Speakers, including rights activists, at a national assembly on Friday, emphasised the need for united movements to establish the rights of women from ethnic communities.
They made the call for unity at the two-day fifth National Ethnic Women Assembly, organised by the Bangladesh Adibashi Nari Network in Dhaka, which started on the day with the slogan 鈥楯oin the Movement for Establishing the Rights of Indigenous Women,鈥� according to a press release.
Presiding over the event, human rights activist Khushi Kabir highlighted the importance of raising voices to address various issues, faced by ethnic women.
She also acknowledged the contributions of ethnic women in various movements for ethnic people鈥檚 rights.
Jahangirnagar University anthropology department鈥檚 associate professor Snigdha Rezwana emphasised the need for separate legislation to establish the rights of ethnic women.
Over 100 people participated in the assembly from across the country, where 11-point recommendations were presented.
The recommendations included immediate and prompt measures to stop violence against ethnic women and children, ensuring exemplary punishment for those involved in violence, providing compensation, treatment, and legal aid for victims of violence, reserving seats in local and government institutions, including the parliament, to ensure the
representation and participation of ethnic women, forming a monitoring committee to track violence against ethnic women, which will submit periodic reports and recommendations to the parliamentary caucus on ethnic minority affairs and the government, implementing the 1997 Chittagong
Hill Tracts Peace Accord, forming a separate land commission for plain land ethnic people, and reinforcing the quota system in the education and employment sectors.
The event stressed the importance of these measures to ensure the rights and protection of ethnic women.
