Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said although the government of Bangladesh has made some significant strides in preventing gender-based violence, its response still remains deeply inadequate to prevent violence against women in the country.
The New York-based rights group also said that the justice system in Bangladesh is failing women as there are police corruption and negligence, failures in investigation, bias, failures in prosecution, lack of witness protection, delays in justice and case backlogs, lack of access to case information, and failures to accommodate people with disabilities.
On Thursday, HRW published a report titled "'I Sleep in My Own Deathbed' - Violence against Women and Girls in Bangladesh: Barriers to Legal Recourse and Support," to document the obstacles to realizing the government's goal of a society without violence against women and children.
"The uptick in violence against women and girls during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as recent protests against sexual violence, are a bellwether to the Bangladesh government that urgent structural reform is needed," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"The government should take concrete action by creating accessible shelters across the country, ensuring access to legal aid, and removing obstacles to reporting violence and obtaining justice," she said.
The human rights watchdog sent letters on September 17 to the Multi-Sectoral Programme on Violence Against Women at the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, the Ministry of Social Welfare, and the Ministry of Law and Justice, and on September 21 to the National Acid Control Council at the Ministry of Home Affairs, sharing initial findings and requesting input for inclusion in this report.
They requested a reply by October 14 in order to include the response in the publication of the report, but they received no reply from the government as of the time of publication.
"The Bangladesh justice system is failing women and girls with devastating consequences," Ganguly said.
"Protesters are on the streets calling for change. The government should seize this pivotal moment to implement real reform that could save lives and promote the equal society it envisions."
'Nowhere to go to escape violence'
The HRW report is based on interviews with 37 survivors of acid violence from six of the eight divisions of Bangladesh. Of the survivors, 29 were women.
HRW also interviewed 13 lawyers and non-governmental organization (NGO) experts working on acid violence, violence against women and girls, and legal reform in Bangladesh.
The report discusses barriers to justice and support for survivors of gender-based violence. However, it does not separately address sexual violence and harassment.
One of the interviewees, Sadia, 27, told the international rights group that two men doused her with nitric acid on her husband's order.
"My husband stood watching as my dress fell straight off and my necklace and earrings melted into my skin," Sadia said.
After four surgeries and almost four months at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, Sadia lost both her left ear and left eye.
Survivors like Sadia often have nowhere to go as the perpetrator is their intimate partner or family member.
There are an estimated 21 government shelters and 15 NGO-run shelters for a population of over 80 million women and 64 million children, the report says.
Survivors interviewed for this report often said that their husbands or in-laws had physically and verbally abused them for a long time before they were attacked with acid, but none of them had reported the violence to the police because they had no support and nowhere to go to escape violence.
The report also states: "...backlog of some 3.7 million cases, trials are often delayed or drawn out for years. The financial and emotional toll of continuing in courts, combined with fear of, or threats from, abusers without any witness protection law or measures, means survivors are often pressured to negotiate out of court for a resolution that does not adequately reflect the harm they suffered."
A lawyer from Naripokkho said: "When the case goes to higher courts, it gets lost. Even for us it is often not possible to find the status of a case. If it is hard for us, how will a survivor learn the status of their case?"
Like many countries around the world, Covid-19 has given a rise to violence against women in Bangladesh.
"Even as the already high level of violence against women and girls increased during the pandemic, government policies made it even more difficult for survivors to access urgent support and legal redress by temporarily shutting down court services for victims of gender-based violence, closing already-limited shelters, and by turning away survivors at police stations," it says.
Recommendations
HRW recommended developing stronger prevention mechanisms, including through comprehensive education in schools on consent, sexuality, and relationships, media outreach, and awareness raising campaigns for women and girls about their rights.
The human rights watchdog also recommended increasing access to support services across the country, including providing accessible and safe shelters for survivors of gender-based violence in every district, without requiring court orders to stay or restrictions on children, providing sufficient training to public prosecutors and police on standards of criminal investigations, particularly in relation to working with survivors of gender-based violence.
It also put emphasis on passing and implementing an effective victim and witness protection act.