Protection of Human Right in Bangladesh: An Analytical Study in Comparative Perspective.

Abstract

Discussion of a human rights approach to social protection has been revived in the past few years, particularly as a result of the period of global economic volatility and the clear need for stronger social protection systems. The UN Special Reporter on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights has developed a clear framework that applies human rights standards and principles to social protection, and which sets out the relevant international human rights laws. It is worth noting that the human rights framework for social protection has some points of convergence, but also some significant differences with two common approaches to thinking about social protection within development: the poverty and vulnerability reduction and politics approaches. This paper explores the prospects and pitfalls of a human rights approach to social protection in Bangladesh, focusing on the politics of gender, rights and social protection in that context. The record of social protection provision in Bangladesh has generally been one of innovation, some successful efforts to achieve scale, some sensitivity to gender, and a significant degree of responsiveness to disasters and shocks. Yet despite rapid progress on poverty reduction since the 2000s, social protection provision falls short in coverage terms, and well short of the standards of the human rights approach.