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TITLE:
Compare & Contrast the domestic implementation mechanism of Human Rights between Bangladesh & USA
ABSTRACT:
This assignment mainly focuses on the existence of all sort of laws, legislation, acts regarding the Human Rights and how is the implementation mechanism of that right nationwide. The assignment contains many incidents which states that how the human rights, in Bangladesh and the USA, are violated despite the existence of the laws. The implementation mechanism is not strong enough in both the cases. However, the countries vary in terms of violation of laws. The differences are pointed out and the possible suggestions are given in order to prepare a strong mechanism regarding human rights.
ABBREVIATIONS
UDHR: Universal Development of Human Rights
NHRC: National Human Rights Commission
HRW: Human Right Watch
ACHR: Asian Centre for Human Rights
NHRI: National Human Right Institution
USHRN: US Human Right Network
ICCPR: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
We are living in a civilization which contains a right based society. Many laws are created in order to protect our rights. The state provides us with various individual rights and among a number of individual rights; some of the basic and fundamental rights are termed as Human Rights. These individual rights are not only recognized by their respective states, but also recognized by international community. According to the Constitution in Article II, the Republic shall be a democracy in which fundamental human rights and freedom and respect of dignity and worth of human person shall be guaranteed.
According to Alam (2007), human right is defined by:
“Human rights are the birth rights, which are alienable from individual as human beings. These individual rights are not to be understood and realized only within the organization of the state as citizens of that state, but as human being irrespective of their belonging to any particular state”.
Here are some Articles made by the Universal Declaration of Human Right:
Article 1
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”.
Article 3
“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”.
Article 4
“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”.
Article 7
“All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination”.
Article 19
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.
In order to protect the human rights, a numerous standards were adopted by UDHR, such as:
– International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966)
– International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966)
– International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD, 1965)
– Others
Among all of them, the first two treaties were the pioneers to build up the foundation of international legal framework, which protects human dignity. During the Cold War, the Covenants were drafted and due to the political divisions, it had influenced more on enforcing the human right standards. At that same period, the enforcements were implemented in other nations and regions, which were adopted by the International Labor Organization (ILO). The measures include issues like child labor, indigenous people, collective bargaining power, non-discrimination etc.
The main similarity is that all the countries pretty much have the same laws regarding the issues discussed above. That is if we consider Bangladesh and the USA, both the countries have child labor law, minimum wage law, non-discriminatory policy, etc. But the difference is that the countries enforce that law in a different way. The mechanism may depend on the economical condition of the country, political environment, government regulations, etc.
The United States follow a tradition of Common Law, meaning that the laws are made by the judges, depending on the situation, unlike the Statute, which is the coded instruction. In terms of contributing to the human rights cause, the US is in a leading position. Since the World War II, the country has spread the implementation of human rights worldwide. They have provided many aids to other countries in order to safeguard the rights of the citizen of those countries.
Domestic Legal Protection Structure:
As there has been many evolution of the society, there have also been many changes in the Constitution of USA. The Constitute involves the human rights, such as freedom of religion, speech, right to a fair trial by jury, etc. The scope of human rights afforded by the US Government is defined by case law, particularly by the precedent of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Bangladesh has got a national advocacy institution, which is “The National Human Rights of Bangladesh”. This was reconstituted in 2009 in order to protect and promote human rights. From a broader aspect, it can be said that, NHRC was established to safeguard the democracy of the people in a country and enhance their standards in terms of human rights. These human rights will include right to liberty, freedom from torture, inhumane treatment, movement and speech, etc.
The NHRC, consisting of the Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament, Opposition leader and Chief Justice has the following responsibilities.
– Make inquiries about any violation or negligence of human rights
– Give recommendations about new legislations or amendments of existing laws
– Make recommendations for correct implementation and study treaties
– Disseminate the human rights literacy among the various sections of the society
– Others
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH:
According to Human Rights Watch Report, the condition of Bangladesh worsened in 2012 due to “the narrowed political and civil society space by the government, which continued to shield abusive security forces from accountability, and flatly ignored calls by Human Rights Watch to reform laws and procedures in flawed war crimes and mutiny trials. Civil society and human rights defenders reported increased governmental pressure and monitoring.
In case of violating the human right acts, the USA also is involved with it. Last year, the country faced huge criticism by HRW and it was mentioned that the victims for those violations of acts were mainly the immigrants, minorities, children, prisoners, etc. The HRW reported that there are many drug cases in which the Whites, the African Americans and the Latin were involved. But in terms of getting arrested and prosecuted, the African and the Latin were the main victims. This is only a one case. Other cases involve using child labor and making them work for 10 hours a day; then mistreating the non citizens etc.
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL
According to an article of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), it states that “The Government has taken a few important steps towards strengthening the legal and institutional capacity to control corruption”. They have implemented the standards and principles of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in the hope that they will be able to control corruption which also includes protecting the human rights.
In case of the USA also, the Transparency International USA implements laws regarding reducing corruption and human rights issue so that there is transparency and integrity in government, business, etc. They are responsible for prohibiting bribery, extortion, address violations etc.
