Bangladesh Police get new guidelines on handling women victims

Bangladesh Police have introduced new guidelines for their personnel on how to deal with woman victims when they approach them for help.

Inspector General AKM Shahidul Hoque launched the new guidelines or Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) at the police headquarters in Dhaka on Wednesday, according to a statement from the UN population agency, UNFPA, which helped to frame the guidelines.

“We’ll have the guidelines reach every police station as well as outposts and NGOs across Bangladesh within a month,” Muhammed Ayub,an Additional SP who is the focal point of an UNFPA-supported home ministry project that prepared the SOP, told bdnews24.com.

He said the SOP would guide police on how to behave and deal with a woman victim of rape or any other kind violence.

“The first priority is to have women police deal with them. If a police station does not have any woman police, they must ensure there is a policewoman or create proper conditions before asking those uncomfortable questions of a rape victim,” he said.

“Our objective is to create an atmosphere where women victims can find confidence in lodging their complaints”.

The monitoring team at the headquarters would work on complaints of not complying with the new guidelines, he said, adding that the guidelines would also be included in the training curriculum.

The UNFPA said the SOP was considered necessary to ensure that the Bangladesh police could adopt a survivor-centred human-rights-based approach to combating Gender-Based-Violence or GBV.

The police chief during the launch said with the new SOP, Bangladesh police would extend the best possible services and respond to women and girls who become victims of gender based violence.”

UNFPA Officer in Charge Iori Kato, during the launch, highlighted the importance of cross-sectoral cooperation between health service providers, legal support and the judicial sector.

He moreover urged the Bangladesh police to make the SOP an approved and official document countrywide.

The UNFPA has been working with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Bangladesh police since 1996 to assist the police in ensuring that women and girls were able to report cases of violence “in an atmosphere of confidentiality and dignity and to guarantee that cases are managed with efficiency and effectiveness.”

With UNFPA support 15 police stations now have dedicated Women Friendly Helpdesks, where trained female officers attend to cases of gender based violence reported by girls and women, the UN agency said.

A recent report by BBS and UNFPA indicated that more than 70 percent of currently married women experience some form of violence. Despite the high prevalence the number of cases actually reported stands at only 2.6 percent of those suffering from violence.

“A culture of silence and impunity prevents survivors of gender-based violence from coming forward and reporting the crimes,” the UNFPA said.