Bangladesh: Political and Strategic Developments and U.S
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Bangladesh and Bangladesh-U.S. Relations
Bangladesh and Bangladesh-U.S. Relations Updated October 17, 2017 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R44094 Bangladesh and Bangladesh-U.S. Relations Summary Bangladesh (the former East Pakistan) is a Muslim-majority nation in South Asia, bordering India, Burma, and the Bay of Bengal. It is the world’s eighth most populous country with nearly 160 million people living in a land area about the size of Iowa. It is an economically poor nation, and it suffers from high levels of corruption. In recent years, its democratic system has faced an array of challenges, including political violence, weak governance, poverty, demographic and environmental strains, and Islamist militancy. The United States has a long-standing and supportive relationship with Bangladesh, and it views Bangladesh as a moderate voice in the Islamic world. In relations with Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, the U.S. government, along with Members of Congress, has focused on a range of issues, especially those relating to economic development, humanitarian concerns, labor rights, human rights, good governance, and counterterrorism. The Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) dominate Bangladeshi politics. When in opposition, both parties have at times sought to regain control of the government through demonstrations, labor strikes, and transport blockades, as well as at the ballot box. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been in office since 2009, and her AL party was reelected in January 2014 with an overwhelming majority in parliament—in part because the BNP, led by Khaleda Zia, boycotted the vote. The BNP has called for new elections, and in recent years, it has organized a series of blockades and strikes. -
Bangladesh - Researched and Compiled by the Refugee Documentation Centre of Ireland on Friday 20 November 2015
Bangladesh - Researched and compiled by the Refugee Documentation Centre of Ireland on Friday 20 November 2015 Treatment of Jamaat-e-Islami/Shibir(student wing) by state/authorities In June 2015 a report published by the United States Department of State commenting on events of 2014 states: “ICT prosecutions of accused 1971 war criminals continued. No verdicts were announced until November, when the ICT issued death sentences in separate cases against Motiur Rahman Nizami and Mir Quasem Ali. At the same time, the Supreme Court Appellate Division upheld one of two death sentences against Mohammad Kamaruzzaman. All three men were prominent Jamaat leaders, and Jamaat called nationwide strikes in protest” (United States Department of State (25 June 2015) 2014 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Bangladesh). This report also states: “On August 10, Shafiqul Islam Masud, assistant secretary of the Jamaat-e-Islami Dhaka City Unit, was arrested, charged, and held in police custody with 154 others for arson attacks and vandalism in 2013. He was arrested and held four additional times in August and September 2014. According to a prominent human rights lawyer, Masud's whereabouts during his detentions were unknown, and lawyers were not allowed to speak with him. Defense lawyers were not allowed to speak before the court during his September 23 and 25 court appearances” (ibid). This document also points out that: “In some instances the government interfered with the right of opposition parties to organize public functions and restricted the broadcasting of opposition political events. Jamaat's appeal of a 2012 Supreme Court decision cancelling the party's registration continued” (ibid). -
JRA 29 1 Bookreview 190..192
Reviews of Books In , Deyell published his book Living Without Silver,3 which has become the definitive work on the monetary history of early medieval north India. In this new book, he has stretched back in time by a couple of centuries and has produced what is destined to become the definitive work on the coinage of that period. <[email protected]> PANKAJ TANDON Boston University MUSLIMS AGAINST THE MUSLIM LEAGUE:CRITIQUES OF THE IDEA OF PAKISTAN. Edited by ALI USMAN QASMI and MEGAN EATON ROBB. pp. vii, . Delhi, Cambridge University Press, . doi:./S One of the great developments of the last ten years of British rule in India was the transformation of the position of the All-India Muslim League. In the elections it won just five per cent of the Muslim vote; it could not be regarded as a serious political player. Yet, in the elections of – it won about per cent of the Muslim vote, winning out of seats in the central and provincial legislatures, a result which meant that the British and the Indian National Congress had to take seriously the League’s demand for the creation of Pakistan at independence, a demand which it had formally voiced in March . With the creation of Pakistan in , which was also the formation of the most populous Muslim nation in the world at the time, the narrative of how some Muslims, mainly from the old Mughal service class of northern India, began a movement for the reassertion and protection of their interests in the nineteenth century which ended up as the foundation of a separate Muslim state in the twentieth century, was the dominant Muslim story of British India. -
Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement Plan for Sundarban Joint Management Platform
Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Stakeholderfor andAnalysis Plan Engagement Sund arban Joint ManagementarbanJoint Platform Document Information Title Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement Plan for Sundarban Joint Management Platform Submitted to The World Bank Submitted by International Water Association (IWA) Contributors Bushra Nishat, AJM Zobaidur Rahman, Sushmita Mandal, Sakib Mahmud Deliverable Report on Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement Plan for Sundarban description Joint Management Platform Version number Final Actual delivery date 05 April 2016 Dissemination level Members of the BISRCI Consortia Reference to be Bushra Nishat, AJM Zobaidur Rahman, Sushmita Mandal and Sakib used for citation Mahmud. Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement Plan for Sundarban Joint Management Platform (2016). International Water Association Cover picture Elderly woman pulling shrimp fry collecting nets in a river in Sundarban by AJM Zobaidur Rahman Contact Bushra Nishat, Programmes Manager South Asia, International Water Association. [email protected] Prepared for the project Bangladesh-India Sundarban Region Cooperation (BISRCI) supported by the World Bank under the South Asia Water Initiative: Sundarban Focus Area Table of Contents Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................................... i 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... -
Bangladesh: Extremism & Counter-Extremism
Bangladesh: Extremism & Counter-Extremism On July 1, 2016, at least five Islamist militants stormed into Holey Artisan Bakery, an upscale restaurant in the Gulshan neighborhood of Dhaka, and detonated explosives before separating the Muslim and local Bangladeshi hostages from the non-Muslims and foreigners. After a 12-hour siege, Bangladeshi security forces stormed the restaurant in the early hours of July 2 and freed 13 hostages. The officials found 20 hostages hacked and stabbed to death, including Italian, Japanese, Indian, and U.S. citizens. Four militants and two police officers were killed over the course of the incident, and one militant was arrested. (Sources: Reuters, Dhaka Tribune, CNN, BBC News, BBC News) The July 1 restaurant attack reportedly was the 24th ISIS attack in Bangladesh since September 2015, and the most deadly in a spate of terror attacks in Bangladesh in 2016. Though ISIS claimed responsibility, some U.S. officials said that the assault bore the hallmark of al-Qaeda’s regional affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. In October 2016, ISIS released an article reiterating its claim of responsibility and providing its own narrative of the attacks. Bangladeshi authorities reportedly have evidence of communications between the architect of the attack and Abu Terek Mohammad Tajuddin Kausar, an ISIS militant born in Bangladesh but living in Australia. Kausar is said to have approved the attack and ordered the assailants to specifically target non-Muslim foreigners and expatriates. (Sources: Guardian, Dhaka Tribune, NPR, Times of India, CNN, Hindu BusinessLine, Dhaka Tribune, Reuters, Reuters, New York Times) Bangladeshi officials nonetheless claim that ISIS does not maintain a presence in the country. -
Jatiya Sangsad: the Parliament of Bangladesh
Jatiya Sangsad: The Parliament of Bangladesh By Nizam Ahmed The Jatiya Sangsad, as the Parliament is called in Bangladesh, predates the independence of the country in 1971. Its precursor, the Legislative Council of Bengal, was established during the British colonial rule in 1861 when only a few countries outside Europe and North America could claim to have established such an institution. But the Parliament did not have any steady growth until recently. Several structural, procedural and political constraints made the Parliament seriously disadvantaged vis-à-vis other sources of power, particularly the government, during the colonial days and nearly a quarter century of Pakistani neo-colonial rule (1947-71). Since independence, Bangladesh has experimented with different types of government – multiparty parliamentary system patterned after the Westminster model (1971-74), one-party presidential system (1975), and multi-party presidential system (1978-82; 1986-1990). For eight years between 1975 and 1990, the country remained under absolute military rule. In September 1991 the multi-party parliamentary system was restored. Since then, Bangladesh has officially remained a parliamentary democracy. Ten parliaments have been elected over the last four decades (1973-2014), although only a few have been able to complete their five-year tenure. Among the Parliaments, those elected since the early 1990s have survived longer; the 1 only exception was the sixth Parliament (1996) which met for only four days. The ‘recent’ parliaments, which have enjoyed greater legitimacy than their predecessors, have also undertaken several measures to modernize procedures to improve their capacity to affect the policy outcome as well as to make the government behave. -
Network of Concerned Historians NCH Annual Report 2011 Http
