Feature

Translate Dreams into Action

Md. Saimum Reza Talukder

IT is the French concept of “Natural Rights” that was originated from the Roman concept of “Natural Law” which finally became the “Human Rights” through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. Human rights is nothing but the solemn express of the will of the people to live peacefully. And right to express is the core of all of human rights as human rights can not be ensured unless people are aware of their rights and liabilities. Thus right to information became an important tool to ensure human rights worldwide which also convinced the Government of People's Republic of Bangladesh to enact “Right to Information Act, 2009”. But because of the lack of proper implementation we are yet to enjoy all its benefit.

With the aim to find out a way to ensure proper implementation of Right to Information (RTI), Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) inspired civil society group Committee of Concerned Citizens (CCC), Chittagong Metropolitan organized a workshop on the “Right to Information Act, 2009” at the Regional Public Administration Training Centre (RPATC), Chittagong on 9th January.

The day long workshop focused on discussing the importance, scopes, aspects, loopholes, possibilities of the newly enacted RTI Act and trained the participants about the procedures, formats to file a RTI application. Civil society members; social activists; journalists; students from different public and private universities and Youth Engagement and Support (YES) members of CCC, Chittagong Metropolitan, TIB attended the workshop. Advocate Akhtar Kabir Chowdhury, Convener, CCC, Chittagong Metropolitan was the chief guest of this workshop while the facilitators were TIB officials Mohammed Imam Uddin and M. Rafiqul Islam.

The chief guest in his welcome speech urged the new generation to wipe out the corruption by making government institutions accountable through the RTI Act. Later in the working session, a brief history of RTI act was discussed along with video presentations of its success. The working session also saw the participants figure out the loopholes of the act and suggesting rules and regulations for implementing the act properly. They also pointed out some complexity in the draft, sought for more public and private cooperation to run more awareness programmes.

Being special guests, human rights activist and Convener of YES, Chittagong Metropolitan Jesmin Sultana Paru, Chittagong City Corporation Commissioner Advocate Rehana Kabir Ranu and Public Persecutor of Chittagong Judge Court Mr. Abul Hashem expressed their collective determination to promote this act in their respective fields in order to challenge the corruption and enhancing transparency. Thus, the program ended with the hope to translate dreams into action through the effective implementation of right to information.

(The writer is a YES member of CCC, Chittagong Metropolitan and student of Law, University of Chittagong)