The present programme strategies are mass awareness on human rights and providing legal support to poor and vulnerable people to run case to protect and promote human rights especially for the destitute groups of people. Manabadhikar implements projects though it’s 350 Chapter/Branch Offices located at district level. The Branch Offices consisting of staff members, volunteer lawyers and selected relevant civil society members but Manabadhikar staff members have good functional communication with Police Stations for sharing data related to legal issues. To make the programme more demand driven and results oriented the following strategies are recommended.
- Rights and Social Security
- Developing functional systems for education and awareness on human rights and social security
- Immediate medical support services for poor and vulnerable women and children or victims
- Family planning and maternal health care within the working zone/campuses.
- Develop Social model of rehabilitation and execution.
- Shelter home provision and establishment
- Introduce Insurance for victims for small scale
- Working with trusted partner
- Education on Human Rights
- End violence against women including promotion of gender equality and safe spaces throughout society and government
- Connect violence against women to the denial of their civil, political, economic, social, & cultural human rights
- Promote sexual and reproductive rights to reduce maternal & infant mortalities & avert medical complications
- Promote women’s and children right to health via awareness about good hygiene, physical education, disease prevention and nutritional security
- Promote children access to primary and advanced education
- Moral rights -These are not enforced by law, and those who violate them are not punished by law but criticized by the public.
- Legal rights- Violation of legal rights is punishable by law. Legal rights are divided into social and political rights. Social rights- These are rights that allow people to live in a civilized manner.
- Political rights- These includes -right to live within the territory of the State, temporarily or permanently, without disturbing its interest and security (Article 13, UDHR); right to vote and be elected (Article 21,UDHR);right to petition the government for redress of grievances (Articles 7 and 8,UDHR) and to criticize the government’s activities.
- Community Led Approaches
- Identify the non political/non profitable real community groups as beneficiaries ( combination of community people, civil society people ,good king. elite, community police ,UP,NGOs representatives)
- Define group’s role and organization’s role through a very informal MOU
- Developing capacity/provide training on basic human rights issues/ lesions to all the members.
- Encourage to emerge leadership from them naturally who will come forward to take responsibilities
- Make trust on them, delegate and hand over sticks to them to handle them
- Provide appropriate/ timely/free legal support and ensure its availability from organization part
- Developing community leader driven campus with support of the organizations
- Celebrate them by the high level authority of the country/ regions etc.
- Develop group network and develop Human rights lab within the community.
- Ensure bottom up planning and participation in decision making process in major activities.
- Monitoring by groups and civil society people.
- Capacity Building
- Capacity building for organizational core teams that the team member of all the core team should have adequate skills and knowledge to operate the organization following its core values, principles to fulfill vision. Mission and goal using retroactive policies, strategic plan and organizational mandate.
- Capacity building for all Program irrespective position, grade ,project and initiatives people to develop their skills and knowledge to implement the uniqueness the organization’s activities and it progress review and evaluation following the program principles and approaches with efficiently and cost effectively and that would make a greater and significant impact in protect and promotion of human rights for the poor and vulnerable people in Bangladesh.
- Capacity building for proper documentation and reporting, M&E frame work and data processing, maintaining and setting up the knowledge management unit and staff, and sharing the best successes and practices with national and international forum to disseminate the human rights activities to all level of audience.
- Capacity building for the number of experts/ staff to develop unit of generate innovative ideas of work/ proposal for fund raising activities both in local and international donor.
- Local Level Partnerships
- Direct and partnership delivery
Social security is also human rights that need to be more strengthened through a comprehensive approach of the organization. Usually in developing countries, country efforts is to establish social security systems and safety net to encounter obstacles such as the scale of poverty, lack of administrative capacity, debt burden & structural adjustment policies. Conventional programs that are based on the needs of urbanized wage-earning workers cannot be easily adopted to meet the needs of the large poor rural populations in developing countries. Similarly, conventional programs are often not suited for meeting the needs of large numbers of people who are working in the informal sector. General characteristics of social security in developing countries are (a) establish comprehensive social security schemes with universal coverage (b) tend to target special groups (children, pregnant mothers, etc.) and aware the rights and entitlements .
Thus, it is important to take a broader view of social security in situations of poverty and deprivation with an underdeveloped economy. Social security should be seen as “the prevention, by social means, of very low standards of living irrespective of whether these are the result of chronic deprivation or temporary adversity.” From a broader perspective on social security, the role of public action becomes essential. It would demand the design of a greater variety of schemes including providing free legal aid support, awareness on human rights, This includes the right to information on violence against women and punishment for perpetrator, penalty for perpetrator for domestic violence, mitigating dower money, divorce rights of women and other fundamental rights such as elderly, widows’ pensions and food-for-work programs as well as improvements in sanitation, water supply and education.
An effective and equitable social security system cannot be established in a context in which government is undemocratic and corrupt, and avenues of public protest and participation in the policymaking process are nonexistent. So a holistic approach on rights and social security prevention strategy would be developed by establishing empowerment of platforms, organizational legal aid services, core staff of the organization, skilled staff and proven experienced experts.
Prevention strategies are as follows:Human rights education is an important part of Bangladesh’s school curriculums and a significant part of textbooks at the primary, secondary, and higher secondary levels. When Bangladesh emerged in 1971 as an Independent country, it emphasized human rights education for children, who early on learn their civil, social, political, and legal rights from education systems curriculum and this is a country level education on human rights. However, considering the strategic issues and human rights trend as identified in the plan development process, right now organization BSEHR believes that five key areas of change in Bangladesh are needed to dramatically improve the position of women and children across the country because of proper education on human rights.
such as:To make the sustainable organizational work there is no other alternative except working with more closely and engaging community on human rights protection and promotion interventions. Community led approach is one of the most powerful approach to make a sustainable change in the society in terms of empowerment of the people especially women & children to practice, protect & promotion of human rights.
This approach will allow to be more authentic the organization to pro poorer, empowering and strengthening community groups to respond on human rights issues, providing legal services and social security’s with ensure the right to all information related to human rights and violation as well as access to justice. Considering the above approaches, the following role/notion need to be incorporated in the community led approach.
The above community platform formation and strengthening would be able to mobilize themselves, raise their voice, participate in local power structure, and mediate their disputes by themselves in a sustainable way.
Capacity building for the program staff as well as organizational core staff is a fundamental issue that identified in the strategic development process. Capacity building of the organization as a whole is a way forward and it would also be a measuring tools to review the progress of the organization for their overall work performance. In order to building capacity ,quite a number of areas that need to be strengthened through capacity building process, such as management and staff efficiency, program development and cost effectiveness, program monitoring frame work, documentation & reporting, knowledge management , skill development for technical staff, ( program and budgeting ).
There are four major areas need to be capacitated gradually for the organization in strengthening process. These are as followsStrengthening local level partnership beside the partnership at central level. Opportunities and challenges are vary from area to area, so Manabadhikar can take the local opportunity, especially it have organized chapters at local level can more contribute with minimum additional support. Manabadhikar can lead to form an network initiative with all NGOs working on human rights for national level policy advocacy. Strengthen local level partnership with concerned NGOs, private sector, media, police, etc by signing MOUs either at local or national level. This will be effective to get timely support from these potential partners to successfully implementation of project.
Arrange legal aid support on Integrated programme in a selected special Upazila/s: The Manabadhiker’s programme has very well in horizontal coverage but it has no enough vertical coverage. Hence, there is big scope to work by covering more vertically in a Upazila/few Upazilas by taking all level intensive interventions for relevant stakeholders i.e., school students, religious leaders, local government representatives, communities, Upazliza and police administration, adolescent, women, youth, village court, prevention of violence against women and children and law and order committees at Union and Upazila level, etc to reduce violation of human rights. Convergence can be done with other actors if found working in same geographical areas with similar types of intervention to avoid overlap of resources and to produce synergetic results. It can be pilot basis to develop a model to promote and protect human rights and by reducing number of violence