As the Chair of the event, Prof. Dr. Mizanur
Rahman, Chairman, National Human Rights
Commission hoped that the law could help
stop the outburst of hatred because of one's
identity. In his speech, the JAMAKON
chairman stressed on developing the
outlook of people from all walks of life to
preserve the rights of marginalized people
besides the enactment of Discrimination
Elimination Law. ‘It is difficult to abolish
discrimination only enacting the law, so we
all should develop our minds’ he said.
The objective of the National Consultation
was to analyze and collect input from
stakeholders of the draft legislation on
anti-discrimination and prepare a set of
February,
2013
and
the
National
Consultation on Equal Opportunities for all:
Towards an Anti-discrimination Legislation
on 30th March, 2014.
Participants’ recommendations called for
preparation of a list of marginalized and
vulnerable
groups,
collection
of
disaggregated data on those groups in the
future census, considering the Rights and
Protection of the Persons with Disabilities
Act 2013 including ‘disability’ as ground for
discrimination, addressing the issue of
outsourcing the job of the sweepers (Dalits),
and inclusion of a provision for a sanction for
breach, assessing options for alternative
dispute resolution, repealing any conflicting
Professor Dr. Mizanur Rahman, Chairman, JAMAKON delivering his speech
recommendations on the areas which need
amending, to learn about the status of the
draft legislation on anti-discrimination
submitted to the Ministry of Law, Justice and
Parliamentary Affairs last year and to
expedite the process of enacting the draft
legislation on anti-discrimination.
This was a follow-up event after the National
Seminar on ‘Protecting the Rights of Dalits
as the Most Vulnerable Marginalised
Communities in Bangladesh’ on 2nd
provisions/laws
with
the
proposed
legislation, justification of mobile court
under the proposed Act, and reconsidering if
the proposed legislation will provide a
jurisdiction to the Commission for receiving
complaints and also investigations. The
speakers added importance of caution in use
of words in the proposed law so as not to
offend any community and of the inclusion
of HIV patients who fail to receive treatment
from doctors.
17
JAMAKON