Speakers, including diplomats, researchers and a politician, at a geopolitical conference in Dhaka on Monday criticised the ‘selective’ approach of global powers as regards human rights issues, accusing them of maintaining a ‘double standard’.
They said that the West was not treating human rights issues equally across the world.Â
Several speakers said that it was ‘hypocrisy’ to raise voice against the war in Ukraine describing it as a genocide while remaining silent over rights of the people in Gaza where thousands of Palestinians, including women and children, were being killed by Israeli forces.
Addressing the plenary session on ‘The human cost of progress: rights as pillars of sustainable development’ on the third day of the three-day ‘Bay of Bengal conversation’ at a city hotel, United Nations resident coordinator in Bangladesh Gwyn Lewis said that everyone’s rights should be protected while none should be left out in development.
Responding to a question, she said that she had worked for 10 years in Gaza for the UN and saw for herself what was happening there on the ground. She mentioned that Israeli forces also killed her UN colleagues there.
Asked why the international system had failed to protect humanity, she said that it was a political failure and the hypocrisy of the international politics.
Touching upon Bangladesh with the change in the government following the student-led mass uprising in July-August, the UN resident coordinator said that the thinking beyond the Gross Domestic Product growth was critical for the country’s sustainable development.
Progress in poverty reduction and human rights need to sustain, she said, adding that living wage and other labour rights of workers must be ensured.
The session explored examples, including Indonesia’s palm oil industry that was facing international scrutiny over human rights abuses, and China’s Belt and Road projects in the Indo-Pacific where community rights were often reportedly overshadowed.
Former Malaysia minister for plantation and commodities Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin came down heavily on the United States policy.
The US imposed sanctions against Malaysian oil companies citing child labour issues without knowing the ground reality, she alleged.Â
Founder of 1EarthVillage David Morris said that emerging as a rising power, China was offering funding at competitive rates and investing in Africa and South Asia for infrastructure development projects under its Belt and Road Initiative.
Director of Sonali Life Insurance, Bangladesh Sheikh Mohammad Daniel pointed out disparity in fixing prices of products exported from Bangladesh to the western countries.
The disparity should be addressed for an equitable society, he stressed.
In many parts of Asia, development had led to substantial growth but sometimes compromised fundamental rights, from labour protection to environmental safeguard, they observed at the session moderated by Irfan Yar, founder and managing director, Afghanistan Security Institute in Canada.Â
Irfan also criticised the ‘selective application’ of human rights by the West, saying that it was ‘hypocrisy’.
He said that the principle of human rights was globally in decline.
Research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies Ishrat Hossain, however, raised the development issues of Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh from the perspective of the ethnic minorities traditionally living there.
She suggested that development projects should be taken after listening to the stakeholders in the CHT constituting 11 per cent of the country’s total area with 1 per cent of the population living there, unlike other areas where population density was intense.
The panellists discussed how centring human rights in development frameworks could lead to more stable, just, and inclusive societies reflecting the region’s commitment to both progress and human dignity.
The three-day Bay of Bengal Conversation Bangladesh inaugurated by interim government chief adviser Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus on Saturday concluded on the day with Centre for Governance Studies executive director Zillur Rahman in chair.
Around 200 speakers, 300 delegates and 800 participants from 80 nations, representing diverse voices across sectors and geographies joined the third edition of the annual geopolitical talks with the theme ‘A fractured world’.