Please - Odhikar

Synopsis of Activities Covering the Three Project Years
Due to the many reported incidents of alleged police abuse and torture in police custody,
Odhikar commenced a program, in 2003, with the support of the AED, of annually monitoring
four specific police stations, two within and two outside Dhaka Metropolitan City, in order to
monitor the use of legal provisions of arbitrary arrest, the behavior of police towards detainees
and common people, and the overall condition of the police stations. The second component of
the project consisted of carrying out fact-finding missions into incidents of serious human rights
abuse caused by law enforcement agencies through out the country. The third component of the
project was advocacy with policymakers by organizing public discussion meetings on the
findings of police station monitoring and fact-finding missions. This kind of combined project
was supported by the AED in 2004 and 2005 as well, so that Odhikar could expand its work
area.
Odhikar raises awareness through the media, the printing and distribution of annual reports and
at planned discussion meetings and these are also the medium by which the information obtained
on its fact finding missions are disseminated and discussed. From year 2003 to 2005, as part of
the AED funded projects, Odhikar organized three very successful South Asian regional
discussion meetings on pressing issues of human rights violations perpetrated by law
enforcement agencies in the police stations and outside.
Project Goals
The goal of the project was to highlight the violation of civil and political rights through
investigation and research and to monitor the activities of law enforcing agents in order to help
contribute to the movement for good governance.
Specific Objectives
�Investigate the human rights abuses perpetrated by law enforcing agencies, including the
abuse of specific laws, torture in remand and other forms of verbal and physical abuse, as
reported in several leading newspapers and through Odhikar’s local networks and human rights
defenders.
�Monitoring 4 police stations (Thana) every year, (4Thanas x 3years =12 thanas), which
includes 6 police stations previously monitored, as a follow-up program, with regard to the use
of Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 86/100 of the Dhaka Metropolitan
Police Ordinance (a law similar to S.54) and the Special Powers Act of 1974.
�Arranging a discussion meeting every year in order to highlight the findings of the
investigations and create an awareness of the abuses for the policy makers and implementers.
The meeting will invite representatives from concerned government agencies and ministries,
members of parliament, major political parties and media and civil society, including other
human rights organizations. Five prominent human rights activists and advocates from south and
south-east Asia will be invited to participate in this meeting in order to formulate a comparative
study of such police abuse in the region. There will be a separate topic for discussion every year,
related to the project activities.
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Report 2005