Dhaka: The Department of Law and Human Rights, University of Asia Pacific (UAP) on Sunday organized a special seminar titled ‘The Ignored Universal Human Rights: Bangladesh Perspective’ in order to observe the World Human Rights Day 2016.

Held at UAP city campus, the seminar was participated by 60 law students, teachers, lawyers, journalists and others.

Dr. Shahdeen Malik, Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and Adjunct Professor of Law at the UAP; Dr. Shahnaz Huda, Professor of Law at the University of Dhaka; Mr. Muhammad Jahangir, Senior Journalist and Columnist; and Barrister Jyortirmoy Barua, Advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh spoke at the seminar.

Barrister Jyortirmoy Barua talked about the unsecured condition of right to privacy in Bangladesh. Highlighting his practical experiences relating to the mobile SIM’s biometric registration and the collection of citizen’s personal information by the police, he criticized the initiatives of the government from the perspectives universal human rights jurisprudence. Giving examples of some case studies, he apprehended such initiatives might threaten the citizen’s right to privacy as Bangladesh does not have any personal data protection law. He also emphasized that members of our judiciary must be trained up with the development of technology as legal instruments and initiatives have many technological implications.

Muhammad Jahangir spoke on the issue of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. He said media houses now-a-days have developed a tendency of imposing self-censorship fearing the action of the government. He urged the young people to raise their voices against all sorts of injustice and violence.

Dr. Shahnaz Huda talked on the personal law and family matters of people who profess different religions. She showed how discriminately law applies against women in all religions. Showing different international laws where women’s equal rights have been ensured before marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution, she criticized the legal system of Bangladesh which does not sufficiently protect women’s rights in the family structure. She hoped that the government would take concerted steps to eliminate legal injustices for the betterment of the women population.

Dr. Shahdeen Malik spoke on the recent issue of enforced disappearances where mostly the law enforcing agencies are allegedly involved. He feared that if such practice continues, someday our democratic rights and voices would disappear.

Professor Dr. M R Kabir, Pro-VC of the UAP, thanked all the speakers for talking on the less-discussed human rights issues of Bangladesh. He hoped that young researchers specially the law students and academics across the country would endeavor to investigate the socio-legal problems and come out with efficacious solutions.

The seminar was hosted by Ms. Nazia Wahab, Head of the Department of Law and Human Rights, UAP.