Submitted To

Prof.Lutfor Rahman
Department of social science East West University

Human rights violation

Submitted by
Shamim Ahmed Roney
ID:2010-1-55-023

Human rights
The term Human Rights contains a set of legal and moral rights that can be claimed by any person as human being. These rights come with birth and are applicable to all people throughout the world irrespective of their race, colour, sex, and language, political or other opinion. Human rights therefore characterise as universal, inalienable, inherent and indivisible that have a common focus of protecting life of the human being with dignity. The concept of Human Rights firstly revealed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 by UNO where 25 human rights are entitled to as human rights. Human rights are stipulated in the Constitution of Bangladesh, written in 1972. In particular, the Part-III of the Constitution stipulates eighteen fundamental rights of which of 17 are taken from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Therefore, the constitutional obligations made a platform for Bangladesh Government to ratify the core international human rights conventions and treaties for the protection and promotion of human rights. It enables Government of Bangladesh to translate international agreements into domestic law. It obliges all branches (i.e. Executive, Legislative and Judiciary) of Government to respect and ensure the rights it enunciates.

Prospects of Human Rights violation in China:

Walt Disney the second largest media conglomerate company in the world which have several theme park, television and radio networks like (ABC,Disney,ESPN) and film studios. In 2004 the stockholders of Disney came to a serious discussion human rights violation in china where most of their merchandise manufactured. According to the report of congressional executive commission in 2003, in china the international recognized right hasnt changed in past years. in china there is many issue that violating the workers human rights. However, in china workers do not have the opportunity to form trade unions or join

any trade union. Sometimes they have to face harassments and criminal charges without any legal reason by the owners. Moreover child labour continues to severe problem in china .there is almost every factory has child labour and day by day its increasing with violating their rights.

Again in china there are lots of force labour and prison labourer according to U.S.A department of human right practices. Chinas economy massively influenced by those forced labour and prison labourers .there efforts are given name by powerful organization own title. Most of their lives are destroyed by the political power.

However in 2001, a hongkong Christian industrial company made a visit to Disney Chinese factories and found excessively long hours of work, poverty wages, unreasonable fines, work place hazards and dangerously over crowded dormitories. Another report was issued in 2001 that only workers paid substandard wages but they face long hours of forced overtime that leave them with two or three hours of sleep at night and they exposed constantly to chemicals that make them sick. After observing those reports Walt Disney takes some initiative to protect their human rights. But due to inadequate inception those initiatives gone to vain and the violation of workers right continues in china.

Prospects of Human Rights violation in Bangladesh:

In 2010, numerous violations of workers rights were reported. Some of the incidents reported included strikes over the new wage structure for water transport workers, private jute mill laborers submitting a memorandum to the Prime Minister pushing for demands including an increase on the 1985 set minimum wage, and shrimp workers not being paid the minimum wage. Dangerous working conditions were also reported, Including one report of 30 workers killed in accidents in different shipyards in Chittagong in the last 11 months, raising the death toll of such accidents in the industry to more than 1,300 in the last 12 years. On June 9, 2010, eight workers of a steel re-rolling mill at Fatulla in Narayanganj were injured seriously after a massive explosion in its furnace. The explosion ripped through the Rajdhani Casting factory at Aliganj with a big bang due to low voltage of electricity at around 6.30am, workers said.

Therefore, workers right violation in readyment garments continue to increase over the years they do not have the proper safe environment for work,thre are several violence occurred for minimum wages in this sector. The ready-made garments industry, over the years, has developed in buildings constructed in an unplanned manner. This creates the scope for various accidents involving workers. The locking or blocking of emergency exits often leads to the workers not being able to evacuate in time. In 2010,RMG workers rights are violated in different cases Labour unrest of ready-made garments factory workers Throughout the period, there wnumerous incidents of workers unrest in the readymade garment sector, amongst which many were related to the demand of overdue wages. Some are noted below:

 50 people were injured and scores of vehicles vandalised on April 28, 2010, as the police clashed with garment factory workers, who were rallying for increase in wages and other benefits in Rupganj, Naryanganj and Mirpur, Dhaka.  At Kolma in Savar, on April 12, 2010, men supporting the factory owner of Navana Textile Ltd. reportedly attacked a procession brought out by workers. The workers brought out this procession over their 15-point demand which included unpaid wages. At least 50 people, including the Officer-in-Charge of Savar Police Station, were injured.
The Daily Star, 05/04/2010

