Natural or manmade, whatever it is, any incident of violence become a disaster itself for the victim women. The Speakers expressed their concern about the recent repetitive incidents of violence against women in Noakhali as well as all over Bangladesh in the coordination meeting of Preventing Gender-Based Violence against Women in Emergency- GBViE network arranged by Participatory Research & Action Network- PRAAN. The meeting was held in PRAAN secretariat, Maijdee on May 28th, 2022.
Bondhon Executive Director Aminuzzaman Milon, Gandhi Ashram Trust Executive Director Raha Naba Kumar, Union Parishad Member Rowshon Akhter Lucky, Noakhali Judge Court APP Golam Akbar, Advocate Md. Akram Uddin from BLAST joined the meeting with other participants. Nurul Alam Masud, Chief Executive of PRAAN moderated the event.
The meeting started with a short preview of the discussions of the previous meeting. The participants shared their opinion on establishing a multisectoral referral pathway for violence victims.
The speakers mentioned several measures to establish an information and support hub in different Upazila of Noakhali. To provide legal and health protection to the victims, a dedicated member of staff can be assigned to the CSO offices, especially in marginal areas, to provide information and support with psycho-social counselling where women do not get enough mobility or access to information and other relevant services. As the next step, an alliance of lawyers can be developed to ensure legal advice and services to the victims of violence. Thus, a collaboration between the hospital, law enforcement agencies, and lawyers can be helpful to ensure the continuity of support till the expected outcome.
The speakers also shared from their experiences that the Upazila Disaster Management Committee (UzDMC) is not active in Noakhali. This network can create pressure on the relevant authority to activating this committee and here the Red Crescent Societies can collaborate with monitoring the shelter centers as they have constant activities related to this.
The burning issue of the digital form of violence was also discussed in the meeting. About an incident that took place in Noakhali Park (https://www.dhakapost.com/country/116898), the speakers said, the photos of the detained adolescents were published on social media. The detainment is strictly violence against human rights as well as publishing photos. The law enforcement authority themselves do not realize these rights issues. Here remains a huge necessity to sensitize them on human rights. This is high time measures should be taken to raise awareness of the human rights approach. Seminars and training programs can be arranged on this and posters and leaflets can greatly contribute to the purpose too. A plan should be developed to disseminate learning on responding to different forms of violence against women. We can select staff from the network member organizations and train them to set up a complaint hub to support the victims and a central team can be designed.
20 people joined the meeting including representatives from civil society organizations.
