Badabon Sangho along with other local level women-led CSOs has organised a press conference in in the National Press Club in Dhaka on Tuesday, 13 August 2022. At a conference, speaker demanded a standalone legal instrument for the climate victims under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The demand comes at a time when the UNHCR’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change, Dr Ian Fry, is currently visiting Bangladesh to capture relevant evidence from the ground. They mentioned a study- an increase in dropping out of schools, child marriage, social and sexual harassment, abuse, gender-based violence, child labor etc. in the erosion-displaced communities. In this study conducted in 2022, the issue of human rights violations in particular areas and differences in vulnerability of the same population has come up. They added, in the last 20 years, 200 families have suffered a direct financial loss of about Tk9.25 crore (in current value) because of the natural disasters. Among these direct financial losses, the main ones are losses of agricultural land and habitat, homesteads, livestock, household goods and damage to fishing equipment, trees, kitchens, toilets, etc. Women and children are relatively more vulnerable, that women in those areas are suffering from uterine infections/tumors/cancer due to the presence of high levels of salt in the water.