 At least 50 persons, including ten policemen, were injured on May 25, 2010, in a series of clashes between garment workers and law enforcers in Kachpur area of Narayangonj. The ready-made garment workers were demanding that the house rent in local areas be lowered and that the supply of gas and water to be ensured  On July 30, 2010 several thousand garments workers staged a protest against the decision of the Minimum Wage Board and vandalized property in the Tejgaon, Mohakhali and Gulshan areas of Dhaka. Agitated garment workers in Fatullah under Narayanganj district blocked the Dhaka-Narayanganj link road and the workers in the Ashulia area also blocked the Dhaka-Tangail highway on July 31, 2010 and vandalized property. Police charged with batons on the protesting workers. At least 50 people, including 2 policemen, were injured in Narayanganj while more than 200 workers, including police and journalists were injured in Ashulia.
The daily New Age, 29/04/2010 The daily Jugantor, 05/05/10

 Garments workers at Fatulla and Sonargaon, under Narayanganj district; Ashulia in Savar of the Dhaka district; and Kaliakoir under Gazipur district blocked roads and

staged protests. Two separate cases were filed in Fatulla and Ashuliya Police Stations accusing four thousand garments workers in this connection. In Fatulla Model Police Station, police filed a case mentioning the names of 46 workers along with three thousand unknown people while in Kaliakoir Police Station 500 unknown workers had been accused in the case.120 Due to workers unrest, that Allegedly caused vandalization of properties, police arrested 60 garments workers including workers leader Montu Ghosh and Haji Md. Shahidul Islam; and Kalpona Akhter and Babul Akhter, executives of two NGOs, which work with ready-made garments workers. Montu Ghosh was arrested on July 31, 2010 and was shown arrested in five cases since August 3, 2010. He was taken into 9-day remand for interrogation.121 Furthermore, another leader, Moshrefa Mishu, alleged that police called her on her cell phone and threatened to kill her in crossfire.  13.26 people were killed and 100 more were injured on December 14, 2010 when fire swept the Hameem factory in Ashulia, Savar. Some alleged that out of 06 stairs ways, four stair gates were locked and many workers jumped from the 11 storied building, which caused many workers their death. It is to be mentioned that the Managing Director of Hameem group is AK Azad who is also the newly elected President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) from the pro government panel.
The daily Prothom, 04/08/2010 and 05/08/2010 Monthly Chinta, August 2010

It is frequently reported that the rights of garments workers are violated in terms of minimum wage for their labor and safe working environment. The leaders of the garments workers are often claiming their rights issues and often declaring the strike to achieve it. The process is often creating mistrust between the garments owners and the workers that turns into a conflicting situation. It was reported (in 2010) that 7 garments workers died and 2,538 persons were injured. In last 3 months of 2011, 2 workers are died and 319 are injured while protesting in demand of either overdue wages or for an increase in wages and against other work related violence in the readymade garments sectors. The situation is reflecting continues forms of violent acts against the garments workers in Bangladesh. A volatile situation has been prevailing between the workers and owners of the ready-made garments factories following recent incidents of violence in this sector. Earlier the minimum wage of a garment worker was Taka 1662 per month (USD 23.96). On July 29, 2010, the Minimum Wage Board declared Taka 3,000.00 (USD 43.47) per month as the minimum wage for garments workers. However, the garments workers had been demanding Taka 5,000.00 (USD 72.46) per month to be declared as the minimum wage. Later the garment workers rejected the minimum wage of Taka 3,000.00 (USD 43.47)

declared by the Wage Board and came out in the streets with their demand of minimum wage of Taka 5,000.00 (USD 72.46) be effective from August 2010. therefore the Government should cancel the licenses of those garments factories, which are not following the tripartite agreement and thereby causing labour unrest. Moreover, every effort must be made to ensure workplace safety of the workers, and procedures should be rigorously in place to check whether workers safety measures are being observed or not.

Thus Human Rights are simply a theoretical perspective in context of recent Bangladesh, in practical its violation is seen in every spheres of lives that restricting the rule of law and advancement of the country as a civilized nation. A variety of social, economic, cultural and political factors are contributing to the violation of human rights. The present reality of Bangladesh proves again that while a representative government is essential for democratic practice, is not enough if the Executive, Judiciary and the Legislative fail to play their respective roles to ensure constitutional and international norms of human rights. In such situation an undemocratic and dictatorial nature of power manifests in many different ways and abuses the state machinery for partisan and narrow political gain. If we see the corruption perception index (CPI) that produced by Transparency International, we may find a painful result for Bangladesh during last 10 years (at the bottom layer).

Reference:
y Odhikar.org y Wikipedia.org