(The Daily Star, Bangladesh) – As many as 418 children were murdered in the country last year, up by 23.30 percent from the previous year, says a report by Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum.

In 2017, at least 339 children were killed, mentions the report titled “State of Child Rights in Bangladesh 2018” unveiled in the capital’s Dhaka Reporters Unity yesterday.

Analysing the reasons behind the killings, it found that in most cases, children were murdered over trivial matters, family or conjugal dispute, dowry, extramarital affair and enmity.

In some cases, children were beaten to death over trifles or on false allegations of theft. There were incidents in which a parent killed his or her child and then committed suicide, BSAF Director Abdus Shahid Mahmood said while releasing the report.

The findings are based on media reports published in 15 national dailies.

It said 4,566 children fell victim to different types of incidents last year, up by 18.75 percent from the previous year. The number was 3,845 in 2017.

Incidents of child rape fell by 3.71 percent last year when 571 children were raped. The number was 593 in 2017, the report pointed out.

The country saw verdicts in 31 child murder cases and 50 cases over child rape last year, said the BSAF director.

“This reflects a sign of impunity and lengthy trial process in incidents of violence against children,” he said.

Apart from murder, suicide, road crash and drowning were among the main causes of death of children last year, according to the report.

Sharing the findings, Shahid said 627 children were killed in road accidents last year, up by 75.63 percent from the previous year.

Besides, 606 children drowned last year. The number was 391 in 2017.

Forty-six children died due to wrong treatment by doctors and negligence of the authorities concerned. The number was 35 in 2017, the report said.

Last year, 812 children fell victim to sexual violence, including rape, — a 9.71 percent fall from 2017 when 894 children faced such incidents, according to the BSAF.

A total of 262 children suffered violence and torture, including corporal punishment, last year, compared to 271 in 2017.

It said 233 children went missing and 150 others were abducted last year. Of those kidnapped, 136 were rescued.

In 2017, at least 177 children were abducted, and 188 others went missing. Of the abductees, 98 were rescued.

Moreover, 396 children were injured in different incidents, including road accidents and attempted murder last year. The number was 231 in 2017.

The report also mentioned that 38 incidents of child marriage were reported last year, and at least 134 children averted it, thanks to government intervention.

BSAF Chairperson Khawaja Shamsul Huda said the actual number of incidents of violence against children could be higher as many such incidents go unreported.

The BSAF urged the government to take effective measures to ensure speedy trial of incidents of violence against children, exemplary punishment of the culprits and quick implementation of the verdicts.

It said parents should be more cautious to stop sexual violence against children.

The forum also called upon development organisations to strengthen their awareness campaigns to check violence against children.

Addressing the programme as the chief guest, National Human Rights Commission Chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque said the commission was not satisfied with the overall status of child safety in the country despite progress in some areas.

Violence against children cannot continue this way, he said.

“We want an end to child marriage in the country. We want that no child will become a victim of rape.”

Reazul stressed the need for setting up a directorate and a national commission to deal with issues of child rights.

He also urged the government to formulate rules in line with the Children Act 2013 and the Child Marriage (Restraint) Act 2017.

Sharmeela Rassool, chief technical adviser of the UNDP’s Human Rights Programme, said about 1.3 million children have been involved in hazardous work in Bangladesh.

Efforts should be made to improve their condition, she added.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

President Omar al-Bashir waves to supporters during a rally in Khartoum on January 9. Sudanese authorities have revoked the credentials of at least six journalists working for international outlets. (Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

By Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON DC, Jan 22 2019 (CPJ)

Sudanese authorities yesterday revoked the credentials of at least six journalists working for international news outlets, including Qatar-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera, according to news reports. The outlets have been covering demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashir. Bashir is due to travel to Qatar today for his first international trip since the protests began in December, according to reports.

“Sudan’s move against the international media is another desperate attempt to muzzle the press during this period of unrest,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “It is particularly ironic that Al-Jazeera journalists are denied their right to report as Bashir travels to Qatar.”

