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EDITOR
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Editorial
‘Fortnightly’
পাক্ষিক |
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Sheikh Hasina
praises Bangladeshi peacekeepers for global efforts
Human Rights Report
Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina has called on the members of
Bangladesh's army, navy, air force and police
deployed for global peacekeeping efforts to work
with professionalism, honesty, dedication and
sincerity, reports bdnews24.com.
In an address on Saturday to mark International Day
of United Nations Peacekeepers, the prime minister
said all Bangladeshi peacekeepers should believe in
themselves and that the government would do all it
could to address their material needs.
"Not only do the brave individuals involved in
peacekeeping efforts represent our country, they
also advance our image in the world, which the
people of Bangladesh will never forget," Hasina
said.
"Keep the pride you feel in our flag in your hearts
and work to bring peace."
The prime minister spoke with several peacekeepers
on a video conference call from her official
residence Ganabhaban, asking them about their
current situations.
"If you ever have the need for anything, please let
us know. Do not hesitate," she said. She also told
them to look after their own health and safety.
International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers has
been commemorated on May 29 each year since it was
first introduced in 2003.
Of the 80,184 UN peacekeepers deployed in 122
countries, 6,742 are from Bangladesh, accounting for
8.4 percent of the total force, Hasina said. This
group includes 284 women peacekeepers.
The event was also attended by Foreign Minister AK
Abdul Momen, Army Chief Gen Aziz Ahmed and UN
Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Mia Seppo.
"We urge the international community to remain
focused on this issue for a viable solution through
sustainable repatriation," she said.
The Prime Minister said the Covid-19 pandemic has
devastated the health systems and economies across
the globe. Nearly 2.95 million people have died and
hundreds more are dying every day of the deadly
disease, she said.
.
BHRC Human Rights
Report on May- 2021
1169
people died of Covid-19 in May 2021
Total 240
person killed in May 2021
Human Rights Report:
The documentation section of
Bangladesh Human Rights Commission (BHRC) and
International Human Rights CommissionIHRC jointly
furnished this human rights survey report on the
basis of daily newspapers and information received
from its district, subdistrict and municipal
branches. BHRC survey found a total of 240 deaths in
the killings. According to official figures, 1169
people died of the Covid19 in all over the country.
In May 2021, there were an average of 38 Covid19
deaths and 8 deaths in killing per day. The Law
enforcing agencies and related Govt. departments
should be more responsible so that percentage of
killing May be brought down to zero level. To
institutionalize the democracy and to build human
rights based society the rule of law and order must
be established everywhere. Through enforcing rule of
law only such violation against human rights can be
minimized.
2420 persons died by corona virus in April 2021
according to official estimates
It appears from documentation division of BHRC:
Total 240 persons killed May 2021
Killing for dowry 1, Killed due to social
discrepancy 8, killing by family violence 12,
Political Killing 4, Killed by Law enforcing members
2, Abduction 2, Assassination 4, Mysterious death
29, Women & Chilled killed due to rape 2.
Killed by several accidents:
Killed by road accident 172 & Suicide 4
Besides victims of torture:
Rape & Torture for Dowry 1.
Mamata Banerjee
sworn in as West Bengal Chief Minister for 3rd time
Human Rights Report:
Apart from senior TMC leaders like its Secretary
General Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Mukherjee,
Mamata's poll strategist Prashant Kishor and her
lawmaker-nephew Abhishek Banerjee were present at
the swearing-in ceremony.
Leaders of opposition parties including the BJP, the
Left and the Congress did not attend the ceremony,
reports our New Delhi correspondent.
Mamata took the oath in Bangla, quite natural for a
person whose main plank was Bengali sub-nationalism
to resist the Hindutva narrative of BJP.
Mamata alone took oath today and her cabinet will be
expanded with the induction of other ministers on
May 9, the birth anniversary of Nobel laureate
Rabindranath Tagore, TMC sources said.
