Observation of UNCEDAW Day 2008

By Bangladesh Mahila Parishad

Bangladesh Mahila Parishad observed the International CEDAW Day on 1 September 2008 by organizing a discussion meeting on “Women’s Active Representation at all Levels of Decision Making Process is a Precondition for Democratic Society and State”. The meeting was organized by the International Sub-committee of BMP and presided over by Ayesha Khanam, President, BMP. Maleka Banu, General Secretary, BMP delivered the welcome speech and Rekha Saha, Secretary, International Sub-committee presented the discussion paper. Justice Golam Rabbani was present in the meeting as Chief Guest. A number of 300 participants including civil society representatives, journalists, BMP’s leaders, organizers and staff were present in the discussion. The discussion paper focused on the main principals of CEDAW and demanded full implementation of CEDAW in Bangladesh. As women’s active participation is every sphere of life is a must for establishing a democratic, just and equality based society and state, women’s active participation in every level of the decision making process and overall empowerment of women was demanded in the discussion paper.

Maleka Banu said, discrimination against women is a common phenomenon throughout the world and Bangladesh is no exception in this regard. The society has been advanced, women’s society has been advanced as well, yet the women are remaining deprived. According to the Constitution of Bangladesh (1972), both men and women are supposed to enjoy equal freedom and rights. Yet, the government has not followed the constitution. We are fighting for the establishment of democracy and democratic practices since long. We want to form a transparent, democratic and parliamentary state where the active participation of women should be ensured in case of running the state. Moreover, women’s participation needs to be ensured in every level of policy making process and in all elections as well. And for doing so, women’s participation in every type of activities of the political parties should be ensured also. She said that the state itself and the patriarchal attitude of the society have blocked the path for including women in the power structure.  Maleka Banu added that as the state has signed the CEDAW Charter, it has some moral obligations regarding full implementation of CEDAW in Bangladesh. And BMP is continuing effort for full implementation of CEDAW. 

Justice Golam Rabbani said, religious obligations always keep the women aloof from the society. In the political arena, religion is being used as a tool to put obstacle in the way of women’s political empowerment. He explained about different articles of different laws of the country which are related to discrimination against women, marriage, divorce, polygamy etc. He added his personal experience in this regard and said that he recommended to ban Fatwa while he himself was a Judge, but it could not become effective due to resistance from the fundamentalist. He said that the fundamentalists include religion into politics and try to use religion as a weapon, which is totally against religious ideas. Supporting BMP’s demand about enacting the Uniform Family Code, Justice Rabbani said, this law will be a unique step towards ensuring gender equality as there is the provision for equal opportunities for all in the proposed law. 

Ayesha Khanam said, women’s rights are human rights and violence against women violates women’s rights. BMP is observing CEDAW Day each year for raising people’s awareness regarding CEDAW as implementation of CEDAW is obvious for ensuring all the rights for the marginalized, tortured and deprived women. But now-a-days all the laws that are positive for ensuring women’s human rights are being abolished one after another. Events like sexual harassment in different Universities are increasing. Therefore, University Grants Commission and BMP are going to form a special commission including eminent lawyers and Justices. She said that we are not against the teachers, but we are against the infrastructure and mentality behind violence against women of all classes.

Ayesha Khanam added that 50 recommendations focusing the themes of CEDAW have been placed towards the government. We have demanded that the government should invite Gender and CEDAW specialists for conducting trainings organized by different Ministries on issues related to Gender or CEDAW. She asked the political leaders to form a common platform for establishing democratic culture for women. Ayesha Khanam demanded for a free, fair and proper election within December ’08 and hoped that the elected government would ratify CEDAW and thus ensure its full implementation in Bangladesh.

 Recommendations: 

1.  Reservation on Article 2. and Article 16.1(c) of UNCEDAW should be withdrawed and effective measures for implementation of CEDAW should be taken following the Concluding session of CEDAW Committee held on 9 July 2008.
2. The Government should take initiatives for introducing the articles of CEDAW in all the existing laws and policies of the country.
3. Necessary steps should be taken by the Government for abolishing the laws that are discriminatory for women. Moreover, the Government should enact a new Citizenship Law following Article 9 of UNCEDAW.
4. The personal laws based on religious customs regarding women’s unequal position and status in the family; especially in case of marriage, divorce, maintenance of children, guardianship and inheritance should be abolished and proper initiatives should be taken for enacting a uniform family code.
5. Government should play active role in developing required policies and programs in order to increase women’s participation in every levels of decision making process of the state and political, social and economic institutions.
6. Numbers of reserved seats for women in the National Parliament should be increased and direct election should be arranged in those seats for ensuring women’s political participation.
7. Friendly environment and scopes should be created for ensuring equal partnership for the elected women representatives of the Local Government.
8. Violence against women violates human rights. Government should take steps for enacting and announcing the Domestic Violence Prevention Act for protecting domestic violence.
9. Government should arrange campaigns/publicity for developing respectful attitude towards women in family and society.
10.  Women’s rights and human rights organizations should take individual and joint initiatives to develop public awareness regarding CEDAW, the exclusive charter for establishing women’s rights.
11. Necessary programs should be developed through Government and Non-government initiatives for overall development of women for increasing women’s active participation in every level of decision making in order to establish democratic society and state.
12.  Specific amount of money should be allocated in the National Budget for ensuring overall development and equal partnership of women in order to establish gender equality.
13.  Government should take necessary initiatives for ensuring implementation of the National Women Development Policy 2008.
14. Each of the political parties should take initiatives for nominating 33% women in election and take necessary steps for ensuring their win.
15.  Each of the political parties should take steps for having a significant number of women in the policy level/Central Committee of the party.
16.  The political parties should take necessary initiatives for ensuring wholehearted participation of women in the upcoming 9^th National Parliament Election. Moreover the political parties should create public opinion and take necessary steps against such Fatwas that might create obstacle for the women voters to cast their vote in any areas of Bangladesh.

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