AREAS OF CONCERN
According to Katarina Tomasevski, a researcher with the Danish Centre of Human Rights,
the human rights record of Bangladesh comprises a number of areas where the non-observance of international minimum standards can be documented. Rights of women and indigenous rights are not recognized to the degree required by international treaties to which Bangladesh is a party. Violations of the right to life, liberty and security are frequently reported and well documented. As a rule the Government does not investigate documented violations to determine the responsibility of its officials and enforce safeguards for basic human rights and freedoms (1988, 4).
Although a number of laws have been passed that specifically address the status and rights of women in Bangladesh, there are still many problems with the implementation of women’s legal rights (International Women’s Rights Action Watch Dec. 1992, 2; Lewis Mar. 1993, 18; Naripokkho Oct. 1992, 12). One reason given for this situation is ignorance of the law, which is caused by a “lack of social and political consciousness, low literacy, observance of seclusion and submission to husbands’ wishes, lack of exposure to mass media, information, etc.” (Begum 1992, 6). Although the civil law guaranteeing the legal rights of women may appear substantial, customs and traditions based primarily on Muslim personal or family law still take precedence in practice (Khan 1988, 17). Furthermore, even in cases where women are aware of their rights and the legal means for redress are in place, lack of access to legal assistance is another impediment to women’s ability to exercise their legal rights (Wilson-Smillie Feb. 1990, 4). There are few “effective agencies to provide intervention or support for women’s legal rights,” and the limited availability of legal aid services generally means that any woman initiating a court proceeding can expect a “long and expensive process” (ibid.; Lewis Mar. 1993, 18; Country Reports 1992 1993, 1192). As well there is the social stigma to consider; according to Wilson-Smillie, it “is not considered socially acceptable for women to go to the courts” on issues of family law such as dowry, divorce, custody, maintenance and guardianship of children (Wilson-Smillie Feb. 1990, 4).
4.1 Domestic Violence
Although reliable statistics on violence against women are non-existent (Country Reports 1992 1993, 1126), domestic violence does receive substantial coverage in the Bangladeshi press (ibid.; CCHRB Nov. 1992, 75; Encyclopedia of the Third World 1992, 113). Not only is domestic violence a common feature of Bangladeshi life, particularly in the early years of marriage (White 1992, 137), but the rate of suicide among women may be three times as high as it is among men (CCHRB Nov. 1992, 75; Encyclopedia of the Third World 1992, 113).
According to the Bangladesh Observer, women often have no basis for taking legal action against their husbands in domestic violence cases since many Muslim marriages are not registered (6 Dec. 1990), perhaps as many as 50 per cent (Khan 1988, 19). Police allegedly view domestic violence as “a non-criminal, marital and social problem and not as a law and order issue” (Bhuiyan 1991, 14-15). Furthermore, lacking clear authority to enter private premises in order to investigate offences, police in several jurisdictions are said to be uncertain about what constitutes an appropriate response in cases of suspected domestic violence (ibid., 15).
A large number of domestic violence cases are related to the practice of dowry. One source estimates that at least 70 per cent of wife murders are dowry-related (Huq 1989, 208). Whereas payment by the groom’s family used to be common in Bangladesh and parts of northern India, in the last two generations there has been an increase, among all religious groups, in the number of payments by the bride’s family, and a dramatic increase in the amount of dowry paid (White 1992, 102). Whatever the underlying reasons for this change, women are reportedly
open to mistreatment if their parents cannot pay the whole sum at once in full, and new, or even recurrent, demands may be made even several years after marriage. …In extreme cases this leads to “dowry deaths”, when women are either pushed to suicide or directly murdered by their husbands’ families (ibid., 103-04). There are numerous reports of husbands who assault their wives, sometimes with the help of the husbands’ relatives (Bhuiyan 1991, 11-31). In one instance a husband tortured his child in order to pressure his wife (ibid., 18). Women have been beaten, strangled and burned to death, and sometimes are driven to suicide to take dowry-related financial pressures off their families (Bangladesh Observer 24 Nov. 1990; Bhuiyan 1991, 15-19; CCHRB Nov. 1992, 75). According to a report in the Women’s Feature Service, there has been a “phenomenal” rise in dowry-related crime (May-June 1989, 21). In the span of only a few months in 1989 the Ministry of Women’s Affairs complaint unit registered 813 cases of harassment, most of them related to dowry (ibid.). According to another source, the “vast majority” of dowry-related cases of violence go unpunished as well as unreported (Country Reports 1992 1993, 1126).
4.2 Violence Against Tribal Women
Amnesty International has reported numerous incidents of rape by army personnel of tribal women in the Chittagong Hill Tracts [These violations have taken place in the larger and historically recent context of non-tribal settlement of the area, a process which has been encouraged by successive government administrations (Amnesty International Aug. 1991, 3; International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs Dec. 1984; 24-29; Survival International Annual Review 1984, 9-11). Human rights violations in the area have been extensively documented and continue to be reported (Amnesty International 1993, 63; Ibid. Aug. 1991, 1-15)]. (Amnesty International Aug. 1991, 10-12). In one incident on 19 October 1990, 16 women, most below the age of 18, were reportedly beaten and raped by soldiers at Bilai Chari Para (ibid., 11). A military officer later indicated that three of the five soldiers responsible for the incident had been dismissed from service and the other two were jailed, but it is not clear whether the latter two were ever charged or tried for the offence (ibid., 10-11).