Sudanese security officials yesterday revoked the credentials of Al-Jazeera correspondents Osama Ahmed and Ahmed Alrehaid and camera operator Badawi Bashir; and Al Arabiya correspondent Saad el-Din Hassan, the journalists’ outletsreported. The same day, authorities revoked the credentials of Turkish Anatolia Agency correspondent Bahram Abdel Moneim and photographer Mahmoud Hajjaj, according to the local press freedom group Sudanese Journalists Network. In a statement, Al-Jazeera denounced Sudan’s “arbitrary decision” and called on authorities to reinstate the accreditation.

By Staff Correspondent
Jan 20 2019 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

Bangladesh will see the third quickest growth in the number of high net-worth individuals in the world in the next five years, according to a new report of New York-based research firm Wealth-X.

The country’s high net worth (HNW) population with a net worth of $1 million to $30 million will expand by a compound annual rate of 11.4 percent between now and 2023, showed the firm’s inaugural High Net Worth Handbook 2019.

The report, published on Wednesday, says Nigeria is set to see its HNW population balloon by a compound annual rate of 16.3 percent, followed by Egypt at 12.5 percent.

In the ranking of the 10 fastest-growing HNW population countries, Bangladesh is ahead of Vietnam, Poland, China, Kenya, India, the Philippines and Ukraine.

The study drew on research from more than 540,000 HNW individuals to forecast its outlook for global wealth growth over the next five years.

Last year, the world’s HNW population rose by 1.9 percent to 22.4 million, an increment below the rate of global economic growth. Their combined wealth also grew by 1.8 percent to $61.3 trillion.

Backed by strong GDP growth and relatively more stable equity markets compared with other regions, Europe, the Middle East and North America saw positive growth in their HNW populations in 2018.

Asia, which saw its billionaires and UHNW populations grow faster than any other region in 2017, saw less than 1 percent growth in its HNW population and its wealth last year. While Asia’s GDP grew by more than 8 percent last year, its stock markets plunged by more than 11 percent during the same year.

In 2018, the US remained by far the dominant HNW nation with 8.67 million individuals. China has the second-largest HNW population, at just under 1.9 million individuals.

Japan, with just over 1.6 million HNW individuals, comes in third place. European economic powerhouse Germany has the fourth highest HNW population, followed by the UK and France.

Canada, South Korea, Australia and Italy came in the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th places respectively.

The top 10 countries accounted for 75.2 percent of the global HNW population and 73.8 percent of the total HNW wealth last year. In absolute terms, the top 10 countries added more than 387,000 HNW individuals compared with 2017, with combined net worth in the countries rising by an annual $1 trillion.

With the world’s population passing the 8-billion threshold by 2023, the report expects the number of HNW individuals to exceed 30.1 million, an increase of more than 7.7 million compared with 2018. The amount of HNW wealth is projected to rise to $82.2 trillion, meaning wealth of an additional $20.9 trillion would be created over the next five years.

The top 10 HNW cities are New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Tokyo, Washington DC, London and Paris.

The majority of the HNW individuals have finance, banking and investment as their primary industry. Manufacturing and technology came second and third in terms of the top HNW industries.

Business services as an industry is in the top five industries. The fifth industry for the HNW population is construction and engineering.

The proportion of wealthy individuals whose fortunes are predominantly self-made continues to increase, and this is largely due to environments of free enterprise that foster accelerated wealth creation and the dynamism from technology-related industries.

In 2018, 83.8 percent of wealthy individuals were self-made and the proportion of inherited wealth dropped to 4.5 percent.

The proportion of women HNW individuals continued to rise gradually over recent years and increased further in 2018 to a record high of just below 16 percent.

