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​NHRC builds new partnerships with civil society

Graphic: Participants at the NHRC consultation with civil society

The Commission will include civil society representatives in planning and delivering its human rights outreach efforts across key areas of its work.

Close coordination between the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and civil society bodies is needed to better defend people's rights, civil society organizations told the NHRC at a consultation, the Daily Star reported.

They also said the NHRC needs to play a vibrant and active role in addressing different incidents of rights violation.

On 15 May 2017, the NHRC held the consultation program on "Human Rights Up Front: Exploring Collaborations to Promote Human Rights in Bangladesh" at its office in Dhaka's Karwan Bazar.

"If we combine our legal power with the knowledge and resources of different rights bodies, we will be able to reach a target," NHRC Chairperson Kazi Reazul Haque said

He said they have formed ten thematic committees to address various rights issues. Headed by its members, the committees consist of representatives of civil society and human rights organisations, state institutions, academia, development and intergovernmental agencies.

The thematic areas are: women's rights; Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs; Dalits, Hijra and other excluded minorities; business and human rights and CSR; persons with disabilities and autism; migrant workers' rights and anti-trafficking; economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights; elderly people's rights; protection of religious and ethnic minorities and non-citizens rights; and child rights, child labour and child protection.

Date: 16 May 2017

Source: Daily Star


Hijara at a rally in Bangladesh

As part of the "Human Rights Up Front" consultation, the NHRC agreed to partner with the Bandhu Social Welfare Society in promoting respect for the rights of people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity.

The NHRC will establish a separate desk for a representative of Bandhu to work full time within the office of the Commission, in order to develop initiatives that counter stigma and discrimination and to respond to human rights violations with effective fact-finding investigations.


Image credits

  1. Participants at the NHRC consultation with civil society - National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh
  2. Hijara at a rally in Bangladesh - Labib Ittihadul, Flickr; http://bit.ly/2rXfabE