CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

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1.1 Introduction
Presently there is no doubt that people committing crimes against women and children
must be punished to ensure justice. On the other hand, it is also necessary to protect
innocent victims of malicious prosecution. However there exists a common trend in
Bangladesh to use the public emotion and opinion on these issues. As a result, there is a
very high chance of using the laws regarding women and child protection in favour of
someones vindictive purpose. The Bangladesh Women & Children Repression
Prevention Act 2000 (Nari-O-Shishu Nirjaton Daman Ain) (the Act) is a specialized
law that passed into law and came in force on 17 July 1995. This law mainly deals with
the violences against women and children.
This Act contains stringent provisions for prevention of offences related to oppression on
women and children. Trafficking and kidnaping of children and woman, rape, death
resulting from rape and dower, sexual harassment etc. are dealt with under this
legislation. According to Section 250 of the Code the Criminal Procedure, Section 211 of
the Code of the Criminal Procedure and Section 17 of the Act the complainant shall be
given protection throughout the whole procedure .The Act was introduced with great
expectation to reduce and remove the violence against women and children.
Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world and its estimated prevalence rate
of violence against women is extremely high which in turn, is an obstacle to the
achievement of equality, development and peace. Due to a lack of reliable base-line
surveys, the exact number of women affected by violence is unknown. However, non-
governmental organization (NGO) reports indicate that Bangladesh has one of the highest
rate globally despite advancements of Women`s Rights and a strong history of womens
movements. Deeply embedded in cultural and socio-economic practices, violence against
women is sanctioned by both society and the state, in the name of culture, tradition and
religion.1 Recognizing violence against women as a violation of Human Rights is a
significant turning point in the struggle to end violence against women globally. A human
rights perspective broadens the definition of violence against women and focuses
attention on discrimination and inequalities that are maintained or tolerated by the state
and that increase women`s vulnerability to violence. Violence against women has been

1. Sr. Lecturer, Department of Law, Prime University, Bangladesh. 1 Bhuyia, A, T, Sharmin and
S.M,A,Hanif,(2003),``Nature of Domestic Violence against Women in a Rural Area of Bangladesh:
Implication for Preventive Interventions, 1st edition, Dhaka:J Health Popul Nutr, ICDDRD, ,10-15.

2
recognized as a Human Rights issue since the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights
in Vienna, which established that human rights of women and of the girl-child are an
inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. Violence against
Women (VAW) is the most obvious gender specific violation of Human Rights, and is a
form of discrimination against women. It enforces women`s subordination and patriarchal
structures throughout all levels of society, leading to issues such as the undervaluation of
women`s economic contributions. VAW is not only embedded in gender norms; gender
norms are also constructed through VAW, and the low status of women economically,
socially, culturally and politically both constitutes and enables the further denial of
human rights in gender-specific ways, often at the hands of family members, male and
female. Thus, VAW both reflects and determines gendered social structures. That is why
framing VAW as a Human Rights violation requiring immediate action is crucial to
challenge the economic, social and cultural marginalization of women in Bangladesh.
Despite the existing legislation prohibiting violence and discrimination against women,
several police and newspaper reports and hospital statistics indicated the widespread
increase in violence against women in Bangladesh, including domestic violence, rape,
acid-throwing, dowry-related violence, fatwa-instigated violence and sexual harassment
in the workplace. These all contribute to the exploitation, deprivation and oppression of
women in Bangladesh, and are violations of the fundamental Human Rights.2 The
government of Bangladesh is failing to respect the rights of women as it does not consider
all forms of violence against women, including sexual harassment at the workplace or
religious induced violence sanctioning immoral behavior and fatwas (an arbitrary
religious decree) which remain outside the circumference of the law. The failure to
prosecute perpetrators domestic violence is a failure to implement women`s civil and
political Human Rights, and is also an indicator of the prevalent gender bias present in
legal and judicial systems. The CEDAW committee further notes that there is a
continuing high prevalence of trafficking for the sexual exploitation of women and girls
in Bangladesh.

2 Farouk,S,A, (2005),``Violence Against Women: A Statistical Overview, Challenges and gaps in Data
Collection and Methodology and Approaches for Overcoming Them,1st edition, Geneva: Expert Group
Meeting, DAW,ECE and WHO ,20-25.

3
Only a small number of traffickers have been arrested and convicted. Prostitution is
another issue to which the government has provided insufficient attention; it is neither
banned nor recognized in Bangladeshi law, yet there is a high occurrence of it throughout
the country. Little has been done to uphold and protect the rights of commercial sex
workers, according to the comments of the CEDAW committee on the combined sixth
and seventh periodic report of Bangladesh. Violence against women remains a pervasive,
yet under-acknowledged Human Rights violation in all countries of the world, being
especially prevalent in Bangladesh. Violence against women is a deeply entrenched
problem in most societies because attitudes and practices that support violence are
institutionalized in custom and law at all levels of society marriage and the family,
home, community and state.

1.2. Background of the Study

There are a number of commitments in the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of
Bangladesh to ensure the rights of women equally with men in all spheres of the State and
public life. Therefore, prevention of all forms of violence against women (VAW) is an
aim of the State. The State has promulgated several legislations to materialize this aim.
Along with the general substantive and procedural criminal legislations in force in
Bangladesh, e.g., the Penal Code 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898,
different special criminal legislations have been enacted time to time to strictly punish the
offences against women.
The most prominent special criminal legislation now in force in Bangladesh which deals
with the offences concerning violence against women is the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan
Daman Ain 2000. This Act was enacted in the context of the loopholes in the Nari-o-
Shishu Nirjatan Daman (Bishesh Bidhan) Ain 1995 which was in force before the
promulgation of the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 except for the cases already
filed under the Act of 1995. However, since the enactment of the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan
Daman Ain 2000 it has been facing criticisms for not being able to prevent violence
against women effectively. One of the major concerns has been the abysmally low rate of
conviction in the cases filed under the provisions of the Nari-oShishu Nirjatan Daman
Ain 2000.
In a report of Bangladesh Law Commission, it is found that the conviction rate in the
VAW cases filed under the provisions of the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 is
below 10% on an average.2 It can be inferred that there must be some loopholes in the
law because of which the law is failing to address this extreme low rate of conviction in
the VAW cases. The reasons for the low conviction rate in the VAW cases may include

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harshness and excessive technicalities of law,3 filing of false cases, framing of charge
under inappropriate sections of law, inconsistencies of Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain
2000 with the general criminal legislations, lack of evidence, lack of legal assistance, lack
of preparation in prosecution case and lack of witness.
Whatever the reasons may be, the noticeable rate of low conviction in the VAW cases
may be construed as a signal that this special criminal legislation is failing firstly, to
ensure access to justice for women and secondly, to prevent the misuse of its own
provisions. Excessive rate of non-conviction implies a loss of substantial resources of the
State and society.4 In this context, this present research takes up this issue for further
investigation. In doing so, this work will at first look into whether the conviction rate is
really low in the VAW cases considering the rate of filing, disposal and conviction rate of
the VAW cases in different Nari-oShishu Nirjatan Daman Tribunals constituted under the
Act of 2000. Secondly, if the low conviction rate is established by the relevant statistics,
the research will investigate into the underlying reasons for the low rate.

Apart from an investigation on low conviction rate in the VAW cases, this research will
also examine the issue of legislative inconsistencies in the four specific VAW legislations
namely, the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000, the Dowry Prohibition Act 1980,
the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2010 and the Family Courts
Ordinance 1985. Examination of legislative inconsistencies in the VAW legislations is
significant because the ideal VAW legislations are expected to be specific and
consistent.5 Any inconsistency in the form of contradiction or overlapping in the VAW
legislations may ultimately affect access to justice for women and effective delivery of
justice.
A research on legislative inconsistencies and the reasons for the low conviction rate in the
VAW cases will find out inconsistent legal provisions and other loopholes in the VAW
legislations. The findings of this present research, therefore, will ultimately help to
strengthen the administration of justice in the VAW cases and ensure access to justice for
the marginalized women in Bangladesh and to develop a better coordination among the
justice sector agencies. One of the aspects of establishing rule of law in a country is to
make the justice accessible for all, especially for those who represent the marginalized

3 The Constitution of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh Article 28. 2 The Law Commission of
Bangladesh: A Report on the Amendment of Certain Sections of the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain
2000 (25/08/2010) <http://www.lawcommissionbangladesh.org/reports/99.pdf>. 3 Dr. Shahdeen Malik,
Nari-o-Shishu Ain and Special Tribunals: Looking at Law and its Implementation (Unpublished Draft
Report prepared for Naripokkho (2004) 3.

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section of the society, for example, women. Mere recognition of legal rights cannot
effectively ensure womens rights unless there is an effective justice delivery system to
make those rights accessible to them. The present research therefore, will facilitate the
justice sector, particularly, in the issues concerning violence against women.
Lastly, the present work is supportive to the key objectives of the Justice Sector Facility
Project (JSF) funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Bangladesh.
One of the JSFs key objectives is to enhance communication, coordination and
cooperation among the justice sector agencies with a view to strengthening the
institutional planning capacities in the administration of criminal justice system with the
ultimate objective to protect rights of all citizens, particularly, of the women, children and
other vulnerable groups. The same are the objective and goal of the present work.

1.3 Statement of the Problem.

Credit is the lifeblood of modern economic system playing an important role for
accelerating economic growth in any developing country like Bangladesh. Bangladesh is
source and transit cities for men, Women And Children subjected to trafficking in person,
specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. A significant share of Bangladesh.
Trafficking victims are men recruited for work overseas with fraudulent employment
offers who are subsequently exploited under conditions of forced labor or debt bondage.
Children both boys and girls are trafficked within Bangladesh for commercial sexual
exploitation bonded labor and forced labor some Children are sold into bondage by their
parents while others are induced into labor or commercial sexual exploitation through
fraud and physical coercion. Women are Children from Bangladesh are also trafficked. to
for commercial sexual exploitation.

1.4 Rational of the study

The reasons for selecting violence against women as an issue to investigate in the study
were manifold. Social practice in our country undermines womens basic human right to a
life or dignity, worth and equality. It promotes inequality between men and women, by
creating a dominant and subordinate order between the sexes and it thus breaches the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW). In the face of actual or threatened violence, women cannot develop to their
full human potential or participate in the economic, social, cultural, civil and political
arenas on equal terms with men.

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1.5 Scope of the Study
This research is conducted to support the Justice Sector Facility (JSF) Project undertaken
by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs of Bangladesh in collaboration
with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Bangladesh. The aim of the
whole project is to facilitate the judiciary to reduce case backlog, ensuring effective
access to justice and to promote better administration of justice. Accordingly, this study
focuses on two broad aspects of the cases on violence against women, i.e. firstly, reasons
for the low conviction rate in the VAW cases and secondly, the legislative inconsistencies
in the VAW legislations.

To address the first issue, this work investigates into the reasons for the low conviction
rate in the cases filed under the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000. The second
issue concerns the legislative inconsistencies in the four specific VAW legislations
namely, the Dowry Prohibition Act 1980, Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000,
Family Courts Ordinance 1985 and the Domestic Violence (Protection and Prevention)
Act 2010. These two broad issues necessarily imply a number of sub-issues having
significant implications on the main research issues.

In connection with the first issue, this research aims to address whether the rate of
conviction in the VAW cases is truly low or not. If it is found that the conviction rate is
low after initial investigation, then the present work will further investigate into the
reasons for such low conviction rate. To deal with the second issue, this project aims to
figure out whether there is any inconsistency at all in the selected legislations. If any
inconsistency is found, the work will identify the related legislative provisions. Findings
of both the abovementioned research issues may at the end propose necessary legislative
and judicial reforms.

The research questions set above meet two fundamental criteria of being good research
questions namely, interest and researchable nature.8 The research questions addressed by
this work are neither too specific about a specific individual nor even too grand and
therefore meet the requirement of having researchable nature.9 At the same time, the
research questions are socially important encompassing a puzzle and idea (issue and
corresponding new twist of investigation) and thereby are interesting. Accordingly, the

7
identified research issues within the set scope are capable of bringing out a reliable report
to be acted upon by the justice sector agencies and law reformers in the future.

1.6 Objectives of the Study

The specific and concrete results expected to be achieved through the present research are
as follows:
Ensuring accountability among the related justice sector agencies; Creating
awareness among the justice sector agencies as per their duties under the Nari-O
Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000; Enlightening one particular sector from the
shared experiences of other justice sector agencies; Finding out a holistic,
coordinated and national level solution through intensive study on three districts,
e.g., Dhaka, Pabna and Comilla.
Based on these objectives, the current research indentifies two sectoral target
beneficiaries who will be directly or indirectly benefited from the study outcome,
e.g.,
(i) Primary or direct beneficiaries: a) agencies involved in law making and policy
formulation, e.g., Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of
Social Welfare, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and the related
parliamentary committees and b) agencies involved in implementing laws and
policies, i.e., Judges of the adjudicating Tribunals, public prosecutors, lawyers and
police officers, womens rights organisation and the national human rights
organisations.
(ii) Ultimate beneficiaries: vulnerable, marginalised and poor women litigants.
As to the quantitative indication of the above identified beneficiaries, the research
stipulates that it is difficult to predict the exact number of beneficiaries to be
benefited by this work at the initial stage. However, based on the expectations and
the implication of the overall study, the present work expects that it will embrace
all the justice sector agencies, law reformers and victims of the VAW cases
generally.
As the first group of beneficiaries are involved in law and policy formulation or
implementation, therefore, the study expects a two-way result. Firstly, the
potential solutions to the problem of low conviction rate under the Nari-o-Sishu
Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 will definitely help these particular agencies in

8
 combating this challenge more proactively. Besides, the identification of the
underlying reasons for the low rate of conviction may help them to come forward
with innovative ways of solution in redressing this problem. This may happen by
bringing changes in the particular legislation and its proper implementation. The
second group of beneficiaries are then expected to be comparatively free from
harassment or loss of time, resources and energy. At the same time, identifying
legislative inconsistencies in the VAW legislations will help the target
beneficiaries to ensure and experience better administration of justice and access
to justice.

1.7 Limitation of The Study

The present research admits a number of limitations which could not be avoided with a
reasonable effort in the course of undertaking the works. The quantitative data and
statistics relied on are not comprehensive. The survey and field works were undertaken in
Dhaka, Comilla and Pabna only. Due to time and resource constraints, data from all the
Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Tribunals all over the country could not be brought under
investigation. Also, the study of the reported Supreme Courts judgments referred in this
work is not comprehensive. The present work did not study all the reported judgments of
the Supreme Court available in all the law reports of Bangladesh. Instead, all the cases
reported in some of the reputed law reports, e.g., Bangladesh Law Reports (BLC),
Bangladesh Legal Decisions (BLD), Bangladesh Law Times (BLT), Dhaka Law Reports
(DLR), and Mainstream Law Reports (MLR) from 2000-2013 are analysed. The present
research could not study the unreported judgments of the Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman
Tribunals of Dhaka and Pabna due to unavailability. Only six unreported judgments of the
Nari-o-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Tribunal of Comilla, however, could be studied by this
research as the Comilla Court had kindly made those available for this work. The whole
work is undertaken and completed in a six month time. Therefore, all the relevant issues
may not have been addressed comprehensively by this research.

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1.8 Methodology
This chapter of the study gives a brief overview of the methodology applied for the
present research along with the suitability and appropriateness of such methodology to the
current work. The methodology to be applied for this work is selected considering the
nature of the research problem and the related issues, the researchers knowledge
developed by relevant literature review and the ultimate purposes of the study. The two
broad issues addressed by this study are, investigation into the low conviction rate in the
VAW cases filed under the Nari-oSishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 and the legislative
inconsistencies in the four specific VAW legislations.

The research on the reasons for the low conviction rate begins with a hypothesis that the
conviction rate is low in the VAW cases. This hypothesis is initially adopted on the basis
of a literature review. The acceptance or rejection of this hypothesis requires numerical
survey for which Quantitative Method of study is found to be the most appropriate.
Quantitative Method in this context is understood as explaining phenomena by collecting
numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically based methods (particularly
statistics).13 Upon an initial finding on this hypothesis (if the hypothesis is confirmed),
the work will aim to figure out the reasons for such low conviction rate. At this point, the
work requires addressing the why questions, side by side of the what questions. To
answer the why questions, inductive data analysis and the researcher making
interpretations of the meaning of the data are obvious. These processes are the attributes
of the Qualitative Method. Therefore, for this section, Qualitative method will be applied
side by side of the Quantitative method.
By contrast, the research on inconsistencies in the selected legislations on the VAW starts
with a hypothesis that there may be inconsistencies in these legislations that ultimately
lead to case backlog. This hypothesis draws its origin from the VAW Roadmap
Conference organized by the 11 Research methods are ideally chosen on the basis of its
most appropriateness to the research question. For details, refer to: Md. Zabir Hasan,
MBBS, MPH, Research Associate, James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC
University, Steps of Research, slides developed for the Training on Research Method
and SPSS by ICDDRB, (Undated Study Material).
JSF Project in 2014. The confirmation or rejection of this again calls for a Quantitative
survey. If the finding is positive, the inconsistent provisions of law are required to be
found out. Collection of numerical data on the basis of a set questionnaire is found to be
the most appropriate strategy for this work. A qualitative study of the provisions of the
VAW legislations, however, is to be applied then to verify and confirm the result of the
Quantitative survey.
For comprehensiveness, the study, therefore, applies a mixture of both Quantitative and
Qualitative research method which is usually known as Mixed Method Approach.15 This
10
approach involves a merger of primary and secondary data and is believed to be capable
to best serve a transformative purpose to advocate for the marginalized groups, such as
women or other minorities.16 The following methods are adopted to address the issue of
low conviction rate and related bottlenecks:
This research believes that any initiative to justice sector reform must address bottlenecks
in the entire system in order to motivate people to report incidents and to promote case
prosecution. Various studies have identified that the systematic or structural bottlenecks
among the justice sector institutions in the VAW cases filed under the Nari-o-Sishu
Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 exists from the pre-trial stage to the implementation of the
Tribunals Judgment. The current research will particularly focus on this issue from the
context of low conviction rate in the VAW cases. Specifically, the bottlenecks affect the
right to access to justice which has been acting as a major disincentive for the women
litigants to come before the court.
Therefore, a research on this Methods to indentify the bottlenecks among justice sector
agencies In Practice In Law Itself
1. Qualitative Method: i. Research on the provisions of the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan
Daman Ain 2000 (as amended in 2003). ii. Research on the provisions of the
Dowry Prohibition Act, 1980, the Domestic Violence Act 2010 and the Family
Courts Ordinance 1985.
2. Quantitative Method: i. Interviewing the experts who will be from academics,
judges, practitioners, victims and other related justice sector agencies. ii.
Empirical survey through the collection of data and reports on the VAW cases
under the 2000 Act. issue while finding out a potential solution to this problem
will address all the related bottlenecks to ensure and establish an effective justice
delivery mechanism.

1.9 Ethical Consideration Guidelines

The present work follows the guidelines for researching violence against women
developed by Mary Elsberg and Lori Heise.20 This guideline is recommended by the JSF
Project funded by the UNDP Bangladesh office for this study. According to these
guidelines, the current work relies on the principles of respect for all persons at all stages
of the research process, minimizing harm to the respondents and research staffs,
maximizing benefits to the participants and community, and balancing risks and benefits
of research on violence against women.