Outside of wealth creation, and with some fitting symmetry, philanthropic activities are one of the main activities of the global ultra wealthy population; and to a lesser extent, HNW individuals. After a dip following the global financial crisis a decade ago, global philanthropic giving has recovered and reached record heights.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Nobel Peace laureates -- Yemen's Tawakkol Karman and Northern Ireland's Mairead Maguire -- in tears hearing the harrowing tales of Rohingya refugees at Thyangkhali camp in Ukhia yesterday. Photo: Video grab

By Staff Correspondent
Feb 27 2018 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

No one would realise better than a woman how it feels when a child is snatched away from the arms of a mother and slaughtered, a man is murdered before the eyes of his wife, or a girl is raped.

That is what happened to countless Rohingya women back in Rakhine State of Myanmar.

As three Nobel laureates listened to such harrowing tales of tortured women and children one by one in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, they could not hold tears back.

The trio, all of them mother themselves, then urged Myanmar’s de facto leader and their fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to speak out about violence against the Rohingyas, often dubbed one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

They implored her to “wake up” to the brutalities, warning she otherwise risks prosecution for “genocide”.

The three Nobel Peace Prize winners — Tawakkol Karman, Shirin Ebadi and Mairead Maguire — demanded those responsible for the atrocities in Rakhine should be hauled to the International Criminal Court.

“We appeal to Aung San Suu Kyi, our sister laureate. Think of your children being pulled off your arms, because you are a mother, and massacred and villages burnt,” said Maguire, who is from Northern Ireland.

“Don’t deny the Rohingya people their right to life,” she said in an emotion-choked voice after listening to the Rohingya women at Thyangkhali refugee camp in Ukhia of Cox’s Bazar yesterday.

A violent military crackdown launched last August sent 700,000 Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh, sparking an unprecedented humanitarian emergency in the border district where the refugees are now sheltered in teeming, squalid camps.

Accounts of mass killing, rape, looting, burning of villages and shooting of civilians kept coming with the refugees over the months, while global condemnation poured in for the army campaign which the UN termed a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing”.

Nobel Peace Laureate from Northern Ireland Mairead Maguire talking to a Rohingya refugee during her visit to Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia on Sunday. Photo: AFP/collected

Yemen’s Tawakkol Karman said it is time Aung San Suu Kyi woke up, or she will be one of the perpetrators of the crime.

“If she could not stop all this crime, she has to resign now. It is very important,” she said, adding Suu Kyi otherwise could be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court.

“We, women Nobel laureates, call for those criminals prosecuted at the ICC … so we don’t expect our sister Aung San Suu Kyi to be one of them in the future. If she will continue her silence, she will be one of them.”

The Nobel laureates came to Bangladesh on Saturday and began a visit to the Rohingya camps to assess the allegations of violence against Rohingya women and the overall refugee situation.

The Nobel Women’s Initiative, a platform of six female peace laureates established in 2006, is organising the visit in partnership with Naripokkho. On Sunday, they visited the refugee camps in Kutupalang and Balukhali.

They held a meeting with Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Abul Kalam in Cox’s Bazar yesterday morning and visited the refugee camps in Thyangkhali.

The three laureates, who all through their lives have fought for human rights and democracy, expressed their anger at the inaction of world leaders over the Myanmar crisis.

The UN Security Council discussed the Rohingya issue several times but failed to take any concrete action against Myanmar that had denied the minority people citizenship and rights to education, movement, healthcare etc.

The Rohingyas have been fleeing since 1980s and the latest influx that began on August 25 last year is the largest, raising the number of refugees in Bangladesh to over a million.

In the first 10 days of this month, about 1,500 Rohingya crossed over from Myanmar.

‘CLEARLY GENOCIDE’

“Every single woman we met said they were raped, they lost families. One woman’s baby was taken off and butchered by the Myanmar soldiers. This is clearly clearly clearly genocide that is going on by the Burmese government and military against the Rohingya people,” added Maguire.

Terming it an orchestrated attempt to remove the Rohingyas out of Myanmar and out of history, she said the Nobel laureates reject the genocide policy of Myanmar.

