Despite working tirelessly for the promotion and protection of human rights in the
country from inception in 2009, Global Alliance For National Human Rights
Institutions (GANHRI) has given B Status to NHRCB. According to the
organization NHRCB falls short of fulfilling the requirements mentioned in Paris
Principal. Some provisions in the NHRC Act do not match with Paris Principal.
NHRCB thinks that NHRC cannot be blamed for the Act. Although NHRC India has
similar act like ours they got A status. On the other hand, Bangladesh got B status.
This is discriminatory.
The Commission wants to listen to the grievances and complaints of people with full
potential. Maximum attention is employed to the disposal of complaints but, as a
matter of fact, due to shortage of man-power all the complaints cannot be handled in a
given time.
Moreover, despite considerable IT-related improvement e.g. e-Filing the Complaint
Management System of the Commission still requires to be made fully automated and
digitally activated. It is expected that within next year we will see the developments in
this regard.
As per the second Five Year Strategic Plan (2016-2020) NHRCB has been working
relentlessly to reduce discriminations from the society. To eliminate gender-based
violence and discrimination NHRCB is conducting country-wide awareness raising
campaigns. Moreover, NHRCB drives and leads necessary policy and legal reforms
and wants to expedite those initiatives. The Draft Anti Discrimination Law is
submitted for enactment with a view to curving discrimination against women and
others but discriminatory stereotypes and harmful practices such as child marriage,
forced marriage, polygamy etc remains in the society compromising the equal rights of
women. To create a momentum in the minds of stakeholders and duty-bearers with
regards to understanding the immediacy of an Anti-Discrimination Law and
implementing all other relevant legislations is a great challenge.
Challenge part in the thematic area includes studies on situations of the minorities
along with their right to land, protection of rights of the ethnic minorities,
implementation of the Peace Accord in CHT, rights of women, children and persons
with disabilities vis-à-vis implementation of policies and legislations, labor rights
including ILO convention, CBA rights, EPZ law, ensuring universal education and of
course the Rohingya issue giving rise to many humanitarian crises. Collection of
authentic data on different thematic issues is also to be considered as a great
challenge.
74 | Annual Report 2022 : National Human Rights Commission