CJ Sinha calls for ending abuse of women in justice system
Young women awaiting trials are being sexually assaulted at a shelter home in Gazipur, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha said yesterday.
He said that visiting the centre he found out a number of women were not produced before the court.
"They have been confined there year after year and sexually assaulted," he said, adding that he informed the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission about the matter but nothing had happened so far.
The chief justice urged women's rights leaders and activists to help these women, at the launch of a book, "Landmark Judgments on Violence against Women of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan", published by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF).
At the event in the Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium, the chief justice also asked activists to help women wrongly convicted and serving terms at Sylhet Central Jail and women who were trafficked to India, Thailand and Malaysia.
He urged lawyers to help at least one poor woman, who cannot afford legal support, every six months, as part of their civic responsibility.
Talking about the link between education and women's vulnerability and repression, Justice Iman Ali talked about the prevention of child marriage.
Mentioning that people come up with different tricks to bypass the law that restricts the minimum marriageable age for females at 18, he said, "They produce affidavits increasing the age and the government is now thinking to decrease the minimum age from 18 to 16. This will be like hacking one's own foot with an axe," he said.
Citing a rape case of a 13 year-old-girl where the accused was acquitted for a lack of evidence, he stressed the need for sensitisation of judges.
"Sensitisation does not happen overnight but it has to be done," he said.
Chairing the programme, Executive Director of MJF Shaheen Anam said the book would help to strengthen people's trust in the legal system about getting justice.
"A judge's attitude and perception play an important role in deciding whether the victim women would get justice or not," she said.
Supreme Court lawyer Fawzia Karim Firoze, who conducted the study for the book, presented a summary of the 633-page book with about 50 judgments on rape, marriage, murder and special nature cases, which upheld the honour and dignity of women.
The book is the second volume on such judgments from 2006 to 2011. The first volume was published on similar judgments from 1972 to 2005.
Barrister Amir-Ul Islam said such a book should also be taught at educational institutions so that it helped change values.
Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, SC lawyer Sigma Huda and MJF Director Rina Roy also spoke.
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