WUNRN

Bangladesh - Gang Rape of 16-Year Old Minority Girl - Risk of Impunity

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has received information and requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Bangladesh.

Brief description of the situation:

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by ODHIKAR, a member of the SOS-Torture Network, about the ill treatment and gang rape of Ms. Farul Das, a 16 year old Dalit girl, in the Jessore District, in south western Bangladesh.

According to the information received, around 1 a.m. on July 5, 2009, Ms. Das was going to collect some drinking water when four men attacked her from behind, gagged her and took her to a nearby garden where they raped her one after the other. When she was found unconscious by some villagers, the perpetrators had already escaped. Ms. Das was subsequently treated at Jessore General Hospital and a complaint was filed with the local police.

Local police authorities have reportedly promised to assist Ms. Parul Das with her social rehabilitation and have provided funds for her treatment. Parittran, a local NGO, has also provided funds for the same purpose.

Although many NGOs and the media have publicised the case, and although the police initially made hopeful promises with regard to the investigation and actively tried to find the alleged rapists, the suspects have not yet been arrested. According to the same information, the perpetrators have political connections and are therefore protected by the local elites.

Moreover, according to the same source, supporters’ of the alleged perpetrators exercise pressure on Ms. Das’ family to withdraw the complaint and some villagers have insulted her moral character. OMCT fears that this harassment and the lack of investigation may have discriminatory grounds because Ms. Das is a Dalit.

The International Secretariat of OMCT expresses its deep concern about the gang rape of Ms. Das and the risk of impunity for the illegal acts allegedly committed. In this respect OMCT would like to recall the legal duty of Bangladesh as a State Party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to “take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse” (article 19 (1)) and to “protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse” (article 34). OMCT also recalls that, according to article 4(c) of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, States should “[e]xercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons.”

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