The International Human Rights Day will be observed in the country on Sunday as elsewhere across the globe.
The theme of this year’s day is “Freedom, Equality and Justice for All".
Different organisations and political parties have chalked out elaborate programmes to observe the day with due respect and highlight the country’s human rights situation.
In the decades since the ratification of the UDHR, human rights have become more widely recognised and protected around the world. It commemorates the day as the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
This year Human Rights Day marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a milestone document that proclaimed the inalienable rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being -- regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, according a message of the United Nations (UN) issued ahead of the day.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages on the eve of the day.
Meanwhile, BNP has taken preparations to form human chains on Sunday across the country, including in the capital, together with the family members of victims of enforced disappearances and political killings, marking International Human Rights Day.
In the capital, the party is scheduled to form a human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club at 11am.
Besides, the BNP’s all district units are also set to observe a similar programme on the same day to highlight the issue of human rights violations in Bangladesh.
Speaking at a press briefing, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said they want to observe the programme successfully as a symbol of protest against injustice.
He called upon the leaders and activists of BNP at all levels and the family members of those who were subjected to enforced disappearances and political and extrajudicial killings to spontaneously take part in the human chains across the country, including in Dhaka.
‘Mayer Dak’, a platform of the families of the people who fell victim to enforced disappearances allegedly by government agencies, organised a rally together with the family members of the victims of enforced disappearance in front of the Jatiya Press Club on Saturday, on the eve of the Human Rights Day.
