Impunity, in any form, is a violation of human rights, as well as a direct threat to the rule of law which is the necessary basis for democracy. A state has the obligation to both respect and promote human rights. But impunity encourages human rights violations and thus it is a violation of the state obligations. Such state obligations are made specific provisions of the Constitution of many countries of the world.

The Bangladesh Constitution guarantees right to life, property, equality before law, food and security as fundamental rights. Article 11 of the Constitution is explicit in declaring that the state shall be a democracy, in which fundamental human rights and freedom and respect for the dignity and worth of human person shall be guaranteed. In this connection Article 15 (provision for basic necessities) Article 19 (1) (equality of opportunity), Article 20 (work as a right and duty), Article 27 (equality before law), Article 28 (1) (no discrimination), Article 41 (freedom of religion) and article 42 (right to property) deserve to be mentioned.

The aforementioned constitutional provisions and obligations, no doubt, put the light on the state and its Constitution. But lets not forgot that human rights are also vested in individuals. They are inherent in a human person by dint of his or her being born human. Therefore, these rights are not derived only from the benevolent acquiescence of state but they also stem from a higher natural legal order.

In spite of these the brutality or frequency of criminal activity and the impunity have not abated. Our law provided protection. But there are allegations that these are flouted and more often than not they are misused and arbitrary arrests are made. This is what lends legitimacy to our concern and to our protest when they are violated. Our introspection needs to be directed at to what extent we have been able to promote these rights in our society, to what extent the state has been able to protect the rights of every citizen, specially the more vulnerable groups, and to what extent we have been able to build institutional mechanism to redress the violation of the rights of an individual.

The denial of human rights and fundamental freedom not only is an individual and personal tragedy, but also creates conditions of social and political unrest, sowing the seeds of violence and conflict. Resulting breakdown in rule of law or a partisan application of laws may be attributed to the followings:

Like most of the third world developing countries, politics has often resulted in a deprivation of citizens' human rights and violation of constitutional privileges in our country. The raising incidents of violence speaks of a culture of violence and intolerance being created and nurtured in the society more often than not by the nature of our national politics. Unfortunately, politics in our country is increasingly acquiring a non democratic and aggressive force, with violence becoming endemic.

The transitional nature of political and economic development of Bangladesh can be ascribed as one of the reasons of the lapses in observances of constitutional and human rights. Though parliament is meant to represent plural interest, Bangladesh politics being confrontational and inimical to reform, it has become less effective than it is supposed to be. Little or no debate on important legislation or other matters of national concern take place in the parliament. As a result, the overburdened court has become one of the main institutional through which channels have been kept open for a meaningful communication with the deprived citizens.

Corruption in all spheres of life go unpunished and the country and its citizens pay a heavy price through increased cost and impaired development.

Powerful economic interests are at play in Bangladesh which are beginning to demand a price at the expense of the citizens rights and to participate in decision making that effect their lives.

More unfortunate is the size of black money i.e. ill gotten money in the hands of few who are increasingly undermining the efforts and works of some of the agencies including the law enforcing agencies.

When systemic corruption grips the country, it creates a complementary chain that perpetuates a vicious circle of malpractice. To reverse the drift that allows in human wrongs becoming a natural feature of our culture, drastic actions to assure all, that no person is above the law are necessary. Every person should have recourse to protection under the law, to equal protection against discrimination of his or her fundamental human rights and justice in seeking juridical remedies under the law. But this has not yet been attained and the evil impunity persists.

Though the primary responsibility to ensure and protect human rights rests with the government but it is increasingly accepted that a broader range of actors, such as the judiciary should assume responsibility to ensure that complicity in human rights violation is avoided. But to do so, acts of corruption and their impunity need to be brought into notice of the court. Because of ignorance of law, the economic condition of the ordinary people, and fear of reprisal in many cases, victims do not take resort to court and offense go unpunished. Towards this end, no doubt, the national courts are given primary jurisdiction. But it is not so easy for the overburdened court to keep track of all corrupt practices and take suo moto notice though there are instances, very few in number, where notices have been taken because of media report and approach by NGOs.

The courts in the recent past are forced, more and more with the task of affirming the constitutional principal of people's rights as citizens have challenged constitutional violations by the executive through judicial intervention. But success of any judicial system remains dependent on the promulgation, interpretation, application and enforcement of the law. Put tersely the inability of rule of law rests largely on the non availability of these legal processes. In fact, the reasons for slow judicial progress have been the inadequacy of the legal system. There is a need for new process to deal with gross violations.

Not only that judiciary shall have to have higher standards in themselves for which more exposure to other systems, more education in human rights and their violation, more training and more awareness and motivation of judges are necessary along with necessary facilities which the courts lack extremely.

The availability under law of various accountability mechanism for bringing alleged perpetrators to justice is a must for the success of the court in its fight against the impunity of human rights violations. Prescription for justice should be the overriding guidelines for and considerations of law and policy.

In the event that fundamental human rights of a person are violated, there remains the overarching right to justice. Conditions that tolerate impunity are personal, they centre on the victim and demonstrate the powerless side of victimization and helpless feeling of ever obtaining justice. These may be lessened to a certain extent by ensuring rehabilitation, restitution of the victims and compensation by making effective provisions in the law.

In deserving cases extra-penal methods may also be adopted. Serious efforts must be made to mitigate the pain and emotional suffering of victims and their families by taking measures that address the psychological aspects of human rights violations and the inability to return to the human situation before the violations were perpetrated.

The struggle against impunity is an essential part of the struggle for human rights. There will always be overwhelming array of obstacles to the efforts, but time alone will tell whether Bangladesh is making the right choice about priorities and tactics in response to those obstacles.

Justice K.M. Hasan, the Chief Justice of Bangladesh, presented this paper in a discussion meeting on impunity organised by Odhikar, a human rights organisation.