Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) organised a "Dialogue between National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Human Rights Activists" on 23 December to discuss the current human rights situation of the country and the experience of human rights activists. The event was held online due to the pandemic situation where various local and national level human rights activists, representatives of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other concerned stakeholders joined the event through Zoom platform. The Chairperson of the NHRC, Nasima Begum also joined the dialogue as the ‘Chief Guest’.
The Rights activists mentioned that the Commission is not playing due role to address the violations of human rights in the country. The Chairperson addressed the limitations in the National Human Rights Commission Act 2009 and retorted that only the amendment of the law would enable them to investigate allegations of rights violations by the Law Enforcement Agencies. The Executive Director of ASK, Golam Monowar Kamal, suggested that the Commission should share its work with the concerned people. Thus, the people will know about the initiatives of the Commission as well as they can seek the Commission’s support when they are in need. He also suggested the Commission to avoid initiatives that the CSOs or others can perform. He reiterated the fact that as a state institution, citizens expects a much stronger role from the Commission.