If anyone takes democracy as living organ then human rights has to be taken as the respiratory system of that organ. Democracy can breathe afresh if human rights prevail properly. In the context of present global democratic manoeuvring, everyone can by far comprehend the relevance and significance of human rights. Let us take examples from present global affairs. The reason why the West is condemning the Syrian president Basher Al Assad is that, in general, he is depriving his countrymen of their rights to expression and protest against oppression. In Bangladesh, why the civil society is condemning ‘crossfire’ or ‘shootout’ by Rab is that even a criminal has the right to take refuge under law in a democratic system. We found human rights in a fragile state both under the despotic and the democratic systems of government, because an essential component was absent in both the cases. It is nothing but transparency. Human rights need transparency to flourish in full swing.

Transparency in human rights points to having clear concept and information about human rights, active involvement of people and assurance of their access to rights based activities and development work. Transparency in human rights is not a linear process but a two way course. People have to have clear concept about human rights while, at the same time, government has to be accountable to the people in ensuring human rights. In our country both of the processes lack clarity. People have little knowledge about human rights while the government provides meagre information to the people. Thanks to the development of media and media technologies, a bridge between people and information about their rights has taken shape. We are informed every day about most parts of the world and, of course, of our country through the media. In case any woman is beaten up by her husband, a child is deprived of its childhood necessities or any person is denied access to information from a public office – all are brought reported by the media.

However, there is the question of ‘ifs and buts’ here. Media can come up with the best possible outcomes only when it can work independently. At this level we can consider media as the blood circulation system in democracy. If there is no free flow of blood, any living organ will collapse. And in a similar manner, if there is no freedom of media then democracy will cease to exist.

It has been experienced how media played a decisive role in propelling the Arab Spring towards a sublime consequence. Knowledge about information and communication technologies (ICTs) and social media is also important. In Egypt, media was under the control of Hosnie Mubarok regime. But the revolutionaries successfully managed to create an alternative media. They created a local network through mobiles and laptops and kept contact by ‘facebooking’ and ‘twittering’. Therefore, revolutions are becoming colourless. We no longer recognise revolution as red, velvet or green but as facebook or Twitter revolution.

But independent media cannot alone do the job if people remain ignorant about it. People have to be aware of human rights. Public awareness is greatly important here. In Bangladesh people have little access to information and thus are ignorant about their rights as human beings. The government alone cannot make people aware and, in most of the cases, they do not want it at all. Therefore, the situation demands that something beyond governmental efforts should be done either at public or private level.

Some local and international development organisations have now been working to promote human rights in Bangladesh. International development communities are working in collaboration with local NGOs for bringing transparency in human rights along with many other social issues. For instance, Relief International, a US and UK based international development organisation, is working in Bangladesh to promote human rights in collaboration with Democracy Watch, Ahsania Mission, Odhikar etc. The European Union is also funding such efforts under European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) initiative. It provides development organisations with funds for strengthening the culture of human rights and empowering media so that it can work as safeguard for human rights. It also funds journalists from various districts in Bangladesh with professional skill development trainings, roundtable, monthly FM radio talk shows and workshops on media reporting on human rights and against human trafficking. The US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour is also funding promotion of freedom and democracy and protecting human rights. These aims are also central to the US foreign policy. This bureau funds for professional development workshops, mini grants, usage of ICT and social media tools for human rights activists and fact finding and documentations etc. The international development agencies are focusing on human right issues because the prominent phenomenon of the international development policy is to develop human rights situation in Bangladesh so that democracy could find a strong basis here.

The development works implemented so far have resulted in some significant progress in the areas of human rights and other social concerns. Since the development organisations are doing great work, they must be appraised first. But still there are ample opportunities to involve people in the development works in more diversified ways. For instance there can be theatrical presentation on human rights by using street theatre media. Very few Bangladeshi national dailies dedicate their supplement for human rights issue. There may also be sponsored supplementary on human rights. TV channels can dedicate a single episode drama on human rights at least once in a month. Bangladeshi people are now much aware of social media. A recent statistics says, Bangladesh has two million Facebook users. Social media like Facebook, Twitter can also be utilised to concern people more about human rights.

Daily Sun, 10 Feb 2012