Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considers report of Bangladesh

25 January 2011

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has considered the combined sixth and seventh periodic report of Bangladesh on how that country implements the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Introducing the report, Shirin Sharman Chaudhury, Minister of State at the Ministry for Women and Children Affairs of Bangladesh, said that the Government of Bangladesh firmly believed that women’s concerns must be expressed and integrated into development policies to bring about meaningful changes in securing empowerment of women because women were important agents of social transformation. The Government had registered success in the application of CEDAW and had initiated various programmes and projects for the development of women and children which would contribute to the achievement of targets set out in “Vision 2021”.

Ms. Chaudhury informed the Committee that since the beginning of the empowerment agenda in 1971 in Bangladesh, policies and institutional measures had been undertaken to improve the plight of women. Positive indicators of women’s advancement in the country were reflected in continuing gender parity in primary education, gradually lowered infant mortality and a decrease in maternal mortality rates. Legislation had equally been enacted to prevent violence and discrimination against women with a special emphasis to break away from the tradition of treating women as property. This included the trafficking of women and children for sexual and labour purposes.

Questions and issues raised by Experts during the interactive discussion included questions regarding Bangladesh’s reservations to certain Articles and urging the Government to consider withdrawing these reservations, revisiting the Citizens Act that allowed women to transfer citizenship to their children, gender parity in the realm of formal education, access to pre-natal quality health services, implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, and efforts to ensure the political empowerment of women. Committee members also asked for clarification on the prevention of early marriages and pregnancies, the right of the girl child to equal opportunities in education and training, prevention of internal and cross-border trafficking for sexual and other labour, as well as the amount of care provided to victims of workplace sexual harassment and other discrimination. The delegation was also asked to explain the measures put in place to ensure equal treatment in the division of family property after a divorce, the rules regulating inheritance, land leasing to women, the place of the girl child as per the Family Code and equality in wages and career advancement for both men and women.

In concluding remarks, Silvia Pimental, the Committee Chairperson, said that CEDAW recognised the seriousness and respect that the delegation of Bangladesh accorded to its recommendations. She equally thanked the delegation for the succinct explanations and answers provided but said that a lot more had to be done, especially regarding the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act which needed to be carried out with a lot of care given the difficult constraints. She finally commended the State party for its commitment and encouraged them to take up the recommendations of the Committee in order to move forward with its initiatives and drive to better the condition of women in Bangladesh.

Also in concluding observations Ms. Chaudhury thanked CEDAW members and members of the civil society and non-governmental organizations who supported the delegation in participating in the session which was of immense benefit to them. She expressed hope to draw from the deliberations for the future of the country’s agenda in the implementation of CEDAW recommendations to attain gender equality and women empowerment in Bangladesh. She said that she would carry back all the valuable suggestions to her Government in order to come up with better results. Bangladesh was committed to respect the CEDAW recommendations and they needed support to overcome the constraints in order to achieve this collective goal.

The delegation of Bangladesh included representatives of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations Office in Geneva.

The next public meeting of the Committee will be on Wednesday, 26 January at 10 a.m., when the Committee will consider the combined fifth, sixth and seventh periodic report of Sri Lanka (CEDAW/C/SL/5-7).

Report of Bangladesh

The combined sixth and seventh periodic report of Bangladesh (CEDAW/C/BGD/6-7) notes that the Bangladesh Government has been actively engaged in formulating proactive policies and taking affirmative actions for accelerating the implementation process in achieving the goal of holistic empowerment of women. The Constitution of Bangladesh guarantees women equal rights with men in all spheres of the State and public life as a fundamental right. Nothing in the country’s Constitution prevents the State from special provisions for women or children or for the advancement of any backward section of citizens.

Through “Vision 2021” the Government has declared its commitment to mainstreaming gender issues in order to incorporate them within the framework of macroeconomics and formulation of policies to effectuate effective substantial and visible changes to the lives of women at all levels and in all spheres. Since women were the most important agents of economic and social development, and noting that the proportion of ultra poor was higher in female headed households in comparison to that of male headed ones, concrete steps towards change have been taken towards reducing feminised poverty in the light of the Millennium Development Goals. To achieve these the Government has initiated a series of necessary campaigns such as improving marketing capacity, providing training on food processing activities, providing basic skills about business management and steps linking them to markets and setting up vocational training centres in rural and urban areas.

To ensure social security for vulnerable women, the Bangladesh Government provides extremely poor and distressed women with food assistance, skills development training on income generating activities as well as nutrition, primary health, HIV/AIDS and so on. There is special emphasis on girl child education with a stipend for girls.