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 CHAPTER TWO
SCENARIO OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN
REPRESSION IN BANGLADESH

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2.1 Punishment for offences committed by corrosive or any other
substances:
i. Whoever causes death or attempts to cause death of any woman or a child by
burner, corrosive poisonous substance, he shall be punished with death or
transportation for life and also with fine not exceeding one lac taka. ii. Whoever
causes hurt to a child or a woman in consequence of which the sight or ear is
permanently damaged or any organ, joint or limb thereof is disfigured any part of
the body of the woman or the child is as such that-

a) The sight or ear is damaged or face or breast or sexual organ is disfigured, the
person shall be punished with death or transportation for life and also with fine not
exceeding one lac taka. b) In case where, any limb, joint or part of the body is
disfigured or any part of the body is damaged, he shall be punished with
imprisonment of either description which may extend to fourteen years but not
less than seven years of rigorous punishment and also with fine not exceeding
fifty thousand taka.

iii. Whoever throws or attempts to throw any substance burner, caustic or poisonous
over a child or a woman, he shall be punished , if the child or woman is injured
physically, mentally or otherwise in consequence of such act, with rigorous
imprisonment of either description which may extend to seven years but not less
than three years and also with fine not exceeding fifty thousand taka.

iv. The fine amount imposed under this section, shall be realized from, the person
convicted or his existing property or if he is dead from the property left at the time
of his death, under the provision of the law in force, and shall be given to the
successors of the person died in consequences of the offence or in place, to the
person who is injured physically, mentally or to the successors of that person if he
dead.

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2.2 Punishment for trafficking of woman:4
i. Whoever fetches from abroad or dispatches or sends abroad for prostitution or, to
engage a woman in illicit immoral act or sale or buy or, for the purpose of
torturing her in rent or otherwise or, keeps a woman in his possession, custody or
security for such purpose, he shall be punished with death or transportation for life
or with rigorous imprisonment of either description which may extend to twenty
years but not less than ten years and also with fine. ii. If a woman is transferred
through sale rent or otherwise to a prostitute or the caretaker of a brothel or the
manager of it, the man transferring such, if not proved otherwise, shall be deemed
to have sold or transferred the woman for the purpose of prostitution and shall also
be punished under sub-section (). iii. If the caretaker of a brothel or any person
engaged in the management of the brothel, keeps in his possession or custody of
any woman through sale, rent or Nari oShishu - 3
otherwise, he shall be deemed, if not proved otherwise, to have bought or rented
or taken in possession or custody of that woman to use that woman as a prostitute
and shall be punished under sub-section ().

2.3 Punishment for trafficking of child:5

i. Whoever fetches from abroad or dispatches or smuggles abroad a child for any
illegal or immoral purpose, or sells or purchases or keeps a child in his possession,
custody or security for such purpose, he shall be punished with death or rigorous
transportation for life and also with fine.
ii. If any person steals a newborn baby from a hospital, child or mother care home,
nursing home etc. or from the custody of the guardian of the child, he shall be
punished under sub-section ().
2.4 Punishment for kidnapping a child or a woman: 6
Whoever kidnaps a child or a woman for the purpose other than of which to commit an
offence under section 5, he shall be punished with transportation for life or with rigorous
imprisonment for either description, which may extend to fourteen years and also with
fine.

4
Nari o Shishu - 1
5
Nari o Shishu - 2
6
Nari o Shishu - 3

14
2.5 Punishment for taking ransom:
Whoever detains a child or a woman to levy a ransom; he shall be punished with death or
with rigorous imprisonment for life and also with fine.

2.6 Punishment for rape or death in consequence of rape:

Whoever commits rape with a woman or a child, shall be punished with rigorous
imprisonment for life and with fine.

Explanation: Whoever has sexual intercourse without lawful marriage with a woman not
being under fourteen years of age, against her will or with her consent obtained, by
putting her in fear or by fraud, or with a woman not being above fourteen years of age
with or without her consent, he shall be said to commit rape.

ii. If in consequence of rape or any act by him after rape, the woman or the child so raped,
died later, the man shall be punished with death or with transportation for life and also
with fine not exceeding one lac taka. iii. If more than one man rape a woman or a child
and that woman or child dies or is injured in consequences of that rape, each of the gang
shall be punished with death or rigorous imprisonment for life and also with fine not
exceeding one lac taka. iv. Whoever attempts on a woman or a child-

a) To cause death or hurt after rape, he shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment
for life and also with fine.
b) To commit rape, he shall be punished with imprisonment for either description,
which may extend to ten years but not less than five years rigorous imprisonment
and also with fine.

v. If a woman is raped in the police custody, each and every person, under whose
custody the rape was committed and they all were directly responsible for safety
of that woman, shall be punished for failure to provide safety, unless otherwise
proved, with imprisonment for either description which may extend to ten years
but not less than five years of rigorous imprisonment and also with fine.

15
2.7 Punishment for sexual oppression:
Whoever, to satisfy his sexual urge illegally, touches the sexual organ or other organ of a
woman or a child with any organ of his body or with any substance, his act shall be said
to be sexual oppression and he shall be punished with imprisonment for either description
which may extend to ten years but not less than two years of rigorous imprisonment and
also with fine. ii. Whoever , to satisfy his sexual urge illegally, assaults a woman sexually
or makes any indecent gesture, his act shall be deemed to be sexual oppression and he
shall be punished with imprisonment for either description which may extend to seven
years but not less than two years of rigorous imprisonment and also with fine.

2.8 Punishment for causing death for dowry:

If the husband of a woman or his father, mother, guardian or any other person on behalf
of the husband, causes death or attempts to cause death, cause hurt or attempts to cause
hurt to the woman, the husband, the father, mother guardian, relative or any other person
on his behalf, shall;
i. for causing death or attempt for causing death, be punished with transportation for
life and also with fine, in both case; ii. be punished with transportation for life for
causing hurt and with imprisonment for either description which may extend to
fourteen years but not less than five years of rigorous punishment in case of
attempt to hurt and also with fine in both the case.

2.9 Punishment for impairing any limb of a child for the purpose of
begging:
Whoever damages hands, feet, eyes or any other limb of a child, or makes disabled or
disfigured by any means, for the purpose of making him a beggar or to sale any part
thereof, he shall be punished with death or rigorous imprisonment for life and also with
fine.
2.10 Provision regarding the child born in consequence of rape:
Notwithstanding anything contained under any other law for the time being in force, any
child born in consequence of a rape:-
i. The maintenance of that child shall be borne by the person who commits rape;
ii. The Tribunal may determine after the birth of the child, in whose custody the
child shall be and how much money shall be provided to the legal guardian, by the

16
 person who commits rape, as expense for the maintenance of the child; iii. this
expense shall be provided for upto the period, the child attains twenty-one years if
male and, marriage of the female child, if not disabled, and until the date he/she
obtains the capability to earn his/her living, if disabled.

2.11 Prohibition on publishing acquaintance of a woman or a child oppressed, in

new media:
Any news, information or name &address or any other information regarding any offence,
under this Act, committed or any legal proceeding thereof, of which a woman or a child is
the victim, shall be published or presented as such that the acquaintance of the woman or
the child shall be undisclosed. ii. In case, where the provision under sub-section () is
infringed, the person or persons liable for such infringement, each shall be punished with
imprisonment for either description, which may extend to two years or with fine not
exceeding one lac taka or both.

2.12 Realization of fine from inheritable property in future:

The Tribunal may consider the fine if thinks necessary, which is imposed for the offences
under section 4to 14 of this Act, as damages for the victim of the offence and in case,
where the fine cannot be realized from the convict or from his existing property, it can be
realized from the property of which he will be the owner or in possession in future and
the claim of such fine or damage shall prevail over any other claim on that property.

2.13 Procedure for realizing fine or damage:

When any fine is imposed under this Act, the Tribunal shall direct the Collector to deposit
the fine amount in the Tribunal collected by attaching the property and selling it on
auction or sale on auction without attachment, after making the list of the properties of the
offender, movable or immovable or both, under the procedure provided by the law or
under the procedure determined by the Tribunal in absence of the former and the Tribunal
shall take measure to give it to the victim.

17
 CHAPTER THREE
CONCEPT OF REPRESSION AGAINST
WOMEN AND CHILEDREN

18
3.1 Literature Review on Low Conviction Rate In Violence Against
Women Cases Under The Nari-O-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000:
A wide range of literature deals with the aspects of violence against women and criminal
justice response in combating this offence. This research, however, focuses on the reasons
for low conviction rate in the VAW cases in Bangladesh under the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan
Daman Ain 2000. The purpose of the literature review, therefore, is to explore and assess
firstly, the prevalence and dynamics of the VAW in Bangladesh, and secondly, the
criminal justice response as well as the challenge of low conviction rate in this particular
offense. From a review of the relevant literature on this issue, it is found that most of the
literature generally investigate the problem of non-implementation of laws relating to the
VAW, very few of them deal with the reasons for low conviction rate in the VAW cases
and except one or two, none of them exclusively focuses on the VAW with regard to this
particular Act.

3.2 Repression Against Women.

Being one of the worlds most compelling social problems, gender-violence, particularly,
violence against women requires a broad definition to encompass a wide variety of
oppressions suffered by women. The underlying reasons is, narrow definitions not only
exacerbate the problem of underreporting, but also trivialize womens real life abuses by
ultimately preventing them to seek social and legal support. 7Therefore, it is suggested
that in addition to focusing on the perspective of the victim, the definition of violence
against women should cover a wide spectrum of abuses that include both the use of force
and the threat to compel or constrain women to behave or not to behave in given ways.
The definition should also include the intention of perpetuating hierarchical gender-
relations in all social structures behind the use of force. Thus, any violation of a womans
basic rights on the ground of gender can be termed as an act of violence. In respect of its
scope, violence against women is defined as an act of aggression that occurs in both
personal and social contexts and thus, it includes womens experience of violence both
inside and outside of the home. Besides, so far the forms of violence against women are
concerned, attempts to broaden the definition demonstrate that as psychological abuse can
just be as injurious as physical violence, this should be included within the scope of
violence against women.

7 Raquel Kennedy Bergen, Marital Rape: New Research and Directions (2006) VAW Net 1. 66 Asia
Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, Kuala Lampur: Asia-Pacific womens Issues, Law and
the Development Process, My Rights, Who Control? (1990), cited by Barry in above n 64.

