Bangladesh – CEDAW Alternative Report of Civil Society Organisations in Bangladesh in 2016 – Women’s Rights & Gender Equality

Supported by: International Land Coalition (ILC)

Write up: Kirti Nishan Chakma and Rowshan Jahan Moni

Executive Summary

Bangladesh, with an estimated current population of 160 million in a territory of 155,000 kilometres, is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Sex distribution in the population is largely evenly distributed. Majority (92%) follows Islam but there is a sizable minority of Hindus, besides a negligible number of Buddhists and Christians.

Bangladesh has witnessed steady economic growth in the recent decades. Along with it its agriculture and agrarian economy has seen big changes with accelerated pace of rural outmigration towards the large urban centres resulting with more women assuming increased responsibility for the households management and in agriculture.

Bangladesh ratified CEDAW in 1984 with reservation to the Article 2 and the Article 16(1)(c). Bangladesh also ratified the Optional Protocol in 2000 with reservation to the Articles 8 and 9.

The Constitution of Bangladesh stipulates equality of its citizens and bans all discriminations based on gender, caste and creed. Further all the laws and policies follow these principles of the constitution. However, the country’s family law is based on religious traditions. However, given the patriarchal nature of the religious traditions, this also means that family laws in Bangladesh are usually discriminatory to the women.

A review of the current status of CEDAW implementation shows an incoherent and somewhat dismal picture. Bangladesh has made noticeable progress in many areas, however, progress is held back in other areas too. While, some of the laws and policies are very explicit on the issue of gender and women’s rights including on the implementation of CEDAW, there are equally policies and laws which are more muted on these issues. The recommendations below are made based on this backdrop:

1. Bangladesh should make immediate steps for the ratification of the remaining two articles of CEDAW. Along with, it should equally
take similar steps for the ratification of the Articles 8 and 9 of the Optional Protocol the two articles that it is yet ratify.

2. Subsequently, Bangladesh should take immediate steps to change the family laws recognizing the equal rights of the women of all religious groups in matters related to inheritance, divorce, maintenance, and adoption and custody of children. This should begin with the revision and amendment of the current Islamic inheritance law and followed subsequently through a time-bound plan of action for a ‘uniform civil code’ for all the religious and ethnic communities on the basis of the principles of CEDAW. The initiative should be undertaken trough an inclusive consultation process specially, involving women from all walk of the society.

3. Further, Bangladesh should take immediate measures to invite the CEDAW Committee to investigate and provide recommendations on the state of the rights of women in Bangladesh.

4. Alongside, Bangladesh as a responsible stakeholder of the international community, should initiate measures for full ratification of the other UN human rights treaties, conventions and declarations.

5. The Government of Bangladesh should seek revisions of the existing development policies in a time-bound framework in partnership with the civil society and women representatives and organizations to incorporate the vision for realization of equal rights between men and women.

6. A capacity building programme of the concerned government agencies and officials on related subjects is very much essential for Bangladesh in order to see further progress on CEDAW. Such a programme should first target MoWCA and its subsidiary agencies but also the larger civil society stakeholders for raising their skills on advocacy, social mobilization and human right promotion.

7. The Government of Bangladesh should initiate immediate revision of the concerned laws and policies with a time-bound frame, to give recognition to the women as ‘farmer’ for their role in promoting and sustaining agricultural productions in the country. These revisions should fully open the door to them to access to the government agriculture support inputs and credit facilities.

8. The revision of policies should be accompanied with commensurate actions comprising of relevant programmes for the sustainable impacts of the policy frameworks. An example is the actual state of implementation of the Khas Land Management and Settlement Policy of 1997. Despite some good measures to provide equitable rights to the women over government khas land, numerous studies repeatedly have shown that retention rate by women of their khas land is very low. This dismal figure strongly suggests the need of concrete programme supports beyond a legal and policy framework. “Women with able son”, one of the criteria for women claiming Khas (public) land, need to be removed to allow more women accessing Khas land.

9. The Government of Bangladesh should immediately initiate more pro-active actions for inclusion of the marginalized peoples, groups and communities, including the indigenous peoples and indigenous women in its development plans and programmes.

10. It is very important that the government, such policy and programme supports are culturally appropriate and sensitive to the vulnerable socio-economic and political conditions of the marginalized communities, in particular the indigenous peoples. The impacts of sudden mass-tourism in certain parts of CHT leading to alleged increase in forced prostitution should sound an alarm bell to all the concerned stakeholders in this regard. The Government of Bangladesh may draw relevant guidance from various international guidelines and policies including the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure-VGGT of FAO.

Direct Link to Full 45-Page 2016 Bangladesh NGO CEDAW Alternative Report: Women’s Rights, Gender Equality

http://www.landcoalition.org/sites/default/files/documents/resources/int_cedaw_ngo_bgd_25332_e_bangladesh_alernative_report.pdf

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)