The oath-taking ceremony was held even as the BJP,
which has emerged as the main opposition party in
the state with 77 seats, held a protest at nearby
Hastings office against attacks on its workers
allegedly by TMC since Sunday night.
The saffron party has claimed that several of its
workers were killed and party offices were set on
fire and vandalised. Party president JP Nadda and
state unit chief Dilip Ghosh were present at the
protest.
Referring to incidents of violence post-election
results, Mamata said, "I will tackle law and order
from today and deal with these sternly. This is my
second priority." "We will not spare anyone
(perpetrators of violence), and will do everything
to restore law and order," she told journalists
after taking oath. She urged all political parties
to help maintain peace and order.
To end pandemic,
70% need to be vaccinated: WHO
Human Rights Report:
WHO warns that the Covid-19 origins probe is being
poisoned by politics
The WHO's European director warned on 28 May 2021
that the Covid-19 pandemic won't be over until at
least 70% of people are vaccinated.
The World Health Organization's regional director
for Europe Hans Kluge also said that one of his main
worries was the increased contagiousness of new
variants of the virus. "We know for example that the
B.1617 (variant found in India) is more
transmissible than the B.117 (British variant),
which already was more transmissible than the
previous strain," Kluge said.
Meanwhile, WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan told
reporters that efforts to uncover the Covid-19
pandemic's origins were being hampered by politics,
insisting scientists needed space to work on solving
the mystery. "We would ask that we separate the
science from the politics," he said.
Biden budget: President sets out $6tn spending plan
Human Rights Report:
US President Joe Biden has released his first annual
budget - a $6tn (£4.2tn) spending plan that includes
steep tax increases for wealthier Americans.
The bumper proposal would include huge new social
programmes and investment in the fight against
climate change. But it needs approval from Congress,
where Republican Senator Lindsey Graham condemned it
as "insanely expensive".
Under the plan, debt would reach 117% of GDP by
2031, surpassing levels during World War Two.
That would be in spite of at least $3tn in proposed
tax increases on corporations, capital gains and the
top income tax bracket.
Former President Donald Trump, a Republican, also
ran up the deficit each year he was in office, and
his final annual spending proposal had a price tag
of $4.8tn. The Biden budget includes a $1.5tn
request for operating expenditures for the Pentagon
and other government departments. It also
incorporates two plans he has previously publicised:
his $2.3tn jobs plan and a $1.8tn families plan.
Mr Biden, a Democrat, said his budget "invests
directly in the American people and will strengthen
our nation's economy and improve our long-run fiscal
health".
What's in the plan?
The White House says the proposal will help grow the
economy from the bottom up and middle out.
This budget promises:
More than $800bn for the fight against climate
change, including investments in clean energy $200bn
to provide free pre-school places for all three and
four-year-olds $109bn for two years of free
community college for all Americans
$225bn for a national paid family and medical leave
programme - bringing the US in line with comparable
wealthy nations
Canada mourns as
remains of 215 children found at indigenous school
Human Rights Report:
The Kamloops Indian Residential School in British
Columbia once housed 500 children
A mass grave containing the remains of 215 children
has been found in Canada at a former residential
school set up to assimilate indigenous people. The
children were students at the Kamloops Indian
Residential School in British Columbia that closed
in 1978.
The discovery was announced on Thursday by the chief
of the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was a "painful
reminder" of a "shameful chapter of our country's
history".
The First Nation is working with museum specialists
and the coroner's office to establish the causes and
timings of the deaths, which are not currently
known.
Rosanne Casimir, the chief of the community in
British Columbia's city of Kamloops, said the
preliminary finding represented an unthinkable loss
that was never documented by the school's
administrators.
Canada's residential schools were compulsory
boarding schools run by the government and religious
authorities during the 19th and 20th Centuries with
the aim of forcibly assimilating indigenous youth.
Kamloops Indian Residential School was the largest
in the residential system. Opened under Roman
Catholic administration in 1890, the school had as
many as 500 students when enrolment peaked in the
1950s.
