Civil society needs ‘space, enabling conditions’: Bachelet

Civil society needs “space, and enabling conditions” to play their crucial role in identifying and helping resolve human rights challenges, UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet said Monday.

She had “important exchanges” with a diverse range of civil society actors in the city, according to her office.

Bachelet is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday morning. She will make a statement on her four-day visit in the afternoon before her departure.

Bachelet arrived in Dhaka Sunday morning as Bangladesh continues “constructive dialogue” with her for the promotion and protection of human rights.

The top executive of the UN Human Rights body will also interact with the forcibly displaced Rohingya people during her Cox’s Bazar trip.

Through this visit, she would be equipped with concrete information to press hard for the repatriation of the Myanmar nationals to the ancestral homeland Rakhine, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Bachelet had meetings with four ministers, including Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, Sunday.

High Commissioner Bachelet, appreciating Bangladesh’s humanitarian gesture towards the Rohingya, underscored the need for their education through fully operationalizing the learning centers in the camps.

Momen urged the High Commissioner to use her good office to effectively engage with Myanmar and repatriate the forcibly displaced Rohingya to Myanmar.

He recalled that the government took good care of the displaced Rohigyas during the pandemic by providing vaccines.

The foreign minister urged the UN system, including UNDP, to undertake projects in Rakhine to create a conducive environment for the return of the Rohingya.

Momen underscored that Bangladesh, as a developing country, strongly promotes the Right to Development.

Bachelet appreciated Bangladesh’s regular reporting to human rights treaty bodies, and suggested a mechanism for further streamlining this.

She also positively noted the possible upcoming visits of several Special Rapporteurs of the UN to Bangladesh, as well as Bangladesh’s efforts to implement the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations.