Shawdesh desk:

Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders and activists along with the family members of the victims of enforced disappearance and political killings formed a human chain in the capital, marking the international Human Rights Day on Sunday.

The programme began formally with the recitation from the holy Quran at about 10:55am in front of the Jatiya Press Club with BNP standing committee member Selima Rahman in the chair.

Several hundred BNP leaders and activists started gathering in the area since morning to attend the programme amid the heavy presence of law enforcers.

Besides, all district units of the opposition party are also set to observe a similar programme on the same day to highlight the issue of human rights violations in Bangladesh, said the party.

Speaking at a press briefing on Saturday, BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said they want to observe the programme successfully as a symbol of protest against injustice.

‘Mayer Dak’, a platform of the families of the victims of enforced disappearance allegedly by government agencies, organised a rally together with the other family members of the victims of enforced disappearance in front of the Jatiya Press Club on Saturday.

The International Human Rights Day is being observed in the country on Sunday as elsewhere across the globe.

The theme of this year’s day is ‘Freedom, Equality and Justice for All’.

Different organisations and political parties have chalked out elaborate programmes to observe the day highlighting the country’s human rights situation.

In the decades since the ratification of the UDHR, human rights have become more widely recognised and protected around the world. It commemorates the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This year Human Rights Day marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a milestone document that proclaimed the inalienable rights which everyone is inherently entitled to as a human being — regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, according a message of the United Nations issued ahead of the day.