Law and Our Rights

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“All Citizens are Equal before Law and are Entitled to Equal Protection of Law”-Article 27 of the
Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh

Issue No: 180

March 6, 2005
Law book review
This week's issue:
• Law Opinion
• Human Rights Monitor
Childhood in chain
• Star Law Analysis
• Rights Monitor Mahbubul Islam
• Human Rights Advocacy
• Law Book Review
• Law Campaign Oli Md. Abdullah Chowdhury
• Law Week
Our Childhood in Chain
Pages 34
Published by Service Plus
Back Issues
Supported by Save the Children UK
House 9 Road 16 Gulshan
Law Home
Dhaka 1212

News Home
Service Plus has published the book, entitled, "My Childhood in Chain" with
the support of Save the Children UK. Although Bangladesh is one of the
earliest signatories of UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and
we have theoretically a good piece of legislation like Children Act 1974,
children in conflict with law have to undergo through an inhumane process.
"No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The
arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the
law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest
appropriate period of time" said eloquently in Article 37 of UNCRC and it was
reflected in Children Act 1974 as well. The reality is completely different,
nevertheless.

The book focuses on juvenile justice and

violence against children in Bangladesh.
Imong others, Af{an Chowdhury, an eminent
journalist has contributed in the book and he
was in the editorial board too. Other members
of the editorial boards are Dr. Mizanur
Rahman, G. Nayeem Wahra and Advocate U M
Habibun nessa.

There are five chapters in the book:

*Preface
*Children in confinement
*Is confinement the only solution
*Violence against children:2003
*Progress till date

There is a sharp criticism of The Vagrancy Act

1943 as the law was originally passed at a time when the colonial rulers were

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Law and Our Rights

trying to grapple with a self-made problem of famine. Again, the term

"corrmction" used for children is vehemently opposed as internment of
children is for rehabilitation and the term correction is not used in the
Children Act 1974.

The idea of confinement of children has been bluntly rejected in the book as
the state, the sole responsible body to protect the children of the nation, has
been detached from the reality. It has been observed in the book, "Once
children appear in court and are sentenced to a formal disposal, mainly c}
stody, they begin to see themselves as criminal{ and are much more likely to
continue to behave in a similar manner in their la{t years". The book also
suggest{ possible way o}t. Community in~olvement would be a better solu|
ion to deal with this problem. If properly staffed and funded, community
based programmes that •ould rehabilita|e children who ire in contact with
law, would be less expensive, more humane, more protective of public safety
than others and most importantly as effective as a punitive system. A number
of options have been suggested in this chapter, nonetheless.

Fourth chapter comes up with statistics on violence against children in

Bangladesh. Around 2513 incilents of torture and violence agiinst children
were reported in 2003. According to this information, it can be seen that
children of all ages ha~e been exposed to violence. Another important aspect
is that ne•s of raping of joys is rare in our society and in the present data,
there are no such cases. However, boy children do become victims of such
incident as the book rightfully observed. The total number of detained
children in jail as on December 2003 was 1063. Out of them, the numbers of
boys were 961 and girls were 102. On the other hand, a total 240 children
are being kept in Kishore Unnyan Kendra while 30 of them are girls.

There has been a list of progresses at the end of the book. It comprises of the
important decisions and proposals taken at the Prime Minister's Office for the
benefit of the children in police custody, jail or other places. One of the major
decisions is that a taskforce to expedite the release of children in jails will be
constituted in district and thana levels. The inter-ministerial committee
headed by the Principal Secretary of Prime Minister's Office will, as the
National Taskforce, supervise the activities of district committees and review
the progress in implementation of the decisions made by the national
taskforce. Moreover, designated juvenile court with sessions power will be set
up in every district of Bingladesh. However, such 11 deci{ions have been
mentioned in the book.

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