Abstract

In Bangladesh, violence against women continues to be a serious human rights issue. Although Bangladesh has ratified the CEDAW and also enacted a number of different laws and policies to address violence against women, concerns remain about their effective enforcement and application. The objective of this thesis is to analyze the effectiveness of Bangladesh's implementation of CEDAW General Recommendation No. 35 (2017) which requires states to take measures to ensure prevention of violence, protection of women, and prosecution of offenders and provides reparations for victims.

This study uses a doctrinal legal research method. It analyses international human rights instruments, constitutional provisions, domestic laws, judicial decisions, policies, and institutional mechanisms related to gender-based violence in Bangladesh. It also examines the extent to which these legal and institutional measures fulfill the due diligence requirements under General Recommendation No. 35.

The findings of the study show that Bangladesh has made significant progress in developing legislation and institutions to address gender-based violence. Nevertheless, there still exists a significant gap between the legal provisions available and their practical implementation. Due to weak enforcement, delays in the justice system, limited access to legal and support services, weak institutions and social stigma, women face many challenges in obtaining protection and justice. The study also finds that prevention methods are insufficient, investigations and prosecution are often weak, and support and reparation for victims have not yet been sufficiently developed.

The study concludes that Bangladesh has partially fulfilled its due diligence obligations in accordance with General Recommendation No. 35. However, the mere existence of laws is not enough. Bangladesh also needs to ensure effective enforcement of the existing laws along with better collaboration between institutions, provide adequate protection as well as support to survivors, and take into consideration the social aspects of gender-based violence. These steps are needed to ensure sufficient implementation of General Recommendation No. 35 in Bangladesh.

Through field research in Sweden and Finland between 2017 and 2022, the thesis follows a burgeoning social movement in which connection with nature is seen as a means of both personal wellbeing and ecological sustainability at the societal level. The thesis describes and analyses ideas, practices, organisations, and literature in a contemporary cultural context in the borderland between health practice, environmental activism, and spirituality. It also examines participants' personal experiences and understands both the practice and its social milieu as a cultivation of experience, whereby experiences of nature as alive and communicative are maintained and enhanced. This leads into a discussion of animism in a contemporary Western context, where the thesis aims to develop a multidimensional understanding which takes into account not only ontology and cognitive-perceptual patterns, but also lays emphasis on emotional and ethical dimensions.

The thesis employs the concept face, which, in the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, signifies the encounter with subjectivity outside of oneself. In contrast to objects, which can be grasped intellectually and thus controlled and incorporated, the face reveals a reality beyond conceptualisation to which one must relate ethically. The thesis arrives at an understanding of both health and spirituality as states of (relative) openness toward the world and its human and non-human inhabitants. 

Under det senaste decenniet har mycket negativ medieuppmärksamhet riktats mot Malmö. Staden har sett återkommande oroligheter i vissa utsatta områden, vilket vittnar om en låg samhällstillit hos vissa befolkningsgrupper. Det har rapporterats om gängkriminalitet och antisemitism, och under senare tid även om ett utbrett hat i ord och handling riktat mot muslimer. Samtidigt finns en livfull anda inom såväl stadsförvaltningen som det lokala föreningslivet av att vilja stärka integrationen, minska etniska och religiösa motsättningar och kriminalitet samt förbättra livsmiljön i staden. Företrädare för både staden och civilsamhället anser att trossamfunden kan och bör spela en nyckelroll i detta, en roll som tidigare ofa varit förbisedd. Syfet med denna rapport är att skapa underlag för beslutsfattare inom kommuner och myndigheter genom att utvärdera samverkan mellan Malmö stad och olika civilsamhällesaktörer för tryghet och tillit i utsatta områden. Särskilt fokus har lagts på trossamfundens roll i denna samverkan.

Rapporten har tagits fram av på uppdrag av Myndigheten för stöd till trossamfund (SST).