The Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act was enacted in 2010, but no case has been filed under the Act in the last 10 years in the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court.
Discussants said this, in a virtual roundtable discussion titled ‘Domestic violence: The Context of Justice and Legal Solutions’, Jointly organised by the ActionAid Bangladesh and Daily Prothom Alo today on the observance of '16 Days of Activism’.
This information was revealed in a study commissioned by ActionAid Bangladesh in October 2020.
This year ActionAid Bangladesh observed ‘16 days of Activism’ with the theme of "Stop Violence Against Women, Now!". The campaign runs every year from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day.
The keynote speaker Taslima Yasmin, Faculty at the Department of Law, University of Dhaka who also led the study stated that, the key difficulty towards the implementation of this act were lack of awareness among the potential beneficiaries and the law enforcing agencies.
Again, both the survivors and lawyers generally prefer more straight forward penal sections, she added.
She also mentioned about the under reporting of abuses from the victims of domestic violence until it reached to severe form of physical torture.
Nasima Begum, Chairman, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) stated that, violence against women will never end if women compromise and are not conscious. "Many of them don't want to file a case thinking about family honor," added Nasima Begum.
Aroma Dutta, Parliament Member said, every district needs to have a branch of the Human Rights Commission. She stated that each ministry has a standing committee and it is possible to prevent violence against women by working with development agencies and civil society collaboratively.
In addition to amending the Domestic Violence Act, it is important to provide training to law enforcing agencies, mentioned, Supreme Court lawyer Sara Hossain. It is needed to provide training to field workers and various organizations to provide basic information to the victim about the Act, as well as psychosocial counseling to the victim she added.
Farah Kabir, Country Director of Action Aid Bangladesh, said the survey was conducted to look into the effectiveness of the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act, which was enacted 10 years back.
She also sought legal experts' recommendations to make the law more effective, mentioning that there should be extensive initiatives in education and training on Domestic Violence Act.
Among others, Research Initiatives Bangladesh Executive Director Meghna Guhathakurta, Sabalamby Unnayan Samity Manager Kohinoor Begum, Journalist Shahnaz Munni and Special Police Super of Criminal Investigation Department Rumana Akter also spoke in the roundtable.