Several pieces of legislation have been enacted in order to prevent violence against women and the Domestic Violence Act was passed in 2010. Women victims of violence can receive medical treatment, police assistance, legal support and psychosocial rehabilitation at one of the six One Stop Crisis Centres in the country. Men and boys have been specifically engaged by the Government in awareness raising programmes and advocacy conducted to prevent violence against women and change the traditional stereotype mind set.

Presentation of Report

SHIRIN SHARMIN CHAUDHURY, Minister of State, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs of Bangladesh, introducing the report, said that a new era of democracy ushered in Bangladesh with the parliamentary elections in December 2008. The newly elected Government declared “Vision 2021”. The Government of Bangladesh was committed to mainstreaming gender issues in order to incorporate them within the framework of macroeconomics and formulate policies to effectuate effective, substantial and visible changes to the lives of women at all levels and in all spheres. Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Government had been actively engaged in formulating proactive policies and taking affirmative actions for accelerating the implementation process in achieving the goal of gender equality and holistic empowerment of women.

Bangladesh firmly believed that women’s concerns must be expressed and integrated into development policies to bring about meaningful changes in securing empowerment of women because women were important agents of social transformation. Since the beginning of the empowerment agenda in 1971 in Bangladesh, policies and institutional measures had been undertaken to improve the plight of women.

Positive indicators of women’s advancement in the country were reflected in continuing gender parity in school enrolment, gradually lowered infant mortality and a decrease in maternal mortality rates. There had been significant improvement in the health services through the implementation of health, nutrition and population related programmes and this had contributed to improved health, especially for women.

The Government had embraced measures to comply with the recommendations of the fifth periodic report notably: priority attention to adopting a comprehensive approach to address violence against women with the construction of one-stop centres providing medical treatment and legal support to women victims of violence, the Domestic Violence Act, 2010 had been passed, several awareness raising programmes had been conducted throughout the country, and at the grassroots level, an act had been enacted by parliament to eliminate discrimination against women and to entitle the Bangladeshi woman the right to transmit citizenship to her children, and to ensure equal pay for equal work for women. In addition CEDAW could be applied where domestic law was silent.

The Government had registered success in the application of CEDAW and had initiated various programmes and projects for the development of women and children which would contribute to the achievement of targets set out in “Vision 2021”. In addition, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs had undertaken measures for alleviating the poverty of women in line with the present Government’s action plan.

Given that women were agents of socio economic transformation, emphasis was being placed on reducing feminisation of poverty by creating employment opportunities, providing support for small and medium enterprise initiatives of women through resource mobilisation and the provision of credit facilities to women on easy terms without collaterals. Different poverty reduction priorities needed to be identified given that women usually experienced poverty differently as opposed to men. More so, investment in women’s education and training had proven to deliver large social and economic returns.

The Government had registered some positive achievements in reducing maternal mortality and infant mortality through effective institutional measures. A social safety-net programme for ultra poor women in the rural areas had been enforced where social benefits were allocated to widows, destitute women, pregnant women, employed nursing mothers and several other vulnerable groups. The Government had engaged in extensive training programmes throughout the country for women in the domains of agriculture, computers, handcrafts, sewing, beautification and repair of electronic gadgets. Primary health care services targeting rural areas had also been initiated through community clinics.

In Bangladesh women had made great strides in the political arena with several women occupying six top positions in political leadership in the country. Legislation had equally been enacted to prevent violence and discrimination against women with a special emphasis to break away from the tradition of treating women as objects or property. Ms. Chaudhury stressed that a framework had also been set to enable the implementation of gender equality policies in the country.

Questions by Experts

A Committee member raised concerns about Bangladesh’s reservations on Articles 2 and 16 and requested the delegation to explain whether the Bangladeshi Government considered a time frame to withdraw these reservations. Did the Government take any steps to make sure that there was coherence between the freedom to worship and of expression with what the Imams may have to say about the minorities in the country? How would Bangladeshi women use the Optional Protocol whereas this was clearly linked to Article 2.

Would there be a possibility for the Citizenship Act to be revisited to allow women to transmit their nationality to the girl child? Also, could the delegation explain why there were no plans to put in a uniform family code as found in the country’s declaration? What connections existed between the new laws and the judicial system which handled cases without considering CEDAW recommendations. Could the delegation provide results-based data adequately segmented to enable a good monitoring process.

