Prevailing justice for the victims of Genocide

ORGANISED by Liberation War Museum (LWM), a three-day international conference on 'Bangladesh Genocide and Justice' has been held at CIRDAP, Dhaka.  From February 27 till March 01, 2015, the conference was attended by scholars, teachers, researchers, human rights activists, government officials, lawyers, judges, university students and many others from home and abroad. Honorable Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Mr. Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali MP inaugurated the conference.  

Started with an introductory panel discussion on the issue of victim nation's right to justice, Daniel Feierstein, President of International Association of Genocide Scholars; Elizabeth Silkes, Director of International Coalition of Sites of Conscience; and Barrister Tureen Afroz, a Prosecutor of International Crimes Tribunal-Bangladesh (ICT-BD) opined that different realities have followed different paths in designing and implementing judicial processes, as well as in efforts of documentation and memorialisation undertaken over the years in the history of genocide studies in various parts of the world. 

Dr. Helen Jarvis, Former Chief of the Public Affairs Section at ECCC; Michel Gottret, Special Adviser to the Task Force for Dealing with the Past; and Umme Wara,  Faculty of Criminology Department, University of Dhaka discussed on the subject of crimes of sexual violence and remedies for the survivors. 

Paulo Casaca, President of South Asia Democratic Forum; Helmut Scholz, a Member of EU Parliament; Irene V. Massimino, a Professor of University of Lomas de Zamora; and Barrister Tapas K. Baul, Prosecutor of ICT-BD highlighted the role of international community in promoting justice for the genocide victims through recording memories and spreading out the same with the help of mass-media. 

Among others, Judge Daniel Horacio Obligado, a Member of the Argentinean Tribunal; Judge Agnieszka Klonowiecka-Milart from ECCC; Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, a Member of Bangladesh Law Commission and Former Chairman of ICT-BD(1) shared their experiences concerning the trial of offences such as crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and others.    

In the valedictory session, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Dr. Gowher Rizvi urged the international community to analyse the issues relating to ICT-BD from a neutral point of view.     

The writers are the students of LLM and LLB in the University of Dhaka and Jagganath University respectively.