Devoting
tirelessly to the public interest activities in the field of conservation of
environment and to ensure a safer environment for everyone, especially in the
country’s environmentally devastating ship breaking industry, Syeda Rizwana Hasan,
Chief Executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyer Association (BELA), has
become a legendary figure in the battle for ensuring environmental justice in
Bangladesh.
Ms.
Hasan, an Advocate (Attorney) in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh recently has
been named as one of six recipients of the 2012 Ramon Magsaysay Award.
The
Ramon Magsaysay Foundation recognizes Hasan for her ‘uncompromising courage and
impassioned leadership in campaign of judicial activism in Bangladesh that
affirm the people’s rights to a good environment as nothing less than their
right to dignity and life,’ as announced by the Board of Trustees of the
Foundation on their official website.
The
Award, widely considered as the Nobel Prize of Asia, is the region’s highest
honour and Ms. Hasan is the 11th Recipient from Bangladesh. Other
Recipients from Bangladesh are Professor Muhammad Yunus, Sir Falze Hasan Abed,
Tahirunessa Abdullah, Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed, Matiur Rahman etc.
On
31 August 2012, at a ceremony in Manila, Philippines, Ms. Hasan has received
the Award with others awardees from the honorable President of
Philippines.
Born
in 1968, Ms. Hasan did her schooling at Viqarunissa Noon School in Dhaka and
Graduation in Law from the University of Dhaka.
She
joined BELA in 1993 when BELA at its foundation stage, and take over the charge
of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) upon the death of organization’s founder
and promising Human Rights Lawyer, Dr.
Mohiuddin Faruq.
Since
her joining to BELA, Ms. Hasan has dedicated herself to environmental justice.
She came first in spotlight when she successfully sued mayoral candidates in
Dhaka for the violation of the Environment Act, 1860 during their campaigns in
old Dhaka.
Ms.
Hasan is best known for demanding regulation on the ship breaking trade in
Bangladesh, the only countries in the world continues to have a flourishing
ship breaking industry, a dangerous and abusive industry responsible for
polluting ecosystem and endangering workers life.
She
has been focusing both on workers’ rights as well as halting the detrimental
effects of the industry and for this she had to go through a hard battle.
As
a result of continuous activism and advocacy, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh
in March 2009 had laid down the strict regulations on the industry which
resulted to close down of 36 yards operating without environmental clearance
certificates for years.
The
Court also imposed restriction on the import of Greenpeace listed contaminated
ships.
Ms.
Hasan’s organization, BELA has also been campaigning for preservations of
wetlands and traditional forest, against the commercial shrimp cultivation and
trade, and industrial pollutions.
Ms.
Hasan has few others Awards and prizes to her credit including the The Goldman
Environmental Prize in 2009. She is also branded as a Hero of Environment by
the renowned US news magazine, TIME
in 2009.
We
congratulate Ms. Hasan for her great endeavors and hope that her uncompromising
activism will encourage others to come forward.
[Links
of reports on Ms. Hasan’s works: http://www.belabangla.org/about.htm;
http://www.siliconeer.com/past_issues/2009/may-2009/may09-Battling-Toxics-Rizwana-Hasan.html,
Reported by Akramul Islam, a Student at the Department
of Law, University of Dhaka and Volunteer at the Human Rights Law Clinic at the
South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (SAILS) in
Dhaka.
No comments:
Post a Comment