365 Days for No Violence against Women and Children: Human Rights Day Study Circle

HR_day_01On the eve of Human Rights Day 2014, SERAC-Bangladesh, The Hunger Project and Young Men for Gender Equality (YM4GE) jointly hosted a study circle in Mymensingh on Wednesday focusing youth voices to prevent gender based violence and ways to prevent throughout all 365 days of the year collaborating with the United Nations? theme on HR Day of this year.

Speakers remarked gender based violence against women and children in Bangladesh derive mostly from lack of gender equality education at institutions, families and societal levels. Children are divided into male and female from the very beginning by the way of treatment within families and even in the choice of toys. This psychological paradigm affects the whole society and results in an inferiority complex among girls and women while men and boys learn to be allowed to beat their female counterparts and think its normal!

Speakers also mentioned the serious nature of human rights violation caused by child marriage; mostly forced, and dowry cases in the country. Quoting a number of local cases and the UNICEF report stated 2 out of 3 girls in the country face marriage before they are 18. This affect the all development programs directly and young participants identified the cause to be the attitude of men and boys mainly and told that solution lies within. They emphasized a synergistic movement by youth on this issue starting from schools and colleges.

The program was moderated by SERAC-Bangladesh?s Program Office Fatema Khatun Mousomi while the key note was read by Swagota Das, a young leader from the Hunger Project. The event was significantly vocalized by the Country Ambassador of Young Men for Gender Equality (YM4GE) S M Shaikat, Hunger Project youth volunteers Atiqul Islam Snigdho, Farjana Shamsi Nishu, Rajmoni Akter, Farzana Haque Shahinur Rahman, Rashed, SERAC-Bangladesh?s Program Manager Md. Oli Ahad, and Project Officer Barkatullah Bhuiyan.

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