The central government took over administration of
the school in 1969, operating it as a residence for
local students until 1978, when it was closed.
What do we know about the remains?
The Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation said the
remains were found with the help of a
ground-penetrating radar during a survey of the
school.
"To our knowledge, these missing children are
undocumented deaths," Ms Casimir said. "Some were as
young as three years old."
"We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of
deepest respect and love for those lost children and
their families, understanding that Tk'emlups te
Secwepemc is the final resting place of these
children."
Thousands rally in Washington DC in support of Palestinians
Human Rights Report:
Thousands rally in Washington DC in
support of Palestinians
ATLANTA: Thousands of people from all over the US
converged on Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on
Saturday for the National March for Palestine.
Speakers demanded that the US government sanction
Israel for its aggression and discrimination against
the Palestinians, and for committing "war crimes"
during its latest war on Gaza.
At least 254 Palestinians were killed, including 66
children and 39 women, and 1,910 wounded, according
to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Twelve people in
Israel were killed. American Muslims for Palestine
(AMP), one of the main organizers of the march, said
it has developed a grassroots campaign titled
"Sanction Israel" that aims to press the US
government to hold Tel Aviv accountable for its
human rights violations and its occupation of
Palestinian territories.
"Millions of Americans around the country are
joining to say there must be an end to this ugly,
immoral and illegal status quo," Osama Abuirshaid,
executive director of AMP.
The protest is one way to assert the Palestinians'
"inalienable right to life, dignity, freedom and
justice," he added, criticizing the Biden
administration for going ahead with licensing $735
million in weapons sales to Israel despite a public
outcry and opposition from some members of Congress.
Jinan Shbat, national organizer for the
Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC),
which participated in the protest, told Arab News
that it was a milestone for pro-Palestinian activism
in the US in terms of the size and diversity of the
crowd, which included Jewish, African-American, and
other ethnic and religious groups.
"For so long, our tax dollars have funded the ethnic
cleansing of the Palestinian people," she said. "We
came today so we can say it loud and clear to this
administration that we as Americans will no longer
be complicit in funding these atrocities."
London Deputy Mayor is now a Bangladeshi woman
Human Rights Report:
Jotsna Rahman Islam, a daughter of Bangladesh, has
been elected as the Deputy Mayor of London Bar of
Redbridge. She is the daughter of Abdur Rahman
Monnaf Miah of Ekatuna Union in Moulvibazar Sadar.
He was appointed to the annual virtual meeting of
the Redbridge Council on April 29. The Bengali
community sees this success of Jotsna Rahman Islam
as the success of another Bangladeshi woman in
mainstream British politics. Jotsna Rahman Islam and
her husband Sam Islam have been serving as
councilors of the same council. They have a son and
a daughter. They live in Redbridge, London.
Deputy Mayor Jotsna Rahman Islam was born in 1967 in
London. But later he returned to the country at the
wish of his parents. He studied at Ali Amjad
Government High School and Moulvibazar Government
College in Moulvibazar. In 1968 he went to London
again. There he did an MBA in addition to a job in
local government. Jotsna Rahman Islam is currently
the Vice Chairman of the Redbridge Labor Party.
Chopra requests
for help as India is suffering from Covid-19
Human Rights Report:
Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra took to Twitter on
Monday to express her concerns about India's
struggle during the horrific second wave of the
Covid-19 pandemic. The country is in a dire need of
vaccines to avoid more Covid-19 related deaths, the
actress said.
She also requested US President to help and
'urgently' share vaccines.
Tagging the president of the United States of
America Joe Biden and other high ranking officials,
Priyanka said that "the situation in my country is
critical. Will you urgently share vaccines". She
also stated that while India is suffering from a
horrific second wave of the pandemic, the US has
ordered 550M more vaccines than needed."
While some Twitter users remarked that Priyanka's
appeal is a delayed response to the Covid-19
situation in her country of origin, others lauded
her for taking an important first step.