“We reject this genocide policy of the Burmese government. They will be taken to the ICC and those who are committing genocide will be held responsible.

“As a human family, we cannot allow genocide of a whole people. The world must act,” said Maguire, who spent her life in bearing witness to oppression and standing in solidarity with people living in conflicts.

“We have, as a human family, to remove impunity because a people and military think they can kill and slaughter little children because this is a slaughtering way of allegiance in a massive massive scale. Where is our world going?”

An official briefing the three female Nobel Peace laureates — Iran’s Shirin Ebadi (left), Mairead Maguire and Yemen’s Tawakkol Karman — as they visit the Thyangkhali camp yesterday. Photo: AFP/collected

She further said, “The international community has to say enough is enough and we all have to raise our voices and not remain any more silent.”

Yemen’s Tawakkol Karman said the Rohingyas are really facing genocide, a massacre, but the international community has “disappeared”.

“It is shame for all of us, for the international community that they are silent in front of the genocide,” she said, calling for the perpetrators of the crimes to be held accountable and tried at the international court.

The first Arab woman to win Nobel Peace Prize, Karman said the sufferings of the Rohingyas have been going on for decades under the eyes of the world.

“Now we are seeing an ethnic cleansing. That’s shameful with the world, shameful that these women have been raped and their children slaughtered. The worst crime is that they have been displaced from their homes, their country.

“Now this is a real real appeal to the international community, the UN and the Security Council to wake up. It is the time now to wake up.”

Later, Karman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation she had spoken to 15 women who said their husbands and some of their children had been killed, and they had been raped repeatedly by soldiers.

“You can’t imagine what we heard today,” said Karman, who won Nobel Peace in 2011 for her nonviolent struggle for the safety of women rights and peace-building in Yemen.

Iran’s Shirin Ebadi said that as members of international community it is their upmost demand Myanmar military be taken to the International Court of Justice.

“We are all paving the way for that,” said Ebadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for promoting human rights, in particular the rights of the women, children and political prisoners.

Meanwhile, she said, Rohingya refugees are still coming into Bangladesh that must stop because it is not good for the minority group and it also creates intense pressure on the people of Bangladesh.

The Nobel laureates expressed gratitude to Bangladesh government and people for their generosity in hosting the refugees, and urged the UN and international community to ensure the Rohingyas have basic needs and services.

“We are with you, with Bangladeshi people,” said Karman.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Excerpt:

12 Nobel laureates, 15 other eminent citizens call upon UNSC in open letter.

By Staff Correspondent
Sep 14 2017 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

Twelve Nobel laureates and 15 other eminent global citizens yesterday urged the UN Security Council to intervene immediately to end the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

“We call on UNSC to intervene immediately by using all available means. We request you to take immediate action for cessation of indiscriminate military attack on innocent civilians that is forcing them to leave their home and flee country to turn into stateless people,” they said in an open letter to the president and member states of the UNSC.

The move comes at a time when around 3.7 lakh Rohingyas fled Myanmar Army’s crackdown in Rakahine in the last two weeks and entered Bangladesh. More are expected to come while some 87 are estimated to have died in boat capsize on their way across the Bay of Bengal.

The signatories of the letter thanked the UNSC president and member states for holding the UNSC meeting on Rohingya crisis yesterday.

They urged the UNSC to persuade Myanmar government to take immediate steps to implement the recommendations put forward by the Rakhine Advisory Commission that Myanmar itself established last year under the pressure of the international community.

The Advisory Commission, comprised of mostly Myanmar citizens and chaired by Kofi Annan, recommended providing citizenship to the Rohingyas, allowing them freedom of movement, rights and equality before the law, ensuring communal representation, lack of which affects Muslims disproportionately, and facilitating UN assistance in ensuring safety and security of returning people.

“The fear became reality through the attack on Myanmar security forces by the militants. Unless, constructive effort to build lasting peace is taken, the situation will get worse which in turn may pose serious security threat to the neighbouring countries.”