What could the delegation tell the Committee about employing legislature progress in order to supplement and or harmonise religious law with CEDAW? Were there any legislation targeting women who were victims of double discrimination?

An Expert congratulated Bangladesh for the creation of focal points to channel governmental action aimed at ensuring gender equality, and asked if the effectiveness of these efforts had been evaluated.

Response by Delegation

The delegation of Bangladesh said that in terms of reservations, Bangladesh had ratified CEDAW in 1994 and at the same time declared reservations on two Articles. A national committee had been formed and assigned to examine the status of the reservations and how they could be withdrawn. The delegation stated that laws and amendments had been made to move Bangladesh closer to the CEDAW provisions. Forward looking steps indicated that despite the reservations the Government had moved significantly ahead. The Government was sharing experiences of other countries which had withdrawn reservations in order to find solutions along those lines. Bangladesh hoped that improvements could be envisioned.

The delegation agreed to the necessity to have a gender segregated database and the Government felt that a process needed to be initiated in order to ensure the effectiveness of this.

Regarding judicial interpretation, the delegation welcomed the suggestion from the Committee and stated that family codes were in place in Bangladesh and these determined how cases or conflicts were resolved.

Focus points were selected through a competitive exam and they were fully employed government agents who received extensive training to understand what gender mainstreaming was and how they should discharge their functions. The Bangladeshi constitution provided protection for everyone in all circumstances but there was no special mention of double discrimination. There were legal remedies open for any kind of discrimination and provision to seek redress. The Human rights Commission was also available to assist all those seeking redress to such instances when and if they did arise.

Questions by Experts

Regarding the issue of violence against women, an Expert stated that despite the existing legislation prohibiting this, several reports, police statistics and newspaper reports indicated the widespread increase in violence against women in Bangladesh. What measures had been taken to curb this? What policies had the Government undertaken to prosecute the perpetrators of violent acts against women? Why did other forms of violence against women such as sexual harassment at the workplace, religious induced violence sanctioning immoral behaviour and fatuas fall outside the precinct of law?

Had there been evaluations of measures, laws and policies to ensure that acts of violence against women were prevented or eliminated, and had the delegation been able to compile gender-based data indicating the difference between violence against women and that against men?

An Expert said that it would appear that prostitution was neither banned nor recognised in Bangladesh yet there was a high occurrence of this throughout the country; what measures were taken to better protect the rights of commercial sex workers? Could the delegation give some more clarifications about how they viewed women trafficking from rural to urban centres and across boundaries? Who were the victims of this traffic and what was the Government doing to prosecute the traffickers?

What interconnections existed between the stereotype beliefs where the birth of a boy child was preferred to that of a girl and did this explain the disparity in the population which indicated 60 percent men and 40 percent women?

Response by Delegation

The delegation of Bangladesh said that regarding the issue of violence against women, the Government’s position was zero tolerance so perpetrators would definitely receive commensurate punishment.

When victims of violence went to hospitals for treatment, they reported the cause of their pains, wounds or ailments to the hospital authorities, who could document the incidents of violence. Given that the media enjoyed great freedom of expression, they were free to report incidents of violence against women. The victims, either with or without children, were given support in case of need in the various shelter homes operated by the Government. Action against perpetrators was consequently implemented by the judicial system.

There were commissions organised at the district level which examined the cases and the situation of violence directed against women and they also provided assistance to victims who needed psychological and trauma counselling help.

Through the media, the Government handed out information and flyers which sensitised and discouraged practices such as early marriages and dowries which were likely to engender violence against women.

The Government had signed instruments to prevent the trafficking of women and this activity was a penal offence in the Penal Code and so carried punishment for perpetrators. There was a unit at police headquarters to monitor human trafficking. A task force had been created with Indian counterparts to fight against transborder trafficking and Bangladesh was a signatory to the UN Convention against Trafficking. There was a joint “cafeteria” to rehabilitate women victims of trafficking through employment and other social insertion programmes.

Bangladesh had a law for the prevention and protection of women against domestic violence and each woman subjected to violence by her spouse could seek redress through an application to the Court which would grant the woman the right to stay in the house with an injunction on the husband to stop him from approaching her abode.

Regarding the issue of stereotypes in the preference of the sex of the child, the delegation pointed out that Bangladesh did not have any of the medical equipment necessary to medically engineer the sex of a child so the discrepancy in the population was absolutely a natural phenomenon.