Network of Concerned Historians NCH Annual Report 2011 http://www.concernedhistorians.org INTRODUCTION The seventeenth Annual Report of the Network of Concerned Historians (NCH) contains news about the domain where history and human rights intersect, especially about the censorship of history and the persecution of historians, archivists, and archaeologists around the globe, as reported by various human rights organizations and other sources. It covers events and developments of 2010 and 2011. The fact that NCH presents this news does not imply that it shares the views and beliefs of the historians and others mentioned in it. The complete set of Annual Reports (1995–2011) was compiled by Antoon De Baets. Please send any comments to: <[email protected]>. Please cite as: Network of Concerned Historians, Annual Report 2011 (http://www.concernedhistorians.org). Network of Concerned Historians, Annual Report 2011 (June 2011) 2 ____________________________________________________________ AFGHANISTAN Last Annual Report entry: 2010. In early 2010, the National Stability and Reconciliation bill was officially promulgated, granting immunity from criminal prosecution to people who committed serious human rights violations and war crimes over the past thirty years. In March 2007, a coalition of powerful warlords in parliament pushed through the amnesty law to prevent prosecution of individuals responsible for large-scale human rights abuses in the preceding decades. It was not publicized and promulgated until early 2010. It was revived in 2010 to facilitate amnesties for reconciliation and reintegration of the Taliban and the islamist political party Hezb-i Islami Gulbuddin. In the absence of a practical justice system to address the lack of accountability by the warring parties, the government was urged to ask the International Criminal Court to investigate allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by all parties to the conflict. -
THE PARLIAMENT of BANGLADESH Representation and Accountability
THE PARLIAMENT OF BANGLADESH Representation and Accountability CPDCMI Working Paper 2 Rounaq Jahan Inge Amundsen _____________________________________________ Professor Rounaq Jahan is a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh. Dr Inge Amundsen is a Senior Researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Norway. Publishers Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) House 40/C, Road 32, Dhanmondi R/A Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh Telephone: (+88 02) 8124770, 9141703, 9141734, 9145090 Fax: (+88 02) 8130951 E‐mail: [email protected] Website: www.cpd.org.bd Blog: http://www.cpd.org.bd/Blog/ Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) Jekteviksbakken 31, 5006 Bergen, Norway P.O. Box 6033 Bedriftssenteret, N‐5892 Bergen, Norway Tel: (+47 47) 93 80 00 Fax: (+47 47) 93 80 01 E‐mail: [email protected] Website: www.cmi.no First Published April 2012 © Centre for Policy Dialogue Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of CPD or CMI. Tk. 125 USD 7 ISSN 2225‐8175 (Online) ISSN 2225‐8035 (Print) CCM42012_1WP2_DGP The present Working Paper Series emerged from a joint collaborative programme being implemented by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka, Bangladesh and Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Norway. This three‐year research cooperation programme will focus on issues of common interest to both the organisations and service the demands of Bangladesh economy in a number of key sectors. The CPD, established in 1993, is a civil society initiative in Bangladesh to promote an ongoing dialogue between the principal partners in the decision making and implementing process. -
Bangladesh: Getting Police Reform on Track
BANGLADESH: GETTING POLICE REFORM ON TRACK Asia Report N°182 – 11 December 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................. i I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 II. THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT................................................................ 3 A. THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................................3 B. THE POLITICAL MILIEU: OBSTACLES TO REFORM ........................................................................5 1. The bureaucracy...........................................................................................................................5 2. The military..................................................................................................................................6 3. The ruling elite.............................................................................................................................7 III. THE STATE OF THE POLICE ...................................................................................... 8 A. STRUCTURE AND ORGANISATION.................................................................................................8 B. THE BUDGET ...............................................................................................................................9 C. RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING ...................................................................................................10 -
Non-Retroactivity in Prosecuting Crimes Against Humanity and International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh
Journal of Politics and Law; Vol. 13, No. 3; 2020 ISSN 1913-9047 E-ISSN 1913-9055 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education Non-retroactivity in Prosecuting Crimes against Humanity and International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh Maruf Billah1 1 Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan Correspondence: Maruf Billah, Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Furo- Cho, Chikusa-Ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Received: July 18, 2020 Accepted: August 10, 2020 Online Published: August 30, 2020 doi:10.5539/jpl.v13n3p180 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/jpl.v13n3p180 Abstract The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) was set up by Bangladesh through the adaptation of the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973, as an internal mechanism trying to prosecute and punish Bangladeshi perpetrators who committed international crimes in Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. After a long disappearance from the public eye, the Tribunal was reemerged in 2010. The recent cases decided by the Tribunal have revealed that the international crimes; namely, crimes against humanity, were allegedly committed in 1971, while the relevant Statute was enacted in 1973, and was implemented in 2010. Recently, the ICTB is prosecuting crimes against humanity retroactively, which might have violated the prohibition of penalizing certain conducts committed by the perpetrators before the enforcement of such conduct as a law banning such demeanor as an offense. Therefore, this study firstly analyzes the rule against retroactivity in international criminal law. Secondly, it investigates the justification of the retroactive criminalization of crimes against humanity at the first International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, and its crystallization into the regional and international legal instruments. -
Sustainable Solid Waste Management Through 3R Strategy in Gazipur City Corporation
Sustainable Solid Waste Management Through 3R Strategy in Gazipur City Corporation By ABDULLAH RUMI SHISHIR PROMI ISLAM ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (IUT) 2016 i Sustainable Solid Waste Management Through 3R Strategy in Gazipur City Corporation By Abdullah Rumi Shishir (Student id 125423) Promi Islam (Student id 125447) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY NOVEMBER, 2015 iii iv APPROVAL The thesis titled ―Sustainable solid waste management through 3R strategy in Gazipur city corporation‖ submitted by Abdullah Rumi Shishir (Student ID 125423), Promi Islam (Student ID 125447) of Academic Year 2012-16 has been found as satisfactory and accepted as partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. SUPERVISOR DR. MD. REZAUL KARIM Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Islamic University of Technology (IUT) v DECLARATION We hereby declare that the undergraduate project work reported in this thesis has been performed by us and this work has not been submitted elsewhere for the award of any degree or diploma. November 2016 Abdullah Rumi Shishir (125423) Promi Islam (125447) vi DEDICATED TO OUR BELOVED PARENTS vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful All praises belongs to the almighty Allah for giving us the strength and courage to successfully complete our B.Sc. thesis. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to our Supervisor Dr. Md. Rezaul Karim, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Islamic University of Technology (IUT), for his generous guidance, advice and encouragement in supervising us. -
20065-9781475539158.Pdf
© 2012 International Monetary Fund October 2012 IMF Country Report No. 12/293 July 2010 January 29, 2001 January 29, 2001 January 29, 2001 January 29, 2001 Bangladesh: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers are prepared by member countries in broad consultation with stakeholders and development partners, including the staffs of the World Bank and the IMF. Updated with annual progress reports, they describe the countries macroeconomic, structural, and social policies in support of growth and poverty reduction, as well as associated external financing needs and major sources of financing. This country document for Bangladesh is being available on the IMF website by agreement of the member country as a service to users of the IMF website. Copies of this report are available to the public from International Monetary Fund Publication Services 700 19th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20431 Telephone: (202) 623-7430 Telefax: (202) 623-7201 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://www.imf.org International Monetary Fund Washington, D.C. ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution Steps Towards Change National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction II FY 2009 – 11 (Prepared in the light of Election Manifesto of the Bangladesh Awami League 2008) General Economics Division Planning Commission Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh December 2009 ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution Cover Design: GED, Planning Commission Copies Printed: 3,500 (English) ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution Message Our government’s aim is to achieve Vision 2021 by implementing economic policies delineated in our Awami League Party’s Election Manifesto.