Expatriates in New York rally against Jamaat
Expatriate Bangladeshis have rallied in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York seeking executions for all convicted war criminals and a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami as a political party.
The protesters submitted a memorandum to be forwarded to the UN Secretary General for his attention.
Imran H Sarker, Spokesman for the Ganajagaran Mancha in Shahbagh, has expressed solidarity with the protest by phone and requested them to continue their movement until the demands are met.
Bangabandhu Parishad’s US unit President Dr Nurunnabi coordinated the teleconference with Imran.
The rally kicked off around Sunday noon (local NY time, early Monday Dhaka time). The whole area was rocked by the independence time slogan ‘Joy Bangla’.
Bangladesh witnessed the beginning of an unprecedented mass uprising, led by youths, on Feb 5 after Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. Many people felt the sentence was ‘too light’ for the ‘Butcher of Mirpur’. Demonstrators initially limited their protests in capital Dhaka’s Shahbagh intersection, but it ultimately spread across the country and abroad.
At the beginning of the rally in New York, Bangladesh’s national anthem was sung and recitations from all religions followed. Saimon Hossain administered the oath taking of those gathered.
Students of various colleges and universities took part in it.
Various platforms of expatriate Bangladeshis joined the rally. Expatriates from Boston, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Atlantic City and New York joined the rally with placards and banners.
Many had Bangladesh’s national flag wrapped around their heads.
17.03.2013
Swiss tourist gang-raped in MP: police
The attack on Friday night in Madhya Pradesh
comes three months after a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang-raped and
beaten in a moving bus and thrown bleeding on to the street in a case that
sparked outrage in the country. She died later in hospital in Singapore .
One woman is raped every 20 minutes inIndia , according to the
National Crime Records Bureau. But police estimate only four out of 10 rapes
are reported, largely due to victims' fear of being shamed by their families
and communities.
The Swiss woman and her husband were touring the state by bicycle and were camping overnight in the forest.
Seven men attacked the couple in their tent and four of them raped the woman, Dilip Arya, deputy inspector general of police, told Reuters. They also stole their valuables.
The woman has since been discharged from hospital, he added. No arrests have been made.
After the physiotherapy student was raped and beaten inDelhi last December,
millions took to the streets demanding the death penalty for her attackers and
official action to reduce the number of assaults on women.
Four men and a juvenile are on trial for that attack. A sixth defendant, who police say was the ringleader, was found dead in his cell on Monday.
One woman is raped every 20 minutes in
The Swiss woman and her husband were touring the state by bicycle and were camping overnight in the forest.
Seven men attacked the couple in their tent and four of them raped the woman, Dilip Arya, deputy inspector general of police, told Reuters. They also stole their valuables.
The woman has since been discharged from hospital, he added. No arrests have been made.
After the physiotherapy student was raped and beaten in
Four men and a juvenile are on trial for that attack. A sixth defendant, who police say was the ringleader, was found dead in his cell on Monday.
UN body agrees on women's rights policy
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A UN policy-making body agreed upon a declaration Friday
urging an end to violence against women and girls despite concerns from
conservative Muslim countries and the Vatican about references to
women's sexual and reproductive rights.
While the declaration of the commission, created in 1946 for the advancement of women, is non-binding, diplomats and rights activists say it carries enough global weight to pressure countries to improve the lives of women and girls.
"People worldwide expected action, and we didn't fail them. Yes, we did it," Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile and head of UN Women, which supports the commission, told delegates on Friday after two weeks on negotiations on the text.
Shannon Kowalski, director of advocacy and policy at the International Women's Health Coalition, said the declaration was a victory for women and girls, but could have gone further to recognize violence faced by lesbians and transgender people.
"Governments have agreed to take concrete steps to end violence," she said. "For the first time, they agreed to make sure that women who have been raped can get critical health care services, like emergency contraception and safe abortion."
Earlier in the talks
A proposed amendment by
But on Friday,
'FREE OF FEAR'
The United States welcomed the declaration but lamented that references were not made to lesbian and transgender women and that the term "intimate partner violence" was not used to capture the range of relationships in which abuse can happen.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice last week boasted that all 50
Last year, disagreements over sexual and reproductive rights issues prevented the commission from agreeing upon a declaration of a theme of empowering rural women. The commission was also unable to reach a deal a decade ago when it last focused on the theme of ending violence against women and girls.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said states now had a responsibility to turn the 2013 declaration into reality.
"Violence against women is a heinous human rights violation, global menace, a public health threat and a moral outrage," Ban said in a statement. "No matter where she lives, no matter what her culture, no matter what her society, every woman and girl is entitled to live free of fear."
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