MECHANISM FOR CHILD LABOR
The Bangladesh Labor Act (BLA) regulates child employment depending on the type of work and the child’s age. Because of widespread poverty many children begins to work at a younger age. So, in order to ensure that the labor’s age is in an acceptable range, the BLA inspects and takes necessary actions in case of any violation of these law.
In case of USA, the National Child Labor Committee is responsible for inspecting any violations of child labor issues. These laws were maximum time bonded with the compulsory education law so that the children are receiving education and keeping children out of the labor market until they reach a certain age, say 12, 14, 16 or 18.
DISABILITY RIGHTS
According to the article named ‘Conditions of Human Rights in Bangladesh, “a new forum under the banner of ‘Disability Rights Watch Group’ was launched march 06, 2009 to monitor the present condition of the people with disability and help implement the CRPD (UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) in the country”.
In case of USA, they implement the American Disability Act (ADA) which prevents any sort of discrimination done with the disabled people. This act will also protect the person in association with the disabled people. The fields for implementing this act include employment, commercial facilities, public accommodation etc.
Savar Tragedy:
Last month, a garments factory “Rana Plaza” in Savar, collapsed due to substandard materials used during construction of the building. This mishap resulted to a loss of more than 1000 people’s lives. The blame was given to the owner Sohel Rana as he instructed the workers to continue their work even after they found that the building was unsafe. Moreover, it was also found that the owner gave bribe to the mayor in order to construct that building without any hassle. In addition to it, he illegally built up floors where large power generators were placed. As we all know that the country faces a huge power failure, so that’s why the building shook up when the powerful generators were switched on every time.
Munir Uz Zaman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Nuclear Power Plant and Human Rights in Bangladesh:
Recently, it is seen that government has decided to build a nuclear power plant at Rooppur so that it can overcome the problems of load shading in the country. This decision was implemented to have an overall development of the country. But according to an article in daily star, Moula (2013) said that ‘the steps for constructing nuclear power plant do not necessarily consider the people’s right of free access to information in general’. It has been proved by an extensive research that this decision of building a nuclear power plant has technically violated the Article 19 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The main question which has arisen is that how the country’s development and the well-being of the population are intertwined? Because, it is for sure that the setting up of nuclear power plant will have economic benefits and thus will eliminate the rising power demands. But on the other hand, it will also create some negative impacts, which the government has failed to consider before taking that decision. The negative impacts will include: running of power system will require, reducing greenhouse gases into atmosphere, which may cause skin diseases; reducing fertility of soil; hampering the life of the ecosystem; causing cancer due to nuclear wastes, etc. So therefore, it can be said that people are unaware of the safety measures and the responsibilities taken by the government, which is ultimately violating the human rights, which include the right to have the adequate information regarding the state’s decision.
So, all these activities proved that violations of human right are present here. The workers had no democracy to protest against their owner’s orders, for why they suffered to the extreme level.
Since it is a comparison between the human right mechanisms between USA and Bangladesh, it would be wiser to explain it from a broader perspective. We can say that the comparison is between the West and the East.
BANGLADESH
According to ACHR (Asian Centre for Human Rights) review, “Voluntary pledge is an important element of democracy. It is not mandatory but almost all political parties, small or big, submit election manifestos prior to elections”. For this, a large number of Asian governments are doing “Voluntary Pledges”. But it has been seen that none of the Asian countries are following that pledge or taking any effective measure to implement the human rights mechanism; whereas, in case of the Western countries, it is the other way around.
Bangladesh has also made a pledge that it “would remain prepared to be reviewed under the universal periodic review mechanism”. But is the country really following the pledge? Well, the answer can be given by describing the following situation:
Bangladesh has done a large number of killings in the name of preventing crimes, which was done by the so infamous Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). Statistics say us that during the 2005, these Special Forces have killed almost 396 persons. Despite of all these violations, the country still refused to implement a human right mechanism. Although the government tried to establish a National Human Right Institution (NHRI) in 1995 in affiliation with UNDP, the government is still in the process of understanding its functionality.
USA
Since 2003, there has been a national gathering, named US Human Rights Network’s national conference (USHRN), of human right activists, supporters and advocates in order to protect the human rights and form new agenda which they keep in front of the government to fulfill it. So this year, their agenda is “Advancing Human Rights 2013: Dignity, Justice, and Action”. The conference is going to be held on 6th December, 2013. According to US Human Rights Network (2013), the conference agenda will:
Allow participants to learn from presentations and discussions on four thematic tracks: 1) comprehensive immigration policy and enforcement; 2) the criminal system and mass incarceration; 3) economic policy and workers rights; and 4) climate justice
Thus, the USHRN shows that they are implementing a vital mechanism to protect the human rights because this conference will help to acknowledge the public about the obligations under the treaty and will also help them to educate about the effective use of this treaty to promote human rights.
BANGLADESH
Some recent situations in Bangladesh have automatically forced themselves to come under the international spotlight regarding the human right acts. It has mainly started from the incident of catching fire in Tazreen Garments factory in November 2012. All these issues regarding unsafe working conditions have raised a big question related to the human right mechanism in our country. After all these mishaps, the government has engaged the International Labor Organization (ILO) to address such issues in order to safeguard the human rights and reduce the number of accidents in the near future.
