The New Nation - Internet Edition

COUNTRIES worldwide have gradually been embracing systems of democratic dispensation. Despotic and autocratic governments round the world-- characterised by their gross abuses of human rights or freedoms -- have been replaced by representative governments which in many cases are proving to be better versions of their predecessors in respecting and upholding human rights of the people they govern. It is now recognised by enlightened sections of people in all countries that human rights, democracy and good governance form a troika - one cannot have any meaning without the others. All three conditions must be present for the flourishment of human societies. Bangladesh observed the World Human Rights Day on Monday. The Council of Advisers took a major policy decision on the occasion to set up a National Human Rights Commission. This body would have powers to start cases on behalf of the aggrieved for violation of human rights.

While this marks progress in upholding human rights developments in other areas must be in tandem to get the full value of getting the benefits of the commission. This would call for taking advantage of the separation of the judiciary; police reforms to make policemen more responsive to human rights, political reforms to make the political parties similarly committed to respecting and promoting human rights and the introduction of a right to information law. The last ( HR) report on Bangladesh prepared by the US State Department, observed that the human rights situation was not as bad as it seemed under autocratic governance in the eighties. The report also catalogued human rights abuses in different spheres of public life and that too due to what seems to be encouragement given by the democratically elected governments towards flagrant violation of these rights.

The switchover from an autocratic to a democratic set-up dates back to 16 years. Therefore, it was a tragedy that one still came across not only few private cases of human rights violation in this country but large scale such abuses. Private cases of human rights violation is one thing. When the same are at the instigation or direct involvement of the government of the day, the same must be considered as very serious. A country may have an elected parliament, multi-party politics and other trappings of a democratic system; yet its citizens will not benefit from democracy till their human rights are guaranteed under all circumstances. The US State Department's HR report also highlighted the black laws such as section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to intimidate and repress the political opposition to the government. The government is bringing about many basic changes pertaining to human rights, political reforms, reforms in the judiciary and facilitating access to information. The same would be vital for improving the human rights observance in the country and for the attainment of good governance. But the coming elected Parliament will have to remain truly resolved to protect and patronise the changes which are being brought about in these respects.