2 UN experts in city

Two independent UN experts arrived in Dhaka yesterday to investigate the relationship between sanitation and human rights in Bangladesh.
Magdalena Sepulveda, research director at the International Council on Human Rights Policy in Geneva and Catarina de Albuquerque, a human rights activist and lawyer, began their weeklong visit with a press conference held at the Dhaka Reporters Unity yesterday.
It was organised in conjunction with the Human Rights Forum on Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Bangladesh, which is a network of 17 human rights based organisations.
In a joint press release, De Albuquerque and Sepulveda said, “In Bangladesh, extreme poverty is related to a lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
“A better understanding of this relationship will help us determine how these problems can be overcome.”
Sepulveda supports the recognition of sanitation as a distinct human right and contends that international human rights law requires states to ensure access to clean drinking water.
De Albuquerque and Sepulveda will meet with government officials, UN agencies and civil society representatives.
They will visit minority communities in Comilla, as well as Bihari camps in Dhaka, a Dalit colony and the Burmese ethnic group the Rohingyas in Cox's Bazaar.
They will also visit a Unicef project in Sirajganj.
Human rights activist and executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra Sultana Kamal welcomed the experts' visit and praised the Bangladesh government for inviting them.
She added that she hopes a clear picture of the status of sanitation, drinking water and extreme poverty in Bangladesh will emerge in their forthcoming report, which will be presented to the Human Rights Council in 2010.
Other members of the Human Rights Forum UPR Bangladesh who attended yesterday's press conference included Mohsin Ali Khan, Zakir Hossain, Syeed Ahmed and a Dalit community member Saloman.