Standing up for someone is not an act of charity

The theme for Human Rights Day 2016 could not have been more timely and appropriate, 'Stand up for someone's rights today'. As the US election results helped unearth the growing intolerance to difference in many visibly liberal societies around the world, more people are feeling compelled each day to standby their neighbours, colleagues and friends. For Bangladeshis though, I imagine, it is a very tough choice to stand up and hold hands with survivors of human rights violations. Among many, two reasons are amplitude of survivors and costs and consequences of taking sides with the survivors.

In recent days, a college teacher was mercilessly beaten by police during a demonstration demanding nationalisation of his college and was also refused medical assistance leading to his death. The Santals villages in Gobindaganj were rampaged by police with impunity and the administrative defiance all through was remarkable. Communal attacks on Hindus were incessant throughout the year. Rampal Power Plant opponents are being beaten on and off by the police whenever taking the streets. Our Parliament is considering lowering the age of marriage as an exception to the minimum eighteen-year requirement as a solution to 'unwanted pregnancy'. Girl children aged 6-12 rank top among rape survivors.  NGOs and rights groups are being shoved for criticising government policies and being threatened with stricter laws. Any descent to the incumbent government is being marked as anti-people and anti- development. The arguments in the political sphere are being dubbed in the language of Human Rights versus Development rather than Human Rights and Development. It is indeed a real struggle for citizens to decide which cause to fight for and which to forego.

As I move from 'one issue to another' through Facebook like, comments and posts like many other resident and non-resident Bangladeshis, one evening I was taken aback to see thousands of Montrealers taking the downtown streets with placards and slogan 'We Believe Survivors' in support of sexual assault and abuse survivors. The protest against Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project is also youthful and budding. While my stay abroad does not allow me to witness in person the thin lines of protesters in support of under-aged rape victims or for the communal attack victims in Nasirabad but the relatively small number of protesters warrant that much of our activism have become confined to social networking sites.

We rarely speak out and when we do, it is mostly out of peer pressure without any serious engagement with the cause or the perpetrators or the survivors in question. We pour as much outrage as we can on use of communal language by an MP but nothing meaningful to exert pressure in stopping any future communal attacks. We are not thinking beyond the moment and repeatedly failing to follow up incidents, which have once set the networking sites to fire.

Notably we are often transgressing the limits of law and victim or survivor's right to privacy while projecting to advance their cause.  What all of us need to recognise is that it is up to the survivors to bring their story to public gaze and we should create an enabling environment for the survivors to come forward with their stories and demands of justice. The survivors should not be rendered voiceless by spreading the words over social networks against their wish.

We have the limitless possibilities of defending human rights through peaceful, timely and well-thought protest campaigns. Standing up for someone is not an act of charity or vanity, rather it is offering shoulder to a fellow human being so that we all can stand on equal footing, flourish and grow.

The writer is a PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, McGill University and Faculty Member (On leave), Department of Law, University of Dhaka.