19
In line with these observations, the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of
Violence against Women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993
identifies violence against women as a violation of the rights and fundamental freedoms
of women. The Deceleration defines violence against women as ....any act of gender-
based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual and psychological
harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary
deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life . This definition
seems to be comprehensive as it embraces but is not limited to physical, sexual and
psychological violence occurring in the family, within the general community or the
violence perpetrated or condoned by the state. Types of Violence: Following this
definition, the forms of violence as specifically mentioned in the Declaration include
battery, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry related violence, marital
rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-
spousal violence, violence related to exploitation, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and
intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking of women and
forced prostitution. This definition, however, does not claim to be all-inclusive and
recognizes that various other forms of violence exist around the globe. The declaration is,
therefore, somewhat arbitrary in that it does not provide sufficient guidance regarding
controversial issues such as, whether control over a woman's reproductive rights
constitutes violence against women. Nevertheless, despite its backdrop, the Declaration
offers the first internationally accepted definition of violence against women and a strong
basis for the struggle to eliminate gender violence around the world. Besides, violence
against women has been classified in terms of six recognized forms of abuse, e. g.,
physical, social, verbal, social, financial and spiritual.

Like other South Asian countries, violence against women is a complex and common
social phenomenon in Bangladesh due to deeply rooted patriarchy and unequal gender
norms. Although the rate of reported data on violence against women has been
consistently increasing, especially since the early 1990s but a set of comprehensive
statistics is still unavailable as many cases remain unreported. Following the major trends
in violence, domestic violence, dowry related violence, rape, trafficking, acid throwing,
forced prostitution, victimization by fatwa have been identified as the common forms of
violence against women in Bangladesh.

20
 3.3 Definition Of Child.
A child is defined in section 2 (f) of the act as a person under the age of 16 years. Section 2(n)
defines Youthful off ender as a child who has been found to have committed an off once. We
shall see later that many international instruments and laws of some other countries define a child
to be a person under the age of 18 years. It may be noted that in neighboring India the juvenile as
under 16 years in case of a female. Uniformity was brought to prevail of children act 2000 where
juvenile is defined as any person under 18 years of age.

3.4 Type of repression against women.

Following two types of Repression against women:-
i. Rape and sexual harassment.
ii. Prostitution and trafficking.
iii. Domestic violence.
iv. Sexual assault within marriage.
v. Psychological violence.
vi. Torture by husband.
vii. High risk pregnancy.
viii. Acid assaults.
ix. Dowry related violence early marriage.
x. Murder and suicide.
xi. Harassment at work place.
xii. Eve- teasing.

3.5 Type of Repression against Children.

Following to types of Repression against children:-
i. Trafficking of child.
ii. Kidnapping of child.
iii. Children for the purpose of begging.
iv. Physical and mental violence.
v. Exploitation child marriage.
vi. Gender based discrimination.
vii. Sexual abuse and exploitation.
viii. Armed violence.
ix. Child labor.
x. Too often in silence 2010
xi. Gang violence.
xii. Child marriage.

21
3.6 The Women & Children Repression Prevention Act 2000 of Bangladesh
Introduction
Following the rising violence against women, especially rape incidents throughout the
country, the protection of woman and child has become the centre point of discussion. As
these incidents seem to be irresistible, curbing the violence against women has become a
challenge for us.
Presently there is no doubt that people committing crimes against women and children
must be punished to ensure justice. On the other hand, it is also necessary to protect
innocent victims of malicious prosecution. However there exists a common trend in
Bangladesh to use the public emotion and opinion on these issues. As a result, there is a
very high chance of using the laws regarding women and child protection in favour of
someones vindictive purpose.
The Bangladesh Women & Children Repression Prevention Act 2000 (Nari-O-Shishu
Nirjaton Daman Ain) (the Act) is a specialized law that passed into law and came in
force on 17 July 1995. This law mainly deals with the violences against women and
children.
This Act contains stringent provisions for prevention of offences related to oppression on
women and children. Trafficking and kidnaping of children and woman, rape, death
resulting from rape and dower, sexual harassment etc. are dealt with under this
legislation. According to Section 250 of the Code the Criminal Procedure, Section 211 of
the Code of the Criminal Procedure and Section 17 of the Act the complainant shall be
given protection throughout the whole procedure .The Act was introduced with great
expectation to reduce and remove the violence against women and children.

The Procedure in brief

Section 19 of this Act renders all the offences punishable under this Act as 'cognisable'.
According to Sec.4 (1) (f) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), a 'cognisable offence'
is one for which a police officer may arrest someone without any warrant. Therefore, a
person accused under the Act may be arrested immediately. However, the police will only
arrest such a person if, he (the accused) has been concerned in any cognisable offence or
against whom a reasonable complaint has been made or credible information has been
received or a reasonable suspicion exists of his been so concerned. In most of the cases,
therefore, police may arrest the person against whom any complaint has been made for

22
committing any offence under the Act. It may be prudent to mention that in certain
circumstances, a private person may also arrest any person if that private person believes
that the other person has committed a non-bailable and cognisable offence. But, in such
cases the arrestee must be handed over to the police without any unnecessary delay.
The provisions in relation to investigation are contained in the S. 18 of the Act.
According to S. 18 (1)(a), investigation into the offences shall have to be concluded
within fifteen working days from the date of the arrest of the accused or handing over of
the accused to the police while caught red handed at the time of commissioning of the
offence. Alternatively, S. 18(1) (b) provides for the investigation to be completed within
sixty working days where the accused is not caught red handed but in consequence of the
lodging of First Information Report (FIR) or following order of investigation by the
authorized officer or the Tribunal. The time limit may be extended subject to the
fulfilment of conditions contained in the subsequent sections. So, from the aforesaid
provisions it seems that investigation of any Complaint regarding oppressive behaviour
against women and children does not depend on arrest of the accused person.
Law requires every case to be investigated followed by the Police Report to be submitted
to the Court. In the meantime since the offence in question is an arrestable (cognisable)
one, the law-enforcing agency is in duty bound to arrest the accused person pending the
outcome of the investigation as per Law. After the accused is arrested, he may pray
before the Tribunal under sec. 19 to enlarge him on bail. Furthermore, to avoid the arrest,
the accused may try to get anticipatory bail from the Hon'ble High Court Division under
section 498 of the CrPC.
Since the provisions under the Act are considerably harsh against the accused, to protect
malicious prosecution, section 17 provides for rigorous imprisonment for a term not
exceeding seven years and fine in case if someone lodges a false complain or files a false
case with intent to cause harm to other person.
The rights that a person may possess in relation to arrest are contained between sections
46-67 of the CrPC. Some of the important rights may be as follows:
1. The person arrested to be taken before Magistrate or officer in charge of police
station without unnecessary delay.
2. The arrestee cannot be detained for more than twenty-four hours.
3. The police have to follow the rules regarding search of the arrestee and seizure of
any material.

23
Abuse of the Act
The abuse of this law has a very adverse impact on our legal system. Innocent people are
suffering for this law. At the same time, it is facilitating further malpractices in the legal
system. It has caused loss of substantial resources of the state and society as good
amounts of working hours are spent by the complainants or informants, police, jail
personnel, lawyers, judges and the support personnel and staff of the courts. Friends and
relatives of the accused, victims and witnesses and their associated costs and expenditures
are also factors to consider regarding misuse of resources.
Thousands of innocent persons have been jailed for many months, including scores of
older men, women and children. Even organizations working for womens rights
acknowledge that, plaintiffs who are aggrieved with minor conjugal issues misuse this
law. Ultimately, this situation deprives everyone from the possibilities of remedies.
Women often file false graver allegations against their husbands or convinced by their
lawyers to do so although the conjugal issues may not be that much serious. If proved
guilty, that innocent husband receives conviction; but if proved innocent, the aggrieved
women lose the chances of reconciliation.

24
 CHAPTER FOUR
National and International Legal Framework
to Combat Women and Children Repression

25
4.1 The legal framework of Bangladeshs rape law8
In Bangladesh the existing legal frame work that supports a rape victim is very limited
and outdated. The definition of rape itself dates back to the national penal code
formulated in 1860. Now, more than 150 years later, what are the problems a victim faces
and where can she seek help? Aziza Ahmed finds out.
Under this law, a man is said to have committed rape who has sexual intercourse with a
woman under circumstances falling under any of the five following descriptions: First,
against her will; second, without her consent; third, with her consent, when her consent
has been obtained by threatening to kill or hurt her; fourth, with her consent, when the
man knows that he is not her husband and she gives her consent thinking that he is the
man to whom she believes she is lawfully married. Finally, having sexual intercourse
with a girl under 14 years of age is also considered rape.
I talked with Barrister Sara Hossain who practices in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh,
mainly in the areas of constitutional, public interest and family law. Sara is associated
with several legal aid and human rights groups nationally and internationally. She is
currently serving as Honorary Director of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Service Trust
(BLAST), and here in my article I am writing on the basis of my discussion with her.
The definition of rape needs modification. For instance, still in our country, rape within
marriages is not recognized. No married woman can seek legal assistance if she is raped
by her husband. This law discriminates between married and unmarried women. A
married woman is obliged to have sex, even if she is not willing, with her husband.
The countries in the Indian subcontinent follow the penal code of 1860 which came into
force during the British colonial rule. During the government of President Zia ul Haq in
Pakistan, some amendments were made to the penal code, but these turned out to be for
the worse since the Sharia law was included. According to the Sharia law, four witnesses
are required to prove that a rape has occurred. Otherwise the victim will be accused of
having an illicit relationship with the man who was originally her rapist. After the rape of
a young woman in New Delhi last December, rape laws in India have undergone several
changes. Womens rights lobbyists have helped change the definition of rape to include
sexual assault other than penetration.
However, the definition of rape in Bangladesh is still 150 years old and this is not
sufficient to give proper legal support to women who have been victims of such incidents.

