Establish good governance to ensure human rights

Justice Mohammad Golam Rabbani speaks at a workshop on 'Rights and governance' organised by Women for Women at Cirdap auditorium in the city yesterday. On his right is Women for Women President Prof Mahmuda Islam and on his left is Vice President Prof Jahanara Huq.Photo: STAR

As in the present governance system people's participation is limited to electing the representatives only, the country needs a system of self-governance to ensure rights of people, said Justice Mohammad Golam Rabbani at a workshop yesterday.
The workshop on 'Rights and Governance' was organised by Women for Women at Cirdap auditorium in the city.
Speaking as chief guest Justice Rabbani said self-governance needs local government having administrative and financial power to carry out development activities.
He said although the caretaker government is talking about reforms, it has failed to present a guideline for reforms in the absence of a self-governance system.
The workshop was organised to disseminate the results of Rights and Governance Project funded by Manusher Jonno Foundation.
The project aims at improving the government service system through the development of skills of government personnel for establishing a good governance to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
The objectives of the three-year project that ends in September next also include assessing the level of awareness of government actors about governance and rights and their practice on dispensation of right-based approach in government service system.
The project is also aimed to strengthening the capacity of government training institutes to enhance the knowledge and skills of government personnel towards promoting human rights and good governance.
Speaking as special guest, Executive Director of Manusher Jonno Foundation Shaheen Anam said there is no way to separate rights from governance.
“The rights are violated often as our regulatory mechanism is not working well,” she said, adding, if we cannot establish good governance our rights will continue to be violated.
The speakers said the project would play an important role in increasing awareness among the government officials that human rights are incorporated into good governance.
Prof Mahmuda Islam, president of Women for Women, chaired the inaugural session while Vice-president Prof Jahanara Huq read out the keynote paper.
Chairman of Public Service Commission Dr Saadat Hossain, Dr Mohammad Mohabbat Khan, Dr NA Kalimullah, Dr Asif Nazrul, former adviser to a caretaker government ASM Shahjahan, Dr Saira Rahman Khan, UM Habibunnessa and Additional Inspector General of Police Hasan Ul Haider also spoke on governance, judiciary and human rights at the workshop.