People should get united and speak up against unfair practices and corruption to build a society in line with the core values of independence, a conference of Transparency International Bangladesh's (TIB) citizen group was told yesterday.

"People can't do anything alone. When we are united, we can enrich ourselves," said rights activist Sultana Kamal, adding it was the responsibility of every citizen to create and uphold moral and ethical values in society.

She made the remarks at the inaugural session of the "Sonak-Yes Jatiyo Sommelon 2016", the eighth national conference of TIB's citizen members, who work towards good governance in their localities.

Sultana, chairperson of TIB, talked about the lack of accountability existing in the country.

"Murders of children, extrajudicial killings, grabbing of other people's property are going on unabated as the criminals know that they will not be held accountable for these crimes," she said.

Even the organisations, responsible for bringing these criminals to book, do not carry out their duty responsibly and sincerely, she alleged.

About 3,000 members of the Committee of Concerned Citizens (CCC), Youth Engagement Support (YES), Shojon, and YES Friends, all working for TIB, from all over the country joined the daylong conference at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital.

Noted writer Selina Hossain, also general secretary of the trustee board of TIB, called upon people to create a social movement against corruption in education and health sectors.

She said any blow against the country's culture and tradition including the Ekushey book fair should be resisted.

"We must resist together those who are killing our bloggers and daring to attack our writers." 

In his welcome speech, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of TIB, said criticisms from powerful quarters must be considered part of the profession.

"A powerful quarter tried to give us a political stripe recently; we have been even compared to ISIS, but we must ignore these and continue to work towards our goal of fighting corruption," he said.

At an open discussion on the theme of the conference "Jagroto Bibek, Durjoy Tarunya Durniti Rukhbei" (conscience and the invincible youth will resist corruption), the citizen members said TIB should introduce the "honesty" prize to award less-corrupt individuals and organisations.