Shahanur Islam
Shahanur Islam, 2010 Asia JusticeMakers Fellow, Bangladesh
Shahanur Islam is General Secretary and Executive Director of the Bangladesh Institute for Human Rights (BIHR) and Founder of JusticeMakers Bangladesh. He is also General Secretary of Bangladesh Minority Rights Commission and of Lawyers for Lawyers, Bangladesh as well as serving as Prosecution Manager for USAID’s Bangladesh Counter Trafficking in Persons (BC/TIP) Program at Winrock International.He is a lawyer and member of the Bangladesh Bar Council and the Bar Association of Dhaka. He is also a member of CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Canada; International Legal Network, Belgium; International Network to Promote Rule of Law, USA and also an international member of Amnesty International.
Shahanur has been victimized in different occasions due to his activities to publish reports on the abuse of law and human rights by state agencies and state sponsored terrorism.
He has also brought many cases against perpetrators of violations of human rights as a lawyer. He has conducted many investigations and fact-finding missions on human rights violations as well as issued local and international urgent appeals requesting attention to concerned authorities.
Human rights defenders (HRDs) in Bangladesh endure judicial harassment, arbitrary arrest, fabricated charges, abduction, physical attacks, torture and extrajudicial killings. Human rights violations against HRDs are committed by both state and non-state actors including corporations, impunity remains one of the most serious issues of concern, particularly as fatal attacks on human rights defenders and journalsits become increasingly common.
