UN special rapporteur Rashida Manjoo on Wednesday said the demands of Hefazat-e-Islam over women’s rights run counter to the Bangladesh constitution and that the government needed to act against the 13-point charter the Islamist group announced at a rally in Dhaka in April.
She also said it was the responsibility of the state to promote and protect the rights of all citizens, and address the challenges that are played out in the name of politics in this country.
Manjoo made the remark while responding to a question on Hefazat’s demands about curbing women’s rights and banning men and women from mixing freely in public.
“It is really very important for the government to address these kind of calls, which have disproportionate impact on the realisation of women’s rights,” she said at a press briefing yesterday at a city hotel.
Manjoo, special rapporteur on violence against women, arrived in Dhaka on May 19. She visited Dhaka, Chittagong, Rangamati, Khulna and Jessore during her 10-day trip.
She said that violence against women is a human rights issue and it is not negotiable.
“Impunity, rather than accountability, is the norm for acts of violence against women. When impunity becomes the norm, it means violence against women becomes normalised in society. When violence becomes normalised, then as a society, you are in big trouble. It should not be acceptable,” she said.
Manjoo said every citizen must be protected irrespective of his or her religion, customs and traditional laws.
The rapporteur put forward a set of recommendations for the government to implement, including adoption of a uniform family code that fully complies with the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discriminations against Women.