FOREWORD 1. In the course of its three year tenure, the present Commission has stepped into its last year, making this the last of its Annual reports. As such, it is only natural that the topic of discussion for this report should encompass not only an evaluation of the activities of last year ( 2012), but rather an assessment of the Jatiyo Manobadhikar Komisson (NHRC)- the National Human Rights Commission- for the whole of its tenure. This is expected and logical. But then again we must not be oblivious to the fact that despite the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) being established only in December 2008, its commenced its de facto journey from 23 June 2010, that is since the present Commission took up office. Why the 2008 Commission could not appear to be a capable one has been discussed at length in our 2010 Report which had been submitted before the Honourable President in 2011 as per law. The Report contained a detailed discussion on all the activities of the Commission in the past years. As such, I would be emphasizing mainly upon the overall scrutiny of the NHRC activities: what impact did NHRC have upon the human rights protection and promotion of the citizens, what are its successes, where lies the failure, what expectations have not been met and last but not the least, what measures are required to be taken if NHRC is to become a diligent and internationally acclaimed institution. 2. It goes without saying that public awareness is a prerequisite to Human Rights Protection. However, the concept of “Human Rights” has to be simple, lucid and unambiguous. In a developing country like Bangladesh, the concept of Human Rights is often confused with the idea of mere 'rights', and at times used as a synonym to 'law and order situation'. It is extremely important that such misconceptions are eradicated for a better and transparent understanding of Human Rights. 3. We have assiduously focused on this awareness raising programme right from the very beginning of our tenure. In course of conducting such activities, we have followed a two-dimensional goal: one. To give an easy, clear and solid idea of Human Rights, and two. To make people aware of the existence and activities of the National Human Rights Commission. Having reached the end of its tenure, NHRC can today say with a bit of pride that we have been successful at achieving our cherished goals. The most blissful matter is that many human rights organizations , who have been NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION ANNUAL REPORT, 2012 5