civil society and the business community, to explore the possibility of (re)creaing or extending policy space and to chart out people’s journey for the years to come – in tackling the challenges above and realising AcionAid’s envisioned goal: further human rights for all and defeat poverty.

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The workshop has organized jointly with ADRRN (Asian Disaster Reduction and Response  Network) and COAST Trust (A national level NGO working in coastal areas in Bangladesh) where financial support provided by Australian Aid. This workshop is held following the previous workshops held at different upazilla and district level.

The workshop has especially focus on the core issue like resilient capacity building among the community, disaster management and accountability mechanism that works during disaster. In the regard the workshop has made the following recommendations;

1.   Government should strengthen the union level disaster management committees in their local planning and decision making process that will ensure local accountability.

2.  Ensure community participation and their demand while design any project and development program from government and NGOs. Then people will be conceptualized and be aware about their role and responsibility and act accordingly.

3.   DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction Issues) issues must be integrated with all government sector & ministries and their yearly planning and budgeting process.

The consultation was moderated by Sanat K. Bhowmik, Director, COAST Trust.

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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be replaced by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the year 2015. Initial recommendations of the Government of Bangladesh were discussed in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2013.

“The freedom to voice views and participate in decisions without fear and need for access to information and to an independent media has been recognised as an essential component of the SDGs” said Tahmina Rahman, Director Bangladesh and South Asia of ARTICLE 19. She added, “we believe that there should be a strong reflection of the principles on access to information, transparency and accountability in proposals of the Government of Bangladesh”. She was speaking at a Roundtable jointly organised by ARTICLE 19 with the Daily Star and Equity and Justice Working Group Bangladesh (EquityBD), a network of right based  NGOs in Bangladesh. The Roundtable was held yesterday at the Daily Star Building in Dhaka.

Participants at the Roundtable discussions included  professor Shamsul Alam member Planning Commission, Nazrul Islam, Additional Secretary Cabinet Division,  Saida Muna Tasneem, Director General UN Desk, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,  Information Commissioner Professor Sadeka Halim,  Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director Transparency International Bangladesh, and Saheen Anam, Executive Director Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF). Speakers included  Dr Tofail Ahmed, Barrister Tanjibul Alam, Asgar Ali Sabri, Director Action Aid, Monisha Biswas of Oxfam, former parliamentarian Dr. Akram Hossain and Faruque Ahmed,  Executive Editor the New Nation.

“The Bangladesh Government has been invited to contribute in the development of these new goals at highest level meetings of nation states because of its’ success in implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, and the government is open to strengthening articulations on access, governance and oversight” commented Saida Muna Tasneem.  Nazrul Islam, commented that the government acknowledges that there is more work necessary for the effective implementation of the Right to Information Act. Professor Shamsul Alam empahsised that the right to information is central to Bangladesh proposals for SDGs,

Dr Iftekharizzaman of TIB mentioned that country loss 13.6 % of budget and 2.4 % of GDP due to corruption, this could be minimized if government committed on sincere implementation of right to information.  Saheen Anam of MJF said that access to information is key to holding government accountable, country’s media need to play proactive role in this regard. Reaul Karim Chowdhury commented: “Disclosure of information on matter of public expenditure such as those on defense and development are critical to discussions of equity and good governance”.

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The GIDRM has been designed as a network, bringing together multiple stakeholders from developing, emerging and industrialised nations working in public administrations, academia, civil society and the private sector. For the initial pilot phase, GIDRM is being implemented in eight countries including Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia. In Bangladesh the project aims at promoting fire safety, by providing training aids and sharing skills and knowledge. A mission from the Fire Brigade of the City of Bonn visited Bangladesh in last October. It was followed by a similar mission from Bangladesh in November which included a study tour on fire safety in the industry and risk management in Germany.

Stressing the importance of this timely initiative, the Ambassador recalled the tragic accidents of Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza and underscored the necessity of an effective disaster management mechanism in Bangladesh with strong and capable actors across different segments of the society. He was hopeful that the knowledge sharing component of the initiative would quickly benefit Bangladesh’s disaster response capacity. “This country has a long history of brave response to disasters. The experience is there. However, Germany may be able to help when it comes to planning, methodology, logistics and the use of state of the art equipment in order to reduce casualties in the future”, Conze concluded.

The program was also attended by officials from Bangladesh Fire and Civil Defence, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief. The Director General of the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, Brigadier Ali Ahmed Khan said that Fire Service and Civil Defense is the first responder organization for any kind of disaster in Bangladesh, and as such responsible for adequate response time. Professional skills of the highest standards were of the essence for fire fighters in Bangladesh whose capabilities were being closely watched in the wake of recent tragedies. He welcomed GIZ’s initiatives to facilitate training for fire fighters and expressed his appreciation for Germany’s support.

The outgoing Country Director of GIZ, Olaf Handloegten, has been named Head of GIDRM, based in Berlin. At his last press conference in Dhaka before leaving the country, Olaf Handloegten said that “Germany has learned that disasters can only be tackled effectively if we combine our efforts and link professional full-time government services with the strengths of professionally trained volunteers from the communities. This is one key prerequisite to strengthen the resilience of a nation. GIZ is pleased to see the German and Bangladeshi Fire Services work hand in hand towards a better response preparedness.”

The Fire Safety Mission returning from training in Germany included participants from the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense, Department of Disaster Management (DDM), Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) and the Bangladesh Ministry of Home Affairs.

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