Furthermore, Bangladesh was trying to implement an inclusive approach to resolving the dilemmas caused by the practice of violence against women. The Government had been involved in mobilising young boys and men to denounce and combat violence against women at all levels.

Questions by Experts

Could the delegation explain the impact of women ministers in the State’s decision making apparatus given that only five out of forty-nine ministries were headed by women in Bangladesh? Did the Government have campaigns or policies meant to stimulate women to enter public life? Given that women constantly worked to enhance and sustain economic development in the country particularly in agriculture, what had been the reaction of the head of Government to the policy recommendations of the Minister of Women and Children Affairs for the inclusion of women in public life and the general alleviation of the plight of the Bangladeshi woman?

Answers by Delegation

Referring to the issue of political empowerment of women, the delegation declared that this was a success story because six women occupied high positions in the Cabinet and this sent a message throughout the country that women were able to occupy these high level positions and should double their efforts to go for them. Women were actively encouraged to take part in the local government elections because the local political activities granted visibility to the competence of women representatives and paved the way for women to progress in the political ladder and attain the highest level of political leadership. Local organizations had equally played a great role in advancing the situation of women in Bangladesh. Further, Bangladeshi women had equally attained managerial positions in the private sector, particularly in the media and in other industries.

Questions by Experts

An Expert inquired after the real figures of the net enrolment rates of the girl child in schools from primary, secondary to university level per region. What measures had been taken to establish uniform quality in the range of training particularly, for females. Did measures such as free tuition and free access to study materials specifically target girls or was it a blanket policy. Did the Government envisage measures of balancing the teaching force so that it contained an equal number of female teachers, otherwise what kind of girl friendly environment was created to close that gap.

Another Expert decried the narrow definition of wages in Bangladesh which appeared to be applied to certain female dominated occupations. How effectively did the Labour Code prevent sexual harassment at the work place? Relating to the informal sector, the Expert asked what plan of action the Government had designed to protect the girls and women who worked predominantly in this sector. Following up on the informal sector, an Expert said that there was no reference to domestic workers who predominantly had a low level of education and wanted to know what the Government had put in place to better their situation. What measures were embraced to ensure that they had an appropriate work contract, commensurate salary and guarantee of their rights and privileges.

A Committee Expert referred to the micro credit initiative by Mr. Yunis and asked for an explanation or a clear assessment of this initiative and its extensive impact on the rural population who notably lived in out-of-the-way regions of the country. What measures were in place to ensure that women did not become victims of violence as a result of the micro credit initiative and how did the Government make sure that excesses in the interest rates were prevented.

Regarding health, an Expert wanted to know how laws, policies and administrative institutions which were meant to ease implementation of the reforms on issues such as reproductive health policies and maternal mortality rate, among others, were applied. What were the effective indicators in the education and sensitisation programmes to raise women’s awareness with regards to early marriages and early pregnancy among young girls. Did the delegation possess a detailed statement or accurate data with regards to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Bangladesh? How did the Government intend to reach the goal of reducing the maternal mortality rate as set by the Millennium Development Goals? Referring to the claim that a good portion of female deaths were related to domestic violence, the delegation was asked to explain what the Government had done to reduce this incidence.

An Expert asked what measures had been taken in favour of the females belonging to the minority Dalits to ensure their access to good health, education, micro credit and other services. What kind of changes had been taken as to the situation of rural women and what projects would the Government undertake to solve the extreme poverty situation affecting rural women.

Answers by Delegation

Responding to the questions, the delegation said that gender parity in the realm of education had been significantly increased and steps had been taken to implement a new comprehensive policy with emphasis on technical and vocational training opened to both boys and girls. Three polytechnic institutes had been set up specifically for girls in order to encourage them to embrace science and technology. School fees subsidies had also been increased and extended for both boys and girls in almost equal proportions. The Government however did not concentrate on separate education given that the entire education system gave priority to co-education in order to bring women and girls closer to gender mainstreaming.

Regarding the issue of early marriages, the delegation said that the police had been empowered to investigate and prevent child marriages and the minimum marrying age for girls had been set at 18 for girls and 21 for boys.

The delegation agreed that there was an absence of gender-segregated data for better assessment and underscored the Government’s determination to tailor the data in that direction. There were considerations on how to acknowledge women working in the informal sector and specifically point out their contribution to the national economy. Regarding domestic workers, the delegation acknowledged their presence and pointed out that there was legislation underway to address their plight in a bid to better their situation.

There were initiatives targeted at reducing the maternal mortality rate nationwide and various measures had been implemented to ease the burden on destitute pregnant and nursing mothers in order to prevent death, the delegation underscored. The Ministry of Health had further undertaken the renovation of equipment for child birth in maternity clinic and training schemes would be conducted for all health workers in the domain in order to reduce maternal mortality. Raising awareness of family planning methods had been carried out and training campaigns had been initiated in order to empower women and get them involved in the decision making process when choosing reproductive options and approaches.

An awareness programme had also been organised to prevent early marriages with specific sensitisation programmes targeting adolescents, especially those in the rural areas. The Government had taken steps to place emphasis on processes to reduce abject poverty, especially among female-led families. The delegation said an initiative supported by the World Food Programme had been set up to distribute food to rural women in conjunction with training programmes, especially on sustainable food production, in order to also enable women to be linked to the job market.

Regarding the microcredit initiative, the delegation said there was still need to carefully examine the impact that this scheme bore on the standard of life of the women because it was unknown whether the recipients of the microcredit actually used the money for lucrative enterprises or not.

Questions by Experts

An Expert wanted to know if there were any measures taken to increase ownership of land by women, since they were the most active in the agricultural sphere. The Expert asked for a differentiation between access to health services and access to quality and full pre-natal care services because a majority of Bangladeshi women did not receive this vital care, thus the high rate of maternal mortality rate. Had the Government taken steps to increase its health budget in order to better fight the crisis and inadequacy in health services.

The delegation was asked to explain matters affecting women in relation to civil law and religious law. What legislation governed the division of marital property in the event of a divorce and what legal provisions were available to regulate comprehensive inheritance practices in the country. What legislation was in place to regulate the issue of child custody.

A Committee Expert asked about the kind of family code put in place to ascertain the rights of each family member in the case of divorce, death, inheritance and so on. Given that recent statistics showed that about 68 per cent of girls below the age of 18 were married, the delegation should explain how the law limiting the minimum age to get married to 18 was enforced. Further, what steps were taken to protect the affected women from being subjected to forced early marriages. What policy was in place to protect women’s reproductive rights.

Answers by Delegation

The delegation stated that there was a guiding policy regarding the leasing of agricultural land that stated that this would be carried out in equal terms to both men and women. The “One House One Farm” project instituted by the Government was meant to help rural women to own the land that they cultivated.

The delegation agreed that access to health care remained a major concern of the Government given the many constraints involved. However, there was the question of prioritising the budget as well as deciding how to allocate it to the various health sectors, but the concerns would be considered for an expansion to cover pre-natal care. Priority at the moment was being given to access to health care for all after which the Government would work on the quality of the health services.

The Government was willing to engage in discussions to regulate family law. The delegation stated that the laws in force in Bangladesh regarding early marriages varied according to the religion of those concerned and added that so far there had been no provision regulating marital property in case of a divorce and the Government would welcome ideas on how to implement a contract law in that respect. The Government needed extensive deliberations and consultations in order to strike a consensus on how to come up with a uniform family code which would cut across the religious communities.

The delegation signalled a very strong determination on the part of the Government to prevent child marriages with the police force empowered to enforce the recommendations of the Government.

Regarding child custody or guardianship of a minor child, the delegation said the High Court proactively brought in the best interest of the child whenever it determined the right of custody.

The delegation said advocacy and campaign programmes could be very effective in family planning initiatives and added that tacit legislation existed to regulate the choice of the number of children by both husband and wife.

Concluding Remarks

SILVIA PIMENTAL, Chairperson of the Committee, said that the Committee recognised the seriousness and respect that the delegation of Bangladesh accorded to its recommendations. She equally thanked the delegation for the succinct explanations and answers provided but said that a lot more had to be done, especially regarding the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act which needed to be carried out with a lot of care given the difficult constraints. She commended the State party for its commitment and encouraged them to take up the recommendations of the Committee in order to move forward with its policy initiatives and drive to better the condition of women in Bangladesh.

SHIRIN SHARMAN CHAUDHURY, Minister of State at the Ministry for Women and Children Affairs of Bangladesh, thanked CEDAW members and members of the civil society and non-governmental organizations who supported the delegation in participating in the session which was of immense benefit to them. She expressed hope to draw from the deliberations for the future of the country’s agenda in the implementation of CEDAW recommendations to attain gender equality and women empowerment in Bangladesh. She said that she would carry back all the valuable suggestions to her Government in order to come up with better results. Bangladesh was committed to respect the CEDAW recommendations and they needed support to overcome the constraints in order to achieve this collective goal.

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