Participatory Democracy for the Better Protection of Human Rights

Conference Report

By Emraan Azad

The Bielefeld University, Germany, and the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh recently organized a two-day International Workshop from 16 to 17 October 2012 in Dhaka.

The theme of the workshop was “Controversial Democratic Spaces: Land, Environment and Human Rights in Bangladesh.” It was a platform for academics and rights activists to generate ideas on critical issues regarding land, environment and human rights in the context of Bangladesh.

Among other issues, the workshop explored both modes and dynamics of land dispossession in Bangladesh. It reflected on how environmentalism and human rights, through their vernacularized meanings, in relation to land dispossession, intersect at the local level, and how thereby local political spaces have evolved.

The workshop was organized as part of a three-year research project, “Micro-dynamics of Political Communication in World Society” of the Research Group Social Anthropology at the Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, and in collaboration with the Department of Law, University of Dhaka.

The workshop was inaugurated by Professor Shahnaz Huda, Chairperson, Department of Law, University of Dhaka and Professor Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka, Director of Research Group Social Anthropology, Bielefeld University.

The Research Group at Bielefeld University aims to study the global spread in terms “democracy” and “democratization” based on their local appropriation in Bangladesh.

This was a unique simulation, which incorporated the real-life experiences of global human rights situations.

Professor Katy Gardner of Sussex University rightly examined the processes of “accumulation by dispossession” in an era of corporate social responsibility by drawing attention to the means by which global corporations, in particular mining companies, gain access to the new territories where they operate, whilst at the same time establishing their moral and legal rights to do so. She particularly referred to the case study of Chevron's Bibiyana gas extraction plant in Sylhet.

The workshop was divided into four discussion panels which were chaired by Professor Borhan Uddin Khan, Department of Law, University of Dhaka, Professor Eva Gerharz of the Development Sociology, Ruhr University, Professor Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka of Social Anthropology of Bielefeld University, Professor Asif Nazrul of the Department of Law, University of Dhaka, and Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh respectively.

Amongst others, Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD); Dr. Atiq Rahman, Executive Director at Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Professor  Amena Mohsin of the Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka, Professor  Mesbah Kamal of the Department of History, University of Dhaka, Professor Shelley Feldman of Cornell University, Dr. Meghna Guhathakurta, of  Research Initiatives Bangladesh, Professor  Taslima Monsoor, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Dhaka, Dr. Ridwanul Hoque of the same Faculty, and Mr. Sanjeeb Drong, General Secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Forum participated in various sessions. 

Emraan Azad is a Student at the Department of Law, University of Dhaka and Volunteer at the Human Rights Law Clinic (HRLC) at UNESCO Madanjeet Singh South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (UMSAILS) in Dhaka.