Odhikar

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Odhikar is a human rights organisation in Bangladesh and registered with the NGO Affairs Bureau under the Prime Minister’s Office, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

In 1994, a group of human rights activists initiated discussions and underscored the need to uphold the civil and political rights of the people of Bangladesh along with social, cultural and economic rights. Eventually, a decision was arrived at to form an organisation in order to advance such rights. On 10 October 1994, Odhikar (a Bangla word that means ‘rights’) came into being with the aim to create a wider monitoring and awareness raising system on the abuse of civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights of the people.
It was founded as, and will continue to be, a politically committed but non-partisan organisation. Its principle objectives are to raise the awareness about human rights and its various abuses, in order to create a wider monitoring system on the one hand and to create a vibrant democratic system through election monitoring on the other. These human rights monitoring activities contribute to eventual positive steps towards the creation of transparency and accountability in the responsible sectors of the government with an aim to improve its human rights record and to facilitate an active democracy with the participation of people from all sections of society.
Odhikar has a nationwide network of about 300 human rights defenders at grassroots level. With their support and cooperation Odhikar has been carrying out its activity to promote respect for human rights in Bangladesh.

Odhikar emphasises the active participation of the grassroots level communities at all level of its work. Odhikar realises that empowerment is a precondition to establishing human rights. With this in mind, Odhikar work with the vision of “a society where full enjoyment of human rights by every human being will be ensured.”

Activities:
• Documentation and Networking: The work of the documentation unit is to gather and document relevant information for investigation purposes from both the daily papers and personal and organisational sources/contacts, including human rights defenders.
• Fact Finding: Odhikar fact-finding activities cover instances of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment and abuse of some specific laws leading to human rights violations, repression against innocent people and application of unnecessary force by law enforcement agencies.
• Research: The Research Unit at Odhikar is responsible for the archival preservation and enhancement of the fact finding reports.
• Election Monitoring and Observation: Odhikar has been monitoring national and local government elections in Bangladesh since 1996. The monitoring work of Odhikar is not only limited to election day, but also covers pre and post election periods.
• Media Campaigns for the protection and promotion of human
• Human Rights Defenders Training
• Advocacy: Through regular discussion meetings on various issues of human rights and their abuse, Odhikar brings together various groups of people, including policy makers, politicians, lawyers, human rights activists and NGO activists, journalists from popular daily newspapers and victims of human rights abuse. It also advocates at the regional and international level through UN advocacy mechanism.
• Urgent Appeals.
• Internships / Volunteers: Odhikar has an internship/volunteer programme for local and international students, researchers and activists who are interested in doing filed and desk research work as human rights defenders in Bangladesh.
• Good governance
• Publications: Odhikar publishes its research, fact findings and monthly and annual reports on the state of human rights in Bangladesh in the form of bulletins books and reports.

Major programs:
• Human Rights monitoring through documentation and fact finding
• Community Human Rights Watch through Human Rights Defenders
• Election Monitoring
• Training
• Research and Publication
• Networking (National and International)
• Advocacy
• Public Interest Litigation

Adilur Rahman Khan is the Secretary of Odhikar.

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