Thus, all these facts show that the country is not acting proactively in terms of human right mechanism. They are being conscious only after any disastrous situation occurs.
USA
USA has always been acting proactively in such situations, which involve human rights. The thing that is discussed above, about Bangladesh, states that they are struggling a lot to recover the situation which happened in that garments industry. They did not enforce any strong human right act, or any rules and regulations, or improved labor standards related to this. This careless nature is the main difference between the implementation of human right mechanism in Bangladesh and the USA. This is because, seeing this condition, the USA has given a helping hand to Bangladesh, recommending about better and proper enforcement of labor acts. Not only this, Eric Biel, (the Acting Associate Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs at the Department of Labor), visited Bangladesh and had various meetings on such issues and discussed about the various areas where they can give the country some technical assistance.
Thus we see that the USA is voluntarily engaging in human right issues and providing suggestion and possible assistance to other nations, whereas Bangladesh is only taking actions when they suffer a huge loss.
If the level of discrimination is compared between Bangladesh and the USA, it will be seen that the rate of discrimination will be higher in USA. It has already been discussed earlier that the HRW has reported a numerous violations of law by the USA in 2012; and most of the violations are based on ethnic or racial discrimination and also to the immigrants, which is also a racial discrimination as they are from different nations. Reviewing these facts, make it clear that Bangladesh has no chance exceeding the level of discrimination if the US is considered.
After analyzing all these differences between the USA and Bangladesh, regarding the human right implementation mechanism, it can be concluded that both the countries are involved in violating the human right laws. These violations are mainly due to the politics that make it possible for the individuals to exploit the victims. In Bangladesh, it is seen that the Human Right Acts are really weak, so to some extent it can be justified that there will be some violations. But in case of the US, they have a strong Human Right Acts, moreover they are voluntarily engaging in promoting this and also claiming to aid the other nations regarding the issues related to human rights. Still then, how they are getting into such violations remain a BIG QUESTION worldwide!!! The possible solutions for this can be, separating the politics that people play, from the decision making process, which is mainly biased, or self-beneficial; increasing consciousness among the public to exercise their rights properly; making more strong acts, make use of pressure groups, etc. For example, Amnesty International is trying to assist and encourage government for respecting the obligations under the human right laws. So, the more the pressure groups contribute in resolving the issues, the quicker will the solutions be solved.
REFERENCES:
ACHR Review. Retrieved June 2013, from Asian Center for Human Rights: http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2006/121-06.htm
Alam, M. S. (2007). Enforcement of International Human Rights Law by Domestic Courts. New Warsi Book Corporation
Bangladesh’s implementation of UNCAC: Progress undermined by setbacks, Transparency International Bangladesh, retrieved on 21st July 2013 from http://www.ti-bangladesh.org/index.php/component/content/article?id=384:bangladeshs-implementation-of-uncac-progress
Kabir.M.H.A,(Dec 1999), A National Human Rights Commissions for Bangladesh, Vol: 18, Retrieved on 18th June 2013, from: http://www.hurights.or.jp/archives/focus/section2/1999/12/a-national-human-rights-commission-for-bangladesh.html
International Business Times: US Guilty Of Several Human Rights Violations In 2012: Human Rights Watch, retrieved on 21st July 2013 fromhttp://www.ibtimes.com/us-guilty-several-human-rights-violations-2012-human-rights-watch-1056702#
Mainuddin, K. (n.d.). Human Rights Situation. Retrieved June 2013, from Banglar Rights: http://www.banglarights.net/HTML/HR-Situation.htm
Moula, M. E. (2013, May 21). Nuclear Power Plant and Human Rights in Banglaesh. Retrieved June 2013, from The Daily Star: http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/nuclear-power-plant-and-human-rights-in-bangladesh/
US Human Right Network. (2013). Retrieved June 2013, from USHR Network: http://www.ushrnetwork.org/events/advancing-human-rights-2013-dignity-justice-action
World Report 2013, Bangladesh, Human Right Watch, retrieved on 21st July 2013 from http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/bangladesh
Kabir.M.H.A,(Dec 1999), A National Human Rights Commissions for Bangladesh, Vol: 18, Retrieved on 18th June 2013, from: http://www.hurights.or.jp/archives/focus/section2/1999/12/a-national-human-rights-commission-for-bangladesh.html
World Report 2013, Bangladesh, Human Right Watch, retrieved on 21st July 2013 from http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/bangladesh
International Business Times: US Guilty Of Several Human Rights Violations In 2012: Human Rights Watch, retrieved on 21st July 2013 fromhttp://www.ibtimes.com/us-guilty-several-human-rights-violations-2012-human-rights-watch-1056702#
The treaty that has been talked about is The ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). This is a human right treaty which is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 2006 and was enforced from March 23 1976 onwards
US Human Right Network. (2013). Retrieved June 2013, from USHR Network: http://www.ushrnetwork.org/events/advancing-human-rights-2013-dignity-justice-action