8 http://blogs.dw.com/womentalkonline/2013/12/04/the-legal-framework-of-bangladeshs-rape-law/

26
In Bangladesh there have been Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000
(amended in 2003) but still the legal frame work is not sufficient to support women in
such cases.
In Bangladesh if a girl is raped, she gets stamped as a dhorshita meaning the woman
who was raped. The social pressure on the victim is so intense and serious that recently a
study by Ruchira Tabassum Naved, scientist at the ICDDR research organization in
Bangladesh, revealed that less than two percent of women in Bangladesh report rape or
any other sexual assault.
Apparently, victims feel it is better to be silent and get on with life keeping a very low
profile. The main reason for this is, there are no proper shelter homes or no rehabilitation
schemes for such victims. It is difficult to prove rape in court. The victims know that
despite all their efforts, justice will elude them. Many woman right activists say that
women are unaware of their rights and are therefore victimized. However, it is important
to understand that, it is not always lack of knowledge that keeps them away to seek legal
aid but the lack of remedies which holds them back.
A rape victim in Bangladesh has the right to be examined by the doctor as soon as she
lodges a complaint that she has been raped. The doctor needs to examine her within the
next 24 hours. The doctors should also give the victim a copy of the report. Under the
Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000 (amended in 2003), a rape case
will move on despite lack of evidences.The immediate forensic examination will be good
enough proof of her allegation. In Bangladesh, the law enforcers are not aware of their
duties and lack of coordination further creates problems for the victim.
Along with the definition of rape the procedures of the legal frame work require
modifications too. In the nineties, there was a very sensational case of rape under police
custody. Yasmin, a young girl from Rangpur, was raped by a police officer. Following the
case the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act says that the accused is
responsible for proving himself not guilty. The victim is not responsible for producing
proof in front of the court.
Unfortunately sex workers suffer a great deal in case of reporting rape. Even the present
rape act says that sexual intercourse without the womans consent constitutes rape.
However in Bangladesh it is almost impossible for a sex worker to file a rape complaint.
Police and society, neither would believe her.
It is also important to make sure during a rape case hearing that there shouldnt be any
other people in the room apart from the relevant people and the responsible officers, since
27
the charge sheet against the accused contains exhaustive and explicit information about
all that has happened to the victim.
The Evidence Act of 1872 in section 155 says, in case of rape the victims can be
interrogated about her character and lifestyle. Therefore, when a man is prosecuted for
rape or an attempt to ravish, one could try and prove that the victim was of an immoral
character. For instance, if a girl is engaged in any flirting or other kind of relationship
with another man, the court might rule out her accusation as she is capable of getting into
a sexual relationship with another man. This law needs to be changed in Bangladesh.
India has changed this law in favor of the victim.
Sexual crimes over the internet have also increased. For example, a couple may have
taken intimate pictures of each other when they were together in a relationship, but
distributing these pictures online without the consent of the woman is abuse and a breach
of trust. These should also be included within the definition of rape and sexual assault.
In Bangladesh, rape victims can go to Ain O Shalish Kendra, Bangladesh Legal Aid and
Service Trust (BLAST) and Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association
(BNWLA) for legal support. However, victims in Bangladesh do not have access to
shelter legally, so they have to look out for themselves.

4.2 Prostitution and forced labour: trafficking in human beings in

Bangladesh9
The Asian country is a source and a transit point for victims. The cases involving women
and children are the most documented, but men are victims are well. Boys under ten are
more likely to be entangled in this traffic; girls tend to be aged 11 to 16. Some of victims
go to the Gulf countries. In Bangladesh, the local Caritas helps the victims.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) - Bangladesh, a small country of some 165 million people, is the
"source" and transit point for countless numbers of victims in South Asia's burgeoning
trade in human beings. Some of its boys and girls, some as young as eight, are forced into
prostitution. Some of its teenagers are locked up in brothels, forced to take steroids to be
more "attractive" to customers. Foreign girls are brought in and held in escrow before
they are sold to other countries.
"The trafficking of women and children, mostly employed in prostitution, is widespread
and documented. Even that of men is widespread but poorly reported," said Juliet Lipica

9 http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Prostitution-and-forced-labour:-trafficking-in-human-beings-in-
Bangladesh-33572.html

28
Sarker, coordinator of the Human Resources and Gender Division at Caritas Bangladesh.
"Generally, males are used in forced labour, or for criminal activities like drug running,
pornography, and organ sales," she told AsiaNews.

In Bangladesh, human trafficking feeds humans to the sex trade and forced labour market.
According to the Centre for Women and Child Studies, boys who fall into them tend to be
under ten; girls tend to be between 11 and 16. However, it is not uncommon for children
under eight years of age to become sex slaves, segregated in brothels or bawdyhouses.
Adult and teenaged Bangladeshis end up in the sex trade or forced into slave-like
conditions like begging. In some cases, extremely poor parents sell their children. In other
cases, traffickers trick them or force them into giving up their children.

Many brothel owners or pimps force teenagers to take steroids to make them more
"attractive" for customers. Side effects are devastating on their bodies, and can even cause
death. According to official data, 90 per cent of the women are aged between 15 and 35
and take steroids, which cause dependency that is hard to break.
Bangladesh is also an important hub linking South Asia to the Gulf region. Several recent
studies noted that Indian and Bangladeshi human traffickers smuggle using 20 transit
points in 16 districts in the south and west of the country. The main route goes from
Dhaka to Mumbai, Karachi and then Dubai.

However, some of the victims, women and children, end up as prostitutes in India and
Pakistan. Others, men and women willing to work in the Gulf countries, find themselves
in situations of forced labour. With their identity papers confiscated, they cannot travel
freely. Unpaid, they are forced to endure physical and sexual abuse by their employers.
This traffic includes women from Myanmar, usually ethnic Rohingya refugees, who
travel through Bangladesh.
Between 2002 and 2011, Caritas Bangladesh carried out a series of triennial projects to
raise public awareness about human trafficking, promote prevention, and rescue victims.
In doing so, the Catholic association relied, depending on the case, on local partners, like
the Nari Mukti-'O'- Shishu Unnayan Sangstha NGO, as well as international one, like
Caritas Australia.

29
4.3 Sexual Harassment and Discrimination against Women Challenging
In Bangladesh
4.3.1 Challenging Traditional Attitudes
The meaning of gender and sexuality and the balance of power between women and men
at all levels of society must be reviewed. Combating violence against women requires
challenging the way that gender roles and power relations are articulated in society. In
many countries women have a low status. They are considered as inferior and there is a
strong belief that men are superior to them and even own them.
Changing people's attitude and mentality towards women will take a long time -- at least a
generation, many believe, and perhaps longer. Nevertheless, raising awareness of the
issue of violence against women, and educating boys and men to view women as valuable
partners in life, in the development of a society and in the attainment of peace are just as
important as taking legal steps to protect women's human rights.
It is also important in order to prevent violence that non-violent means be used to resolve
conflict between all members of society. Breaking the cycle of abuse will require
concerted collaboration and action between governmental and non-governmental actors,
including educators, health-care authorities, legislators, the judiciary and the mass media.

4.4 Discrimination against Women:

Women's rights in the Arab Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are surveyed
in this article. The author uses human rights standards contained in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to rate the de jure and de facto status of women's
rights in the areas of nondiscrimination and access to justice, autonomy, security, and
freedom of the person, economic rights and equal opportunity, political rights and civic
voice, and social and cultural rights. Evaluations that pertain to women's rights in
marriage are found in the section entitled "Women's Inferior Status in Family Laws,"
where the author elucidates how women face gender-based discrimination in both the
family codes of the studied countries and through Islamic law. This article ends with
recommendations for reform of MENA countries' legislation and traditions in order to
empower women of the region. [Descriptors: Marriage, International - Africa,
International - Asia]10

Women's rights in the Arab Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are surveyed
in this article. The author uses human rights standards contained in the Universal

10 Brownmiller, Susan. In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution. p. 281.

30
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to rate the de jure and de facto status of women's
rights in the areas of non-discrimination and access to justice, autonomy, security, and
freedom of the person, economic rights and equal opportunity, political rights and civic
voice, and social and cultural rights. Evaluations that pertain to women's rights in
marriage are found in the section entitled "Women's Inferior Status in Family Laws,"
where the author elucidates how women face gender-based discrimination in both the
family codes of the studied countries and through Islamic law. This article ends with
recommendations for reform of MENA countries' legislation and traditions in order to
empower women of the region. [Descriptors: Marriage, International - Africa,
International - Asia]
The author urges feminists and scholars to re-examine their respect for cultural relativism
in light of the harms to women created by laws that allow polygamy and in light of
international human rights conventions. Because the voices of women have historically
been absent in the development of cultural norms, the author contends that culture cannot
be used as a justification for the violation of women's human rights in marriage.
Polygamy is argued to violate a women's right, to equality within marriage, to religious
freedom, and to enjoy her culture. [Descriptors: Marriage, International)

4.5 Gender, Social Policy & the Law

This article explores child marriage and the international conventions that are violated by
the practice (CEDAW, CRC, Marriage Convention, UDHR, ICCPR, ICSCR, Torture
Convention, and Anti-Trafficking Convention).
The prevalence of and reasoning behind child marriage throughout the world is described,
as well as a presentation of different nations' domestic laws concerning minimum age of
marriage. The author outlines the international human rights instruments that relate to
child marriage, explaining how existing human and women's rights conventions fail to
remedy the problem.The author argues that child marriage is a form of exploitation of
girls as a married girl is essentially a slave, both sexually and through labour, to her
husband and his family, and loses the human rights protections guaranteed to children.

The article concludes with recommendations for added provisions to human rights
conventions as well as suggestions of extra-legal measures that could be undertaken to
halt the practice in the child marriage.

31
4.6 Child marriage
Child marriage: Child marriage is a violation of human rights. The right to free and full
consent to marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
stating that consent cannot be free and full when one of the parties involved is not
sufficiently mature to make an informed decision about a life partner. In South Asia, there
are more child marriages than in any other region of the world: half (32, 6 million) of the
64 million young Source: UNICEF ROSA CP 2012, with SWOC 2012 data women 20-
24 years old who have reported globally that they were married before age 18, live in
South Asia. Overall, in the region, 46 per cent of women 20-24 years old were first
married or in union before they reached the age of 18 and 18 per cent of women 20-24
years old were first married or in union before they even reached the age of 15 Significant
differences in the child marriage rate exist among countries within South Asia, according
to available data from national surveys: child marriage prevalence measured as the
percentage of women 20-24 years old who were first married or in union before they were
18 year old varies from 4 per cent in Maldives 66 cent in Bangladesh.

Violence in work settings and the worst forms of child labour

Little data is available on violence against children in work settings, especially on child
workers in the informal sector. Working children are vulnerable to physical, sexual and
psychological violence by employers, co-workers, customers, police, criminal gangs and,
in the case of sexual exploitation, pimps. Across the region, violence physical, sexual
and psychological affects many children who are working, both legally and illegally.

Corporal punishment
Is any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of
discomfort, however light. Most involves hitting (smacking, slapping, spanking)
children, with the hand or with an implement a whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon,
etc. But it can also involve, for example, kicking, shaking or throwing children,
scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in
uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion (for example, washing
childrens mouths out with soap or forcing them to swallow hot spices).

32
Murder
In Bangladesh every year many women are murdered by many ways. souse as;

a) Repression for Dowry:

Are the deaths of young women in primarily Bangladesh who are murdered or driven to
suicide by continuous harassment and torture by husbands and in-laws in an effort to
extort an increased dowry. Dowry death is considered one of the many categories of
violence against women in Bangladesh alongside bride burning, Eve teasing, and acid
throwing.11

b) Murder of pregnant women

Is a type of homicide often resulting from domestic violence. Domestic violence, or
intimate partner violence (IPV), is suffered by many people and in the majority of cases
where the victim comes forward the victim is a woman. For many of these women the
fear of harm includes not just themselves but their unborn child as well. Pregnancy-
associated death has become more commonly termed as pregnancy-associated homicide.
Recently, more focus has been placed on pregnancy-associated deaths due to violence.
IPV may begin when the victim becomes pregnant. Research has shown that abuse while
pregnant is a red flag for pregnancy-associated homicide.12

4.7 Violence against Women in Pakistan:

ISLAMABAD, 2 Feb 2005 (IRIN) - Two independent reports on domestic violence
against women in Pakistan have found that the country is suffering increasing levels of
abuse in spite of legislation to provide women with protection. 'The State of Human
Rights in 2004', the annual report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
was released on Tuesday in Islamabad, covering the period from January to October
2004. It said that although there is increased awareness of the issue and discussion at both
official and non-official levels, little had been achieved. "Existing laws were poorly
implemented. The practices that led to the crimes against women continued across the
country under the cover of 'tradition', however, no efforts were made by the government
to ensure an improvement in ground realities. Rather, attempts were made to defend the

11
Bangladesh National Women Law years, Association (BNWLA)
12
Bangladesh Nari Pokkho, Dhaka, 1205.

33
murder of women and violence against them by some legislatures," said the HRCP. A
second report compiled by the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid organisation
(LHRLA) recorded some 4,302 cases of violence against women which had been reported
in the print media and more than 1,000 cases of sexual abuse, during 2004. The HRCP
found the incidence of physical, sexual or verbal violence against women in the home to
be amongst the highest in the world. According to their figures, up to 80 percent of
women in the country suffer from such abuse. The extent of domestic strife was
illustrated, said the HRCP, by the fact that in the first half of 2004, around 5,464 cases
involving violent husbands were pending in the civil courts of the Punjabi capital, Lahore
alone. Many other cases of domestic discord never even reached the courts, it said. Cases
of acid attacks on women have grown alarmingly over the past three years, notably in the
southern Punjab, according to the HRCP. Over 15 attacks were reported in the
Bahawalpur district alone between January and June 2004."Looking at the figures coming
from various sources, it appears that violence against women is clearly increasing. But to
curtail this violence, the laws need to be strengthened. A whole system needs to be put in
place to help the victims," said Anis Haroon, the Resident Director of the women's rights
and advocacy group, the Aurat Foundation. "We can talk about it, discuss at different
forums, highlight it and then get some relief for a few victims after making some noise
before the higher authorities, but that's not all. There should be a proper system in place
to compensate the victims and curtail the violence as well," Haroon told IRIN, speaking
from the southern port city of Karachi. The HRCP report said both the official figures and
unofficial estimates indicated an increase in the incidence of rape. According to the
HRCP figures, about 670 rapes were reported in the first ten months of 2004. Three
hundred and fifty of those were gang rapes. However, the HRCP added that some press
reports suggested the true national figure for both reported and unreported rapes indicated
the number of victims to be over 10,000 a year. The HRCP report further observed that
despite a ban on 'jirga' trials, under which an assembly of local tribal elders passes
verdict, the decisions taken by the 'jirgas' continued to jeopardise the safety of women.
The increase in verdicts violating the rights and dignity of women issued by 'extra-
judicial court-like' forums has to be brought to an end, demanded the HRCP. It also called
for the withdrawal of a proposed new ordinance in Sindh which would legitimise such
'jirgas'. The report added that flaws in a recently introduced law on 'honour killing' must
be removed. It called for judges, lawyers and police officials, as well as other sections of
society, to be urgently educated on the terrible consequences for women of many
34
customs, including 'honour killings', so that the courts and administration are deterred
from extending protection to such illegal practices. "Besides introducing strong
legislation, the entire system of the police and judiciary needs to be reformed. And for
that a strong political will is needed, which is lacking at the moment. Unless the people at
the helm of the affairs are not punished for violating the laws, nothing will change,"
Haroon maintained (IRIN; 2004).

4.8 Violence against women in India and Nepal:

1. As the Asian Legal Resource Centre has previously stated before the Commission,
approximately 260 million people in South Asia are designated as Dalits. At the very
bottom of the social structure, Dalits suffer constant discrimination and violence on the
basis of descent. The Asian Legal Resource Centre has this year submitted a separate
written statement to the Commission on the condition of Dalits in Nepal.

2. That Dalit women suffer an additional layer of discrimination and violence on the basis
of gender both by people of higher castes and within their own communities has also been
made amply clear before the Commission (E/CN.4/2003/NGO/97). The extreme
vulnerability of Dalit women stems from the precariousness of their economic, social, and
political position. Despite the fact that both the constitutions of India and Nepal prohibit
the practice of untouchability, these provisions are not enforced. In India, even though the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act bars violence
against the Dalits, it is not effectively implemented. Nor does it in fact outlaw caste-based
discrimination, which the government of India has refused to recognise as a form of
discrimination on the basis of descent. Under any circumstances, whereas the police are
the authority equipped to investigate crimes, in many cases it is either the police who are
the perpetrators of caste-based human rights violations, or high caste persons with the
influence necessary to have the police hush up the crime.

3. A case in point is that of Muna Devi Damai, a 40-year-old Dalit woman from
Dhangadi, Far Western Region, Nepal. On 8 April 2003, Muna was force-fed human
faeces by her neighbours, Bir Bahadur Thapa and his wife, Parbati Thapa, both of the
upper caste. In the morning the couple called her to their house. When she entered the
compound, Bir Bahadur Thapa grabbed her by hair and threw her on the ground. Then

35
Parbati Thapa sat on her chest and both of them started to beat her. Muna Devi cried and
tried to defend herself, but to no avail. While Parbati Thapa was continuously beating
Muna Devi, Bir Bahadur Thapa brought human faeces, which they had prepared into
paste mixed with chili powder. They forced the paste into Muna Devi's mouth. She could
not save herself and fainted. Her children rushed out when they heard their mother's cry,
but they could do nothing but to cry out loud. They were too small to defend their mother.
They carried their mother home and cleaned her, but she remained unconscious. The
other neighbors came to Muna Devi's house and expressed their sympathies, but refused
to provide any other help. Muna Devi tried to launch a complaint at the local police
station but was turned down by the police since she is Dalit. Later the couple paid her to
drop her attempts at legal action.

4. Caste-based discrimination is referred to as discrimination on the basis of descent and

work because each caste is restricted to one kind of work, with the most demeaning,
menial, degrading and 'polluting' work done by Dalits. Typically, this work involves the
disposal of human excreta, or the bodies of dead animals and corpses. Invariably, it is the
Dalit women who are forced by the men to do these jobs. The feudal nature of the caste
system also prevents Dalits from leaving their prescribed work. Many are paid nothing at
all. Others are given no money, but only a portion of grain or some other payment in kind.
This practice leaves them in complete dependency on the upper castes who control and
own the businesses and land.

5. Apart from being forced into the most demeaning 'ritual' jobs, Dalit women are also
extremely vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Among the Dalit communities, one landless
group, the Badi, has for years survived by prostituting its women. More recently, young
Dalit women from Nepal are being brought to India in increasing numbers, where they
are forced to work as prostitutes. Sometimes they are sent further afield. Many believe
that they will obtain jobs as domestic helpers or similar, and willingly follow recruitment
agents in the hope of earning money with which to support their families. The police in
both Nepal and India support the trade, opening up routes for the women and girls to be
sent through, and protecting the brothels. The victims end up as sex slaves, and many die
miserable deaths due to sexually transmitted diseases. Those who protest are threatened
and, if necessary, murdered, while the police ensure that such crimes are never
uncovered.

36
CHAPTER FIVE
CASE STUDIES

37
5.1 Case Study-01 Rumana Monzur Case
Rumana Monzur was an Assistant Professor of Dhaka University, a Fulbright scholar
and a graduate student in Political Science from University of British Columbia. In
June 2011, she was brutally attacked and blinded by her husband at the time Hasan
Sayeed Sumon during a visit to her home country Bangladesh. 13 Her husband
assaulted her because she wanted to continue higher education in Canada against his
wishes. He justified this assault to the Bangladeshi media by alleging that Rumana
had been unfaithful.14 Her case caught widespread media attention around the world
due to ongoing domestic violence against women in Bangladesh and violation of the
fundamental right of education. Rumana returned to Vancouver in July 2011 for
further treatment but surgeries in both her eyes were unsuccessful, leaving not much
hope for her to see ever again. Rumana's ex-husband died in prison in December
2011.15

5.2 Case Study-02 Rajon murder in Sylhet

On July 8, 2015, Rajon was beaten to death by a group of brutes in Kumargaon Bus
Stand area of Sylhet Sadar allegedly for trying to steal a rickshaw van.
One of them even filmed the horrendous incident and shared it on Facebook.
The 28-minute video footage went viral in social media and shows prime accused
Quamrul Islam hitting the boy with a stick in the feet, joints of legs, shoulders and
head.
A Sylhet court in November 2015 sentenced the four people including Quamrul to
death for killing Rajon. The convicts later filed appeals with the HC challenging the
trial court verdict.
The High Court today upheld the death sentence of four convicts in the
sensational 13-year-old Sheikh Md Samiul Alam Rajon murder case.
The four death row convicts are Qamrul Islam, Zakir Hossain alias Pavel, Saddique
Ahmed alias Boro Moyna and Taz Uddin alias Badal.

13 Chu, Byron, Student maimed in Bangladesh back in B.C., cnews.canoe.ca. Retrieved July 2011
14 Hassan alleges betrayal by Rumana
15 Rumana Monzur, Blinded UBC Student: Husband Dead In Bangladesh Prison

38
The High Court also upheld the seven-year jail term to three other convicts Muhith,
Ali Haider and Shamim Ahmed in this case.
The High Court also upheld one-year-imprisonment of two other convicts Dulal and
Ayaz.
It, however, commuted the life sentence of Nur Ahmed to six-month jail.
The HC bench of Justice Zahangir Hossain Selim and Justice Md. Zahangir Hossain
came up with the verdict after hearing the death referral and appeals filed by the
convicts in the case.

5.3 Case Study-03 Rakib and Rajon, murder cases

Two courts in Sylhet and Khulna on Sunday awarded death penalty to six persons over
the murder of teenage boys Rajon and Rakib, who were killed in barbaric way at both
places sparking outcry throughout the country. The Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court
of Sylhet sentenced four persons to death in connection with the sensational murder of
13-year-old Samiul Alam Rajon while the Khulna Metropolitan Session Judge's Court
awarded death to two others over the killing of 12-year- old boy Rakib. Earlier, after
completing the trail of Rajon's killers on October 27, the Sylhet Sessions Judge's Court
fixed November 8 for the verdict. On the other hand, Khulna Sessions Judges Court also
fixed Sunday to give its judgment after finishing the trial of Rakib murder on November
1.In Sylhet, the four death-row convicts are: Kamrul Islam, Choukidar Sadik Ahmed
Moyna alias Baro Moyna, Taj Uddin Ahmed alias Badal and Zakir Hossain alias Pavel
alias Raju. Of them, Pavel is on the run.Nur Ahmed alias Nuru Mia, who made the video
of torturing Rajon, was sentenced to life term imprisonment. The court also gave life
imprisonment to one person, different jail terms to five others and acquitted three as
allegations brought against them were not proved. Expressing satisfaction over the
verdict, Shaikh Azizur Rahman, father of slain Rajon, expressed gratitude to the prime
minister, the home minister, lawyers and other concerned people for getting justice with
passing the verdict. In Khulna, the two death row convicts are: M Omar Sharif and Mintu
Khan. The court also acquitted Beauty Begum as the allegation brought against her could
not be proved. After hearing the judgment, Rakib's mother became unconscious. "The
departed soul of Rakib will get peace when the verdict will be executed," said Rakib's
father Nur Alam Hawlader. Our Sylhet Correspondent adds: Sessions Judge Akbar
Hossain Mridha passed the order in presence of 11 accused out of 13 as two of them are

39
on the run. Ali Haider alias Ali, Dulal Ahmed, brothers of prime accused Kamrul Islam,
Muhidul Islam Muhit and Shamim Ahmed were given seven years imprisonment while
another accused Ayaj Ali was sentenced to jail for one year. Besides, Moyna and Dulal
were awarded seven years imprisonment. The court acquitted Firoz Ali, Ruhul Amin and
Ajmat Ullah. The court recorded testimonies of 36 witnesses out of 38 by hearing fresh
depositions of 11 witnesses upon a petition of the prime accused Kamrul Islam. Defense
lawyer Advocate Habibur Rahman Habib said that they will file appeal against the verdict
with the apex court at the quickest possible time. While public prosecutor of Sylhet
Misbah Uddin Siraj said, "The killing of Rajon is a tragic incident. The verdict in the
Rajon murder case was delivered after four months and one day which sets an example to
protect the rights of children."On July 8, Rajon was beaten to death by Kamrul and his
accomplices in Kumargaon Bus Stand area of Sylhet Sadar on charges of theft.
Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, Inspector Suranjit Talukder, submitted a charge
sheet before the court accusing 13 persons, including the prime accused Kamrul Islam.
The trial in the case started on September 22 as the court indicted 13 people on charges of
beating Rajon to death. Kamrul, who fled to Saudi Arabia soon after the brutal killing,
was brought back from Saudi Arabia on October 15.Our Khulna Correspondent adds:
Metropolitan Sessions Judges Court acting Judge Dilruba Sultana gave this verdict at
around 12.50pm when the accused were produced before the court in the morning. On
November 1, a Khulna court had fixed November 8 to pass the judgment on the much-
talked about Rakib murder case. A total of 38 prosecution witnesses, out of 40 of the
murder case, were placed for arguments in the Rakib murder case that began from
October 11 in the presence of 3 accused. On August 3, Rakib, who used to work at a
motorcycle garage at Tutpara Central Road in Khulna city, was tortured to death allegedly
by his former employer over quitting job. On August 4, Nur Alam Hawladar, victim's
father, filed a case with Khulna Sadar Police Station against three people -- M Omar
Sharif, Mintu and Beauty Begum -- after the brutal killing. On August 25, Sub-Inspector
Mostafa Ahmed, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted charge sheet
against the three accused. The metropolitan magistrate had accepted the charge-sheet and
immediately transferred the case to the Khulna Metropolitan and Sessions Judge court.
On October 5, the charge on the Rakib murder case was framed. On October 28, the
allegation was read out in the presence of the accused, but the accused of the murder case
had claimed themselves innocent. "It is the first ever judgment in the history of
Bangladesh as the trial has been completed within three months and five days only," said
Prosecution Lawyer Sultana Rahman Shilpi in her reaction about the verdict. Expressing
her satisfaction over the judgment, Shilpi said the verdict would bring more confidence of

40
the people on the judicial system of the country. "The trial has proved that the criminals
would not go away after committing the crime," said another prosecution lawyer
Advocate Mominul Islam also a coordinator of Manobadikar Bastabayan Sangstha of
Khulna branch. On August 3, 2015, a 12-year-old boy Rakib, son of Nur Alam Hawlader
of Tutpara Central Road area, was brutally tortured to death by pumping air from a
compressor into his abdomen through his anus. Rakib was working at a motorcycle
garage in Tutpara graveyard area of the Khulna Metropolitan city.

5.4 Case Study-04 Shohagi Jahan Tonu Murder case in Comilla

Murder of Sohagi Jahan Tonu refers to the rape and murder of Sohagi Jahan Tonu, a
Bangladshi student.16
Tonu was a 19-year-old student of Comilla College.17 Her father was an employee of
Comilla Cantonment board.18 Her dead body was found on 20 March 2016 in Comilla
Cantonment. She had gone to study at a private tutors when she disappeared.19
Tonu's father Yaar Hossain filed a murder case with Kotwali Model Police Station in
Comilla against persons unknown. The police transferred the case to Detective
Branch. The case was handed out to the Criminal Investigation Department on 1 April
2016. The first autopsy found no evidence of rape or murder, which was released on 4
April 2016. The report created controversy. Bangladesh High Court ordered a second
autopsy. The initial autopsy was conducted in Chittagong Medical College. She was
buried in Mirzapur, in Muradnagar Upazila, Comilla District.
The Second autopsy conducted in Comilla Medical College Hospital had found evidence
of rape. A DNA test conducted under the Criminal Investigation Department found
evidence of rape through DNA testing on May 2016. The Semen from three men was
found in Tonu's underwear by the crime lab of CID.20
The murder created nationwide protests in Bangladesh and stated a social media
movement.Protests took places in campuses all over Bangladesh and Bangladesh Students
Union led protest to the Prime Ministers office. In a protest in Shahbagh Square, Imran
H Sarker, convener of the Gonojagaran Mancha said that the blogger Nazimuddin Samad
had murdered by government collusion in order to divert attention from the killing of
Tonu.

16 "Women train in self-defence in Dhaka for protection against sexual assaults" bdnews24.com. Retrieved
28 February 2017.
17 CID say Tonu was raped before murder". bdnews24.com. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
18 CID interrogates 5 over Tonu murder". Prothom Alo. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
19 4 more quizzed over Tonu murder". Prothom Alo. Retrieved 28 February2017.
20 DNA test finds rape evidence". Prothom Alo. Retrieved 28 February2017.

41
5.5 Case-Studies Form The Nari-O-Sishu Tribunal Comilla:
The following brief case studies of the Trial Courts judgments show how, some of these
reasons, e.g., lack of evidence, out of court settlement, filing of false case results into the
order of no-conviction.

1. Nari-o-Shishu Mamla No. 84/2011: Comilla.

This case on sexual harassment had been logged before the court due to non-taking of the
case by police. Based upon the investigation of female vice chairman of Comilla Sador
(South) the case had been formally appeared before court under the section 10/30 of the
Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000. But during trial, the plaintiff didnt present the
required testimony and other documentary evidences in support of their complaint. They
presented only one witness who was considered insufficient by the court as the witness
could not confirm the involvement of the accused persons. Moreover, the plaintiff
subsequently informed the court that they were not willing to continue the case. Finally,
the case was dismissed.

2. Nari-o-Shishu Mamla No. 124/2010: Comilla.

Due to the rejection from police, the case was filed at the court. The case was on the
demand of dowry and consequent physical torture by the victims husband and in-laws.
On direction of the court, after police investigation the case had been appeared before
court under section 11(c)/ 30 of the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000. During trail,
the plaintiff didnt present sufficient witness and other essential evidences to support her
complain. Moreover, at one stage of the trail, the victim formally informed the court that
the complaint against husband was not rather the case was due to misunderstanding with
her husband. The case was dismissed.

27. Nakib Ashraf Ali v State (2009) 14 MLR (HCD) 286 145 Ibid. 146 (2003) 23 BLD (HCD) 336, at 339,
para 46. 147 (1998) 19 BLD 307.

3. Nari-o-Shishu mamla no. 199/2013: Comilla.

42
Under section 9(4) (b) of the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 the case was logged
at the tribunal. The case was on sexual harassment and attempt to rape. During trail, only
two witnesses were present but evidence provided by them was regard insufficient and
irrelevant by the tribunal. Moreover, the victim as PW-1 and her husband as PW-2,
formally informed the court that issue of the case was not true, rather, they had been
persuaded by other family members to file the case. Finally, the case was dismissed.
Date of judgment: April 06, 2015.

4. Nari-o-Shishu Mamla No. 460/2012: Comilla.

As a result of the rejection from police, plaintiff filed the case at the tribunal under
11(c)/30 of the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 on accusing her husband Md.
Manik Miah for dowry and torture. In support of their complaint, the plaintiff presented
only two witnesses but the court did not find anything truthful to go against the accused.
Moreover, the plaintiff, Aklima as P.W-1 and her father as P.W.-2 formally informed the
court there had nothing had happened, it was only family quarrel between husband &
wife. Finally, the case was dismissed.
Date of judgment: April 02, 2015.
5. Nari-o-Shishu Mamla No. 394/2010: Comilla.
The plaintiff filed the case before court under 11(c)/30 of the Nari-o-Sishu Nirjatan
Daman Ain 2000 against her husband and his accomplices, for demanding dowry of BDT
200000 and torturing. In the trail the court found that the allegation against the accused
was not true. The tribunal, then, acquitted the accused.
Date of judgment: April 07, 2015.

6. Nari-o-Shishu Mamla No. 620/2013: Comilla.

The case was filed by the victims elder brother at the police station by accusing victims
husband and two other family members of victims husband for demanding dowry BDT
200000 and torture. Police investigated and provided charge sheet under 11(c)/30 of Nari-
o-Sishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 against the accused. During trial, the tribunal found
that the evidence that presented by the victim was too weak to prove the case. In addition,
at one of the trial, the plaintiff party lost interest to continue the case and informed the
tribunal that victim had negotiated with her husband and agreed to resume their congenial
life. The tribunal then released the accused persons.

43
5.6 Jurisdiction of the Tribunal:
No Tribunal shall take cognizance of any offence without any report in writing, by any
police officer not below the rank of sub-inspector, or any person empowered by the
Government for this purpose:
Provided that, if the Tribunal is satisfied that the complaint has requested to take
complain of an offence to the police officer or any person empowered, but failed, the
Tribunal may take cognizance of that offence directly with out such report.
Also provided that if the Tribunal thinks necessary for the exactness and justice, it can
take cognizance of an offence notifying the reasons behind, though there is no complain
or recommendation for any proceeding regarding the offence, in the report.
i. When any offence or part thereof, ifs committed in the jurisdiction of a
Tribunal or the place where the offender or where more than one offender, one
of them is found, is under the jurisdiction of that Tribunal, the report on the
complaint shall be taken for cognizance in that Tribunal and the Tribunal shall
try the offence. iii. If any offence under this Act is related with another, as
such that the offences are needed to be tried together or in a single trial for the
ends of justice, the other offence shall be tried with the offence under this Act,
together or in the same Tribunal, following the provision of this Act.

5.7 Appeal:
The party aggrieved by the order, judgment or punishment imposed by the Tribunal, can appeal to
the High Court Division within the period of sixty days against such order, judgment or
punishment.

44
 CHAPTER SIX
FINDING AND RECOMMENDATIONS

45
6.1 Findings
Bangladesh has endorsed the Platform for Action (PFA) of the Fourth World Conference
of Women held in Beijing in 1995 without any reservations and it committed to ensuring
its implementation at national level. Accordingly a National Action Plan (NAP) was
drafted (February 1997) for the advancement of women through reviewing twelve
ministries. Apart from other issues, the NAP envisaged a specific national policy on
violence against women adopting the definitions of Beijing Platform of Action.5

Following the NAP, the government declared a National Policy on Women on 8 March
1997. The National Policy identified actions against violence against women as a priority
area for government intervention. It suggested the following specific actions for the
eradication of all kinds of oppression against women:
Eradication of physical, mental and sexual harassment at the family and social level,
rape, prostitution of women, dowry, and violence against women.
Amendment of the existing laws, which are repressive to women in order to update
these laws and formulation of new laws and giving special assistance to the oppressed
women.
Stop trafficking of women and rehabilitate women who have been trafficked.
Eradicate oppression of women, ensure participation of women in judicial system, and
at all levels of police force in order to implement the laws properly.
Make judicial procedures easy so that all legal procedures to prevent the torture of
women and the girl child and trafficking are complete within six months. Similarly,
the Fifth Five-Year Plan has identified elimination of all sorts of violence against
women, including trafficking of women and girl child as one of the goals. More
specifically, the Plan suggested adoption of appropriate measures towards
The reduction of insecurity faced by women and girls;
The elimination of all sorts of violence against women, and for the treatment and
rehabilitation of violence survivors; and
The elimination of trafficking of women and girl children (The Fifth Five Year plan,
1997-2002). From the eighties, due to the increasing pressure put forward by womens
movement for combating violence against women, the Government of Bangladesh has
undertaken series of steps and measures designed to reduce violence against women
which will be discussed as follows:

46
6.2 Recommendations
1. Assault and battery within marriage and marital rape should be recognizes in the
Women and Children Repression Act, 2000.
2. Removal of remaining reservation on CEDAW Article 2 and 16.1(c) is needed.
3. The family court governed by Family Law Ordinance 1985 should be lead by a 1st
class magistrate or Judge whose authority must be same.
4. Training and orientation to Law enforcement personnel on VAW human rights and
gender to remove negative and disrespectful attitude of police towards women.
5. We have to correct our moral views of children. It is also necessary to amend our
social values.
6. Governments should introduce strict law by amending existing laws regarding child
to cope with present situation and sternly implement those laws.
7. The Existing Woman and Child Repression Act 2000 should be amended. There
should be an individual bare Act in name, the Child Repression Act for children
only. In every district, Government should establish an individual Tribunal for Child
Repression. There should be the provisions in this aforesaid proposed Act that a
punishment of not less than death for person/s who commit or abate in child
homicide. The trial should be finished within two months.
8. Massive print and electric media campaign to be ensured in order to create social
awareness of violence against women.
9. Legal aid system must be strengthened for the victims of violence against women.

47
CHAPTER SEVEN
CONCLUSION

48
7.1 Conclusion

In the end, it is not possible to say that even after taking all the steps till now, it is not
possible to improve the situation of women and children. Although there have been some
changes in comparative images It has been seen that in many cases, facing various
barriers or challenges in getting real support. If we want to remedy women and children's
repression, we have to work firmly today. If necessary, there will be strong pressure on
the government. Women and child repression cannot be stopped if the material is not
completely prevented by the depletion of values. Therefore, discrimination, injustice,
bias, and moral degradation must be removed from society.

Children are probably the most neglected members of society and hardly have any voice,
even within the home. As a result, they are consistently becoming easy victims of all sorts
of violence. Though there is the Children Act 1974 purported to dealing with juvenile
justice, even that, too is inadequate. Furthermore, the legal system, especially the criminal
justice system and more specifically the law enforcement agency are indifferent to
such laws and more often than not treat children just as they would treat adult criminals.
Violence against children must stop and the judiciary, law enforcing agents and the
parents and guardians of children themselves, must be sensitised to the provisions of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and the laws protecting children in Bangladesh.
Furthermore, children need to be protected from vested interest groups and acts of
impunity towards children by those purporting to protect society must be dealt with
seriously and in accordance with the law.

49
 Bibliography
BOOKS:
1. Ahmed, A. and Quasem, M. A (1991). Child Labour in Bangladesh, Dhaka: The
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
2. A report: Child Abuse within the Global Context- Development within
Bangladesh (2002). (http://www.disabd.org/pcsa.php)
3. Child Protection & Support from Abuse, Exploitation & Trafficking, p- 8,
Published by Aparajeyo Bangladesh (2006).
4. Declaration n the Elimination of violence against Women, United Nations
General Assembly 1993.
5. Sharminjahan Tania, criminal justice system: special criminal legislation for
violence, Bangladesh journal of, special issue, November2007),.2001..
6. Family courts ordinance Act,1986
7. Dr. Taslima Monsoor - Its affect on the empowerment of Muslim women,
Bangladesh bar council, second edition.
8. Nari O Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain. Mahammad Mahabubur Rahaman supreme
court of Bangladesh.
Web References:
1. violence-sexualviolencedefinitionof-violence, last visited 24 April 2015],
2. ptttp://ww.en.wikpedia.orgwildviolence against women, last visited 9 March
2011]
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[http://www.adherents.com/miscviolence.html, last visited 31 March 2016]
5. http://en.wikipedia.orgwiki/Dhaka

Statute
1. The Constitution of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh.
2. The Children's Act, 1974.
3. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1980.
4. Muslim Marriages and Divorce (Registration) Act
5. Muslim Marriages and Divorce (Registration) Rules, 1975.

Newspapers
The Daily Star
The New Age.
The Daily Prothom Alo.

50