The evidence on rape has been corroborated by the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission (CHTC), which has interviewed a number of women reportedly raped by army personnel between 1985 and 1990 (May 1991, 106-08). The women gave accounts of being gang raped by soldiers, sometimes in front of their children or families. Notes the CHTC, women live in continuous fear of rape. Some young women told the Commission that they are no longer able to wear their traditional dress. If they do, they run the risk of being raped. For their own safety they are forced to hide their tribal identity as much as possible. It is also too dangerous for them to leave their houses at night (ibid., 107). There are also accounts of Bengali settlers raping women during attacks on tribal villages (ibid.). Although the details are not yet clear, in one recent incident a Bengali boy may have been killed after assaulting a tribal woman. Amnesty International has received reports that as a result of the boy’s death, over 200 people in Logang were massacred by a civilian defence force on 10 April 1992 (Amnesty International Apr. 1993, 25).
Because of the social stigma attached to rape, women who have been victims of rape may be rejected by their husbands or find it difficult to marry. As well, if the woman becomes pregnant and bears a child, she likely will be ostracized and will have to leave her community (Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission May 1991, 107).
The CHTC has also documented cases of forced marriage of tribal women to Muslim men. According to the CHTC, “forced intermarriage is one way in which women are used as an instrument to integrate the hill peoples into Bengali society and to change the demographic balance in the area” (ibid., 108-09). A secret memorandum encouraging army officers to marry tribal women was reportedly circulated in the area in 1983 (ibid., 109).
4.3 The Workplace
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, women number 5 million out of a total labour force of 33 million. Approximately 1.2 million women are employed as domestic servants and another half million work in the garment industry, where about 90 per cent of the workers are women (CCHRB Nov. 1992, 76; The Toronto Star 5 July 1992). Cruelty to domestic servants is frequently reported in the press and there have been allegations of widespread abuses of employees in the garment industry (ibid.; Country Reports 1991 1992, 13). Women have been forced to work overtime for no pay and “many” have been sexually assaulted, either in the workplace or on their way to or from work (Asian Centre for the Progress of Peoples 4 Jan. 1992; Inter Press Service 22 Apr. 1991). Some factory owners reportedly believe it is an employer’s prerogative to punish female employees for perceived violations of shop floor discipline or for errors in their work; The Toronto Star reports that 10 per cent of all female garment factory workers have been beaten or tortured by an employer, and in some factories women are forced to “stand on their heads for extended periods as punishment for flaws in their work” (5 July 1992). Making reference to the iron bars used to lock the doors of many of Dhaka’s 885 garment factories, the same source describes working conditions as “slave-like” and states that women workers “are shut into their workplace at the start of each work day, and the iron gates stay sealed until the male shop bosses say it’s time to leave” (ibid.). In such conditions the danger of factory fires is ever present (ibid.).
Not only are garment workers reportedly deprived of labour law guarantees and International Labour Organization (ILO) standards, but government monitoring bodies such as the Chief Inspectorate of Factories and the Labour Court are said to ignore the situation:
Their alleged neglect in enforcing required procedures like the maintenance of attendance registers, overtime registers, appointment letters, and service books is considered one of the main reason why women workers in the garments industry suffer great exploitation (CCHRB Nov. 1992, 77-78). In a series of incidents in late 1991, after taking to the streets to press for improvements to their conditions, garment workers were locked out and even assaulted (ibid., 78). In one incident 25 workers were reportedly injured, most of them women (ibid.).
4.4 Trafficking in Women
According to the Pakistani organization Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), thousands of Bangladeshi women have been smuggled into Pakistan and forced into prostitution and marriage in operations involving police and army officials from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India (AFP 16 Feb. 1992). Women and children have also been forced into pornographic films, bonded labour, drug smuggling and other illegal activities (CCHRB Nov. 1992, 79). Many others have been imprisoned in Pakistani jails for illegally crossing the border (LHRLA 1992, 9).
The LHRLA notes that the agents of this traffic are extremely well organized, have networks in most major cities of the subcontinent, and have strong links to law enforcement agencies. In some instances women and children–usually very poor–are deceived with offers of better lives and jobs in Pakistan or India and are asked to pay a fee for this “service,” while in others cases they are simply abducted from their homes or places of work (Apr. 1993, 1-4). These women are vulnerable to abuses such as sexual assault and have no recourse to legal action (CCHRB Nov. 1992, 79). Firsthand accounts and media and human rights reports on abductions and abuse abound (ibid., 80; Bhuiyan 1991, 42-43; LHRLA Apr. 1993, 5-60; Hotline Oct.-Nov. 1992, 4-5). In 1991 in Pakistan, at least 220 women and children were rescued from traffickers and about 50 traffickers were themselves arrested (CCHRB Nov. 1992, 80).
For its part, the government of Bangladesh has stated that the traffic in women and children is a major concern and that steps have been taken to alleviate poverty [For a list of projects the government has implemented to alleviate poverty, please see (United Nations 8 Apr. 1993, 2-27)].–reportedly, one of the major reasons for trafficking–particularly in rural areas (United Nations 28 May 1993, 52). In Pakistan, where most of the victims of the “flesh trade” are Bengali, the government claims it has attempted to stop their illegal entry and to halt brothel operations. The president of the LHRLA, however, dismisses official claims that sincere efforts have been made to halt the traffic in women (AFP 16 Feb. 1992).