Promoting human rights in Bangladesh: The role of professionals

Despite constititional guarantee and an elaborate legal framework aimed at
protecting individual human rights, human rights situation in Bangladesh is
clearly unsatisfactory. Although there has been a number of initiatives made in
recent years on part of both government and NGOs to safeguard human rights of
individual citizens and/or to provide necessary support in legal matters, the
overall record has not improved much. This paper argues that to make a dent on
the situation concerted effort by government, NGOs and other civil society
organisations is needed. In particular, it argues that the professionals can and
should play a more constructive role to protect and promote human rights.
Professionals, particularly those at the local level, should come forward and act
as catalysts of social change not only by teaching and educating people about
basic human rights but also by advising for and insisting on registration of
marriages, discouraging dowry, violence against women, divorce, early
marriages etc. It is an ethical and moral imperative for the professionals to make
their services available for the cause of distressed humanity.