To implement the recommendations, the signatories suggested reappointing the commission members immediately to constitute an Implementation Committee to oversee the implementation of the recommendations, taking immediate steps to stop the outflow of Rohingyas, inviting international observers on a regular basis to visit vulnerable areas, taking back the refugees and building camps within Myanmar to rehabilitate Rohingyas upon their return with UN financing and supervision.

Of the signatories, 10 Nobel peace laureates are Prof Muhammad Yunus (2006), Betty Williams (1976), Oscar Arias Sánchez (1987), Shirin Ebadi (2003), Tawakkol Karman (2011), Máiread Maguire (1976), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984), Jody Williams (1997), Leymah Gbowee (2011), Malala Yousafzai (2014), and two Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine — Sir Richard J. Roberts (1993) and Elizabeth Blackburn (2009).

Apart from them, 18 eminent global citizens — former Malaysian minister for foreign affairs Syed Hamid Albar; business leader and philanthropist Sir Richard Branson; entrepreneur and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim; Voice of Libyan Women and SDG advocate Alaa Murabit; former Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya; business leader and SDG advocate Paul Polman; director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Jeffrey D. Sachs; business leader and philanthropist Jochen Zeitz; former Italian foreign minister Emma Bonino; former prime minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland; human rights activist Kerry Kennedy; business leader Narayana Murthy; former secretary-general of ASEAN Surin Pitsuwan; former president of Ireland Mary Robinson; Actor and SDG advocate Forest Whitaker, actor and activist Shabana Azmi; poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar and former chair of Human Rights Commission, Pakistan Asma Jahangir singed the letter.

“The human tragedy and crimes against humanity unfolding in the Arakan region of Myanmar need your immediate intervention. This is one of the decisive moments when bold and decisive actions are needed promptly when it is still possible to get it resolved,” they said.

According to different organisations, the recent military offensive by the Myanmar Army in Rakhine state has led to the killing of hundreds of Rohingyas and hundreds of thousands displaced.

“Complete villages have been burned, women raped, many civilians arbitrarily arrested, and children killed. Crucially, humanitarian aid organisations have been almost completely denied access, creating an appalling humanitarian crisis in an area already extremely poor.”

Referring to the huge influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh, the eminent personalities in the letter said human misery created by such massive displacement of men, women and children under the threat of death is getting worse every day.

“Some of us denounced the previous spate of violence late last year and wrote to you to intervene. However, the situation has not improved. We urge you to take decisive actions to stop the violence against innocent civilians and bring permanent peace in Rakhine state.

“The arguments that the Myanmar government is using to deny Rohingyas their citizenship are ludicrous, to say the least. At independence of Burma from the British in 1948 and under successive governments, Burma recognized the people of all ethnicities within its border, including the Rohingyas, as full citizens, having representation in the parliament.”

The military juntas in the 1980s had decided that Rohingyas were not Burmese. “Accordingly, they stripped the Rohingyas of their citizenship. They used military and political means to make sure that the Rohingyas leave the country. Systematic persecution aiming at ethnic and religious cleansing began.”

The Nobel laureates and other luminaries joined the Secretary General of the United Nations in re-emphasizing that the grievances and unresolved plight of the Rohingya have festered for far too long and are becoming an undeniable factor in regional destabilisation. The authorities in Myanmar must take determined action to put an end to this vicious cycle of violence and to provide security and assistance to all those in need.

“A bold change in approach is needed by United Nations and the international community if there is to be an end to the cycle of violence against the Rohingyas. The government of Myanmar needs to be told that international support and finance is conditional on a major change in policy towards the Rohingya.”

Propaganda and incitement of hatred and all violence, particularly state violence against Rohingyas, must stop, discriminatory laws and policies must go and the recommendations of Kofi Annan’s commission must be implemented immediately, they emphasized.

The world is anxiously waiting to see that the UNSC is playing its role to bring an end to a humanitarian catastrophe and build peace in the region, they summed up.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh