What were their dreamed?
We achieved independence in forty years ago against the Pakistani rulers who exploited us almost 24 years in term of political, economie,cultural,religion,etc.because of suppression and oppression of these kinds of sector, the golden boys of this country fought the Pakistani barbarian armed forces who were the second largest forces in the world.Unarmed golden boys of this countries fought the Pakistani barbarian forces with the sprite of patriotism at the same time they had a dreamed,what is their dreamed?To establishe the free and justice society.So it is our responsibility to established the free and justice society . But now we have to see different scenario.It is no doubt that deveploment process is a ongoing process.we achieved in number of sectors which is remarkable such as poverty situation is reducing , maternal mortality rate is reducing tremendously, per capital income is increasing day by day, but still we have to go far away.Because of political confrontation we have to lagging behind. Lack of political commitment between the two major political parties lead the development process in a anarchic situations. But it should not be continued .It must be stopped now. Otherwise the people who sacrifice their life in the liberation war of Bangladesh they will not forgive us .So it is our responsibility to work together to do something for the country and ultimately for our country people. Then it can be said that they will forgive us because we are doing too late to do something.
Thursday 28 April 2011
The Afghanistan problem: What policy should be needed?
The Afghanistan problem: What policy should be needed?
Now-a-days the issue which is turned into world politics is Afghanistan problem. After the events of September 9/11 2001, US and allied forces’ intervention in Afghanistan was welcomed by the Afghans. Because that was the time political situation was totally devastated in Afghanistan. Afghans people expected that this intervention may bring political stability as well as peace and happiness of their lives, but the hopes and wishes soon shattered when the Afghans found themselves again in a state of war.
Here we see the failure of international community as well as Afghan government.
Day by day the situation is much more complex. It must not be continued because every day, besides foreigners, many Afghan men, women and children have lost their lives, despite the presence of hundreds and thousands of foreign troops in Afghanistan which is violated the international norms, rules and regulations.
It is high time to take necessary steps which should be followed ,US and allied forces under, the mandate of UN, should organize an international conference in which the regional powers and neighbors of Afghanistan be given a part to play. The aims and objectives of the conference should be based on the strategy regarding how to cope with the present situation when some NATO members have given a signal to withdraw from Afghanistan. The talk should be based on exit strategy with emphasis on a time frame for the withdrawal of NATO forces. Moreover, empowerment of Afghan government and forces is given a special consideration.
The time frame for withdrawal of foreign troops should not be more than three to four years. During the process of withdrawal, if Afghan army and police are not well prepared to take their responsibilities Afghan army and police should be organized and trained by a friendly state acceptable to all Afghans. In this sector, Bangladesh can send troops to train them.
In this conference, international community and neighboring countries should also guarantee that they will not intervene internal matter of Afghanistan.
With the help of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, Afghan government should be encouraged to start negotiation with all opposition forces.
Afghan society is distinctly divided between the poor and the rich: the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer day by day. The rich people constitute the ruling class while poor people are the most affected one. Middle class doesn’t exist. Afghanistan is in need of a middle class which may prove to be a much needed balancer in the society. Afghan refugees living abroad especially in Pakistan and Iran have the potential to become a strong middle class. These refugees are well educated and economically they are sound too. Thus, their skill and education can be utilized to bring positive changes in Afghanistan.
The power should be transferred in a transparent democratic manner so that people could have a chance to choose their representatives without fears of warlords and government interference.
Above steps have to be taken immediately, otherwise we may see the different picture in international politics .It should be keep in mind that history shown us suppression and oppression is not lasting forever.
Md Ariful Islam Rony
3th year,7th semester
Department of International relations
University of Dhaka (arifulislam@gmail.com)
01737171008
Now-a-days the issue which is turned into world politics is Afghanistan problem. After the events of September 9/11 2001, US and allied forces’ intervention in Afghanistan was welcomed by the Afghans. Because that was the time political situation was totally devastated in Afghanistan. Afghans people expected that this intervention may bring political stability as well as peace and happiness of their lives, but the hopes and wishes soon shattered when the Afghans found themselves again in a state of war.
Here we see the failure of international community as well as Afghan government.
Day by day the situation is much more complex. It must not be continued because every day, besides foreigners, many Afghan men, women and children have lost their lives, despite the presence of hundreds and thousands of foreign troops in Afghanistan which is violated the international norms, rules and regulations.
It is high time to take necessary steps which should be followed ,US and allied forces under, the mandate of UN, should organize an international conference in which the regional powers and neighbors of Afghanistan be given a part to play. The aims and objectives of the conference should be based on the strategy regarding how to cope with the present situation when some NATO members have given a signal to withdraw from Afghanistan. The talk should be based on exit strategy with emphasis on a time frame for the withdrawal of NATO forces. Moreover, empowerment of Afghan government and forces is given a special consideration.
The time frame for withdrawal of foreign troops should not be more than three to four years. During the process of withdrawal, if Afghan army and police are not well prepared to take their responsibilities Afghan army and police should be organized and trained by a friendly state acceptable to all Afghans. In this sector, Bangladesh can send troops to train them.
In this conference, international community and neighboring countries should also guarantee that they will not intervene internal matter of Afghanistan.
With the help of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, Afghan government should be encouraged to start negotiation with all opposition forces.
Afghan society is distinctly divided between the poor and the rich: the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer day by day. The rich people constitute the ruling class while poor people are the most affected one. Middle class doesn’t exist. Afghanistan is in need of a middle class which may prove to be a much needed balancer in the society. Afghan refugees living abroad especially in Pakistan and Iran have the potential to become a strong middle class. These refugees are well educated and economically they are sound too. Thus, their skill and education can be utilized to bring positive changes in Afghanistan.
The power should be transferred in a transparent democratic manner so that people could have a chance to choose their representatives without fears of warlords and government interference.
Above steps have to be taken immediately, otherwise we may see the different picture in international politics .It should be keep in mind that history shown us suppression and oppression is not lasting forever.
Md Ariful Islam Rony
3th year,7th semester
Department of International relations
University of Dhaka (arifulislam@gmail.com)
01737171008
The Afghanistan problem: What policy should be needed?
The Afghanistan problem: What policy should be needed?
Now-a-days the issue which is turned into world politics is Afghanistan problem. After the events of September 9/11 2001, US and allied forces’ intervention in Afghanistan was welcomed by the Afghans. Because that was the time political situation was totally devastated in Afghanistan. Afghans people expected that this intervention may bring political stability as well as peace and happiness of their lives, but the hopes and wishes soon shattered when the Afghans found themselves again in a state of war.
Here we see the failure of international community as well as Afghan government.
Day by day the situation is much more complex. It must not be continued because every day, besides foreigners, many Afghan men, women and children have lost their lives, despite the presence of hundreds and thousands of foreign troops in Afghanistan which is violated the international norms, rules and regulations.
It is high time to take necessary steps which should be followed ,US and allied forces under, the mandate of UN, should organize an international conference in which the regional powers and neighbors of Afghanistan be given a part to play. The aims and objectives of the conference should be based on the strategy regarding how to cope with the present situation when some NATO members have given a signal to withdraw from Afghanistan. The talk should be based on exit strategy with emphasis on a time frame for the withdrawal of NATO forces. Moreover, empowerment of Afghan government and forces is given a special consideration.
The time frame for withdrawal of foreign troops should not be more than three to four years. During the process of withdrawal, if Afghan army and police are not well prepared to take their responsibilities Afghan army and police should be organized and trained by a friendly state acceptable to all Afghans. In this sector, Bangladesh can send troops to train them.
In this conference, international community and neighboring countries should also guarantee that they will not intervene internal matter of Afghanistan.
With the help of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, Afghan government should be encouraged to start negotiation with all opposition forces.
Afghan society is distinctly divided between the poor and the rich: the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer day by day. The rich people constitute the ruling class while poor people are the most affected one. Middle class doesn’t exist. Afghanistan is in need of a middle class which may prove to be a much needed balancer in the society. Afghan refugees living abroad especially in Pakistan and Iran have the potential to become a strong middle class. These refugees are well educated and economically they are sound too. Thus, their skill and education can be utilized to bring positive changes in Afghanistan.
The power should be transferred in a transparent democratic manner so that people could have a chance to choose their representatives without fears of warlords and government interference.
Above steps have to be taken immediately, otherwise we may see the different picture in international politics .It should be keep in mind that history shown us suppression and oppression is not lasting forever.
Md Ariful Islam Rony
3th year,7th semester
Department of International relations
University of Dhaka (arifulislam@gmail.com)
01737171008
Now-a-days the issue which is turned into world politics is Afghanistan problem. After the events of September 9/11 2001, US and allied forces’ intervention in Afghanistan was welcomed by the Afghans. Because that was the time political situation was totally devastated in Afghanistan. Afghans people expected that this intervention may bring political stability as well as peace and happiness of their lives, but the hopes and wishes soon shattered when the Afghans found themselves again in a state of war.
Here we see the failure of international community as well as Afghan government.
Day by day the situation is much more complex. It must not be continued because every day, besides foreigners, many Afghan men, women and children have lost their lives, despite the presence of hundreds and thousands of foreign troops in Afghanistan which is violated the international norms, rules and regulations.
It is high time to take necessary steps which should be followed ,US and allied forces under, the mandate of UN, should organize an international conference in which the regional powers and neighbors of Afghanistan be given a part to play. The aims and objectives of the conference should be based on the strategy regarding how to cope with the present situation when some NATO members have given a signal to withdraw from Afghanistan. The talk should be based on exit strategy with emphasis on a time frame for the withdrawal of NATO forces. Moreover, empowerment of Afghan government and forces is given a special consideration.
The time frame for withdrawal of foreign troops should not be more than three to four years. During the process of withdrawal, if Afghan army and police are not well prepared to take their responsibilities Afghan army and police should be organized and trained by a friendly state acceptable to all Afghans. In this sector, Bangladesh can send troops to train them.
In this conference, international community and neighboring countries should also guarantee that they will not intervene internal matter of Afghanistan.
With the help of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, Afghan government should be encouraged to start negotiation with all opposition forces.
Afghan society is distinctly divided between the poor and the rich: the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer day by day. The rich people constitute the ruling class while poor people are the most affected one. Middle class doesn’t exist. Afghanistan is in need of a middle class which may prove to be a much needed balancer in the society. Afghan refugees living abroad especially in Pakistan and Iran have the potential to become a strong middle class. These refugees are well educated and economically they are sound too. Thus, their skill and education can be utilized to bring positive changes in Afghanistan.
The power should be transferred in a transparent democratic manner so that people could have a chance to choose their representatives without fears of warlords and government interference.
Above steps have to be taken immediately, otherwise we may see the different picture in international politics .It should be keep in mind that history shown us suppression and oppression is not lasting forever.
Md Ariful Islam Rony
3th year,7th semester
Department of International relations
University of Dhaka (arifulislam@gmail.com)
01737171008
Wednesday 27 April 2011
Recognition of States and Governments in the basis of international law
Recognition of States and Governments in the basis of international law
Contents
Introduction:
History of Recognition:
Definition of state recognition:
Preconditions of Recognition:
Debate over recognition:
Is withdrawal of recognition possible?
1. Theory of recognition:
• Constitutive theory
• Declarative theory
2. The purpose of Recognition
3. Forms of recognition in International law:
• Explicit Recognition
• Implicit Recognition
4. Nature of Recognition:
• De facto and
• De jure stat
5. Case Study of recognition
6. State practices
• Recognition - U.S. policy in the recognition of states
• Recognition - U.k. policy in the recognition of states:
7. Legal Consequences of Recognition
8. Conclusion
Reference
Introduction:
A Sovereign state is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, independence from other states and powers, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. The government of a sovereign state holds legal title to all property therein. It is also normally understood to be a state which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. While in abstract terms a sovereign state can exist without being recognized by other sovereign states, unrecognized states will often find it hard to exercise full treaty-making powers and engage in diplomatic relations with other sovereign states. If want to see then we can say, A state must have some element Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States, 1933 lays down the most widely accepted formulation of the criteria of statehood in international law. It note that the state as an international person should possess the following qualifications: '(a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with other states'"
History of Recognition:
Since the late 19th century, virtually the entirety of the world's inhabitable land has been parceled up into areas with more or less definite borders claimed by various states. Earlier, quite large land areas had been either unclaimed or uninhabited, or inhabited by nomadic peoples who were not organized as states. However, even within present-day states there are vast areas of wilderness, like the Amazon Rainforest, which are uninhabited or inhabited solely or mostly by indigenous people (and some of them remain uncontested. Also, there are states which do not hold de facto control over all of their claimed territory or where this control is challenged (as in Somalia).
Currently the international community comprises more than 200 sovereign states, the vast majority of which are represented in the United Nations. These states form what international relations theorists call a system, where each state takes into account the behavior of other states when making their own calculations. From this point of view, states embedded in an international system face internal and external security and legitimating dilemmas Recently the notion of an international community has been developed to refer to a group of states who have established rules, procedures, and institutions for the conduct of their relations. In this way the foundation has been laid for international law, diplomacy, formal regimes, and organizations
Definition of state recognition:
The recognition of a state under international law is a declaration of intent by one state to acknowledge another power as a "state" within the meaning of international law. Recognition constitutes a unilateral declaration of intent. It is entirely at the discretion of any state to decide to recognize another as a subject of international law.
According to the American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy “In diplomacy, the act by which one nation acknowledges that a foreign government is legitimate and exchanges diplomats with it.The withholding of recognition is a way for one government to show its disapproval of another.”
According to the prof. L Oppenheim, in recognizing a state as a member of international community, existing states declared that in their own opinion the new state fulfill the condition statehood as required by international law.
State recognition signifies the decision of a sovereign state to treat another entity as also being a sovereign state. Recognition can be either express or implied and is usually retroactive in its effects. It doesn't necessarily signify a desire to establish or maintain diplomatic relations.
Form my personal point of view it can be said that, through recognition, the recognizing state acknowledge that the possesses the essential condition of statehood. However international law does not provide as how to these essential condition are to be determined.
Preconditions of Recognition:
The recognition of a state presupposes that it really exhibits the characteristics of a state within the meaning of international law. According to the prevailing three-element doctrine, this requires state territory, a state people and state power (i.e. a government that is effective and independent both externally and internally, as an expression of state sovereignty). Only the actual circumstances are relevant to the assessment of statehood (the "effectiveness principle").
In addition to the three elements mentioned, a state or an international organization can also set further conditions for recognition – for example compliance with the UN Charter or the observance of human rights.
If a state is recognized before all the preconditions for recognition are met (premature recognition), this is contrary to international law and legally ineffective. A state that prematurely recognizes another is in breach of the prohibition of interference in the internal affairs of a state (Art. 2 no. 4 of the Charter of the United Nations).
There is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations on the criteria for statehood. In actual practice, the criteria are mainly political, not legal. L.C. Green cited the recognition of the unborn Polish and Czech states in World War I and explained that "recognition of statehood is a matter of discretion; it is open to any existing state to accept as a state any entity it wishes, regardless of the existence of territory or an established government.
Debate over recognition:
Naturally, the question has been raised weather recognition is a necessary institution, and if not, according weather it ought to be discarded either generally or in most instances. this was a view indeed of the late Richard Baxter, judge of the International Court of justice ,1979-1980,who felt that recognition caused more problems than it solved, and that its partial withdrawal would the maintenance of relations with states in which Extra constitutional changes of government were taking place
In1930, the then minister for foreign affairs of Mexico , Mr. Estrada, announced that his government would no longer issues declarations in the sense of the grants of recognition inasmuch as `such a course is an insulting practice and one which, in addition to the fact it offends the sovereignty of others nations ,implies that judgment of some sort may be passed upon the internal affairs of those nations by other government” This policy as thus announced ,has become generally known as the Estrada doctrine.
Is withdrawal of recognition possible?
Recognition De jure is final and once given cannot be withdrawn. If recognizing state observe that de Facto recognized state has failed to fulfill the demand of the people at the same time state security is deteriorated day by day then recognizing state never go for de jure recognition. But sometimes de facto recognition can be withdrawn. But it is very rare in ternational politics. At the time it should be kept in mind if once de jure proclaim towards states, it is not possible to withdrawn.
Theory of recognition:
In international law however, there are several theories of when a state should be recognized as sovereign. Here mainly I will discuss two theory of recognition.
• Constitutive theory
The constitutive theory of statehood defines a state as a person of international law if, and only if, it is recognized as sovereign by other states. This theory of recognition was developed in the 19th century. Under it, a state was sovereign if another sovereign state recognized it as such. Because of this, new states could not immediately become part of the international community or be bound by international law, and recognized nations did not have to respect international law in their dealings with them. In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna the Final Act only recognize 39 sovereign states in the European diplomatic system, and as a result it was firmly established that in future new states would have to be recognized by other states, and that meant in practice recognition by one or more of the great powers.
One of the major criticisms of this law is the confusion caused when some states recognize a new entity, but other states do not. Herschel Lauterpack, one of the theory's main proponents, suggested that it is a state's duty to grant recognition as a possible solution. However, a state may use any criteria when judging if they should give recognition and they have no obligation to use such criteria. Many states may only recognize another state if it is to their advantage.
• Declarative theory
By contrast, the "declarative" theory defines a state as a person in international law if it meets the following criteria: 1) a defined territory; 2) a permanent population; 3) a government and 4) a capacity to enter into relations with other states. According to declarative theory, an entity's statehood is independent of its recognition by other states. The declarative model was most famously expressed in the 1933 Montevideo Convention.
Article 3 of the Convention declares that statehood is independent of recognition by other states. In contrast, recognition is considered a requirement for statehood by the constitutive theory of statehood.
A similar opinion about "the conditions on which an entity constitutes a state" is expressed by the European Economic Community Opinions of the Bandits Arbitration Committee. The Basinet Arbitration Committee found that a state was defined by having a territory, a population, and a political authority.
2. According to the purpose of Recognition, state recognition can be divided in several wayes
• Recognition of state
• Recognition of government
• Recognition of liberation movement
• Recognition of government in exile.
3. Forms of recognition in International law:
• Explicit Recognition
• Implicit Recognition
• Explicit Recognition:
Express recognition can be express through Diplomatic note ,Note verbal, making treaty , parliamentary declaration etc.
• Implicit Recognition:
Implicit recognition can be expressed through making diplomatic relations, making trade and cultural treaty etc.
Recognition can be explicit or implicit (tacit). In state practice there is generally an explicit declaration of recognition, perhaps addressed to the government of the new state.
A distinction is also drawn between de jure and de facto recognition. If a state is accorded de jure recognition that means all the preconditions under international law for final and complete recognition have been fulfilled. De facto recognition has a comparatively less binding effect, because the legal relationship – though effectively in existence – is only provisional. Provisional de facto recognition for political reasons can of course be converted to de jure recognition once all the required legal preconditions have been fulfilled.
Nature of Recognition:
• De facto and
• De jure states:
Most sovereign states are states de jure and de facto (i.e. they exist both in law and in reality). However, sometimes states exist only as de jure states in that an organization is recognized as having sovereignty over and being the legitimate government of a territory over which they have no actual control. Many continental European states maintained governments-in-exile during the Second World War which continued to enjoy diplomatic relations with the Allies, notwithstanding that their countries were under Nazi occupation. A present day example is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which is a United Nations observe, has bi-lateral diplomatic relations with 104 states, while having no territory since 1798 and possessing only extraterritorial are since (i.e. embassies and consulates.) Other states may have sovereignty over a territory but lack international recognition, these are de facto states only. Somaliland is commonly considered to be such a state. For a list of entities that wish to be universally recognized as sovereign states, but do not have complete worldwide diplomatist recognition, see the list of states with limited recognition.
Recognition – de facto or de jure:
The territories of the Sovereign State of Israel were recognized by the USA and Russia within days, as de jure by default, through the de facto recognition given to the A) authority of the Provisional Government over those territories declared. B) later the US, through the de jure recognition of the Government of Israel set up under the authority of the Provisional Government to govern, within the declared sovereign territories.
The British did likewise but included a caveat, not recognizing any territories acquired by war by 1949 as sovereign to Israel. I.e., de jure recognition within th declarer sovereign territories.
Now I will discuss Example with case studies: It is very important to note here that, in international arena recognition is very important to deal with legal activities. Then it would clear that how recognition is important
Case Study: A Major Pharmaceutical Company
Situation
this major pharmaceutical company wanted to build a culture of recognition where employees would be encouraged to reward each other for working to support their company priorities. In addition it wanted to recognize service anniversaries. The company had never had a formal recognition program. Employees thought of recognition as being tied to their compensation. With 21,000 employees at 24 locations, the Client saw the task of rolling out, and managing a recognition program as a major challenge.
Solution
Maritz recommended a custom web-based recognition solution on the Ascent platform. Features included Thank You cards that all employees could issue, and point-based awards which supervisors could issue. Points could be accumulated by employees for redemption on the Maritz site - Award. Service anniversary recipients also received their choice of merchandise awards, and a client-branded item. Client items were stored and fulfilled from the Maritz warehouse.
Development of the program started with a two-day working session where the Client and Maritz determined program rules and the website layout. Upon completion of the website, two flash emails were sent to communicate the program, first to supervisors only, introducing the program and asking for their attendance at an upcoming training session. A second email was sent to all employees, introducing the program, and showing them how to access the site. Then Maritz and the Client conducted ten training sessions on the program for supervisors. The presentation included training on recognition best practices, and instructions on how to use the website. Tutorials and video vignettes were included as visual aids. The sessions were a success reaching nearly 1,500 supervisors, HR reps, and administrative assistants. Materials from the training, including a supervisor’s toolkit, and the online tutorials were available for supervisors to access through the program website. The program, which is on-going, has evolved as data is gathered and analyzed.
Results
• Year-end analysis indicated 86% of employees had registered for the program against a 80% goal
• 91% of enrolled employees participated surpassing the 60% participation target
• Quarterly reviews provided the Client with actionable insights for supporting a culture of recognition
Case Study: A Major UK Financial Institution:
Situation
The Client, a major financial institution, made the decision to try and differentiate in a very mature European banking industry by radically overhauling its customer experience. Although the strategy was set, there was significant concern about whether or not the company’s 43,000 employees would be able to live into that vision. They knew that all their new advertising and marketing would be worthless if they failed to execute against the brand promise at the front line.
Solution
The Client came to Maritz seeking help in moving the organization into the new brand vision. The solution developed by Maritz was to attack the problem in three phases: employee research, internal alignment and recognition.
Research
Maritz leveraged decades of research expertise to build the methods and models that would help the firm better understand its employees. To do this, Maritz identified several key dimensions of desirable brand personality. The results were used to help determine the current and desired “DNA” of the organization.
Internal Alignment
Aligning 43,000 individuals to a major organizational change is no small feat. Maritz first launched the program to 1,000 senior managers, who cascaded the message to 5,000 midlevel managers. The next phase evolved the DNA through 360-degree feedback, manager one-on-ones and workshops. Finally, Maritz created a one-day brand launch for all 43,000 associates in retail branches, call centers and back offices, facilitated by “Brand Champions.”
Recognition
To sustain the desired behavior beyond the initial launch, Maritz suggested a formal recognition program which would seek out and award those displaying the desired behaviors in the new brand reality.
Results
• Current accounts were up significantly after one year.
• Products per customer increased from 2.5 to 4.3.
• Employee surveys showed overall improvements in commitment, views on management and belief in the Client's products
________________________________________
Case Study: A Leading Hospitality Company
Situation
The global frequent-guest program of this leading hospitality provider was designed to reward their best customers for their frequent visits. Located across the globe and varying widely in demographics, their most loyal guests are annually recognized during the holidays by way of a special award program. Customer complaints regarding back-orders and non-delivered rewards alerted the Client to problems with their existing award fulfillment vendor. This appeared to be a particular challenge in international markets. The Client needed a reward and fulfillment partner who could deliver appealing rewards, in a timely manner, to these high value guests. They chose to partner with Maritz based on its reputation for excellent service.
Solution
Maritz considered the demographics of the frequent guest membership and combined that input with historical redemption data and merchandising trends to develop a selection of rewards that would have the most appeal. The Client sent a targeted mailing to their guests, showing them the selection of rewards and directing them to a custom reward site, designed by Maritz, where they could order their selection. The user-friendly reward site allowed for expedited fulfillment of client orders both domestically and internationally. Maritz buyers paid close attention to inventories to prevent back-order issues and to track response to the reward offerings.
Results
• In the first year of the program Maritz efficiently handled a total of 5,452 orders.
• Customer complaints regarding back orders and non-deliveries were virtually eliminated.
• Problems with international shipping were eliminated.
• The program, now in its third year with Maritz, continues to source rewards that are fresh, appealing, and meaningful to the Clients most loyal guests
Case Study: A National Restaurant Chain
Situation
While the Client clearly understood the relationship between engaged employees and good customer experiences, their existing recognition and rewards program was not getting the results they needed. The rewards selection did not have particular appeal to the Gen X and Gen Y staff and redemption was difficult. Managers were not pushing the program down the line. The Company faced high employee turnover resulting in high recruiting and training costs. In each of their 52 locations there were three separate groups (bar, restaurant, gaming). They needed different programs with unique goals and objectives to increase the effectiveness of each one. They asked Maritz to develop a program that was simple and easy for managers to use.
Solution
Maritz designed the Most Valuable Producer (MVP) points-bank program using their Recognition Manager platform, with multiple budgets for individual managers. The MVP program offered a wide range of awards and redemption methods more tailored to their employee demographics. The program, which took only two and a half months from agreement to launch, was supported with a heavy communications push.
Results
• The MVP program, which is ongoing, saw a significant drop in employee turnover.
• Managers embraced the opportunity to recognize employees with more than verbal praise.
• Managers and employees bonded and became more engaged.
In the Client’s own words; “Our stores and team members have been singing the praises of the MVP program
r fail to meet our expectations
________________________________________
Case Study: A Major Casino Operator
Situation:
A key to the success of this Casino operator is its strong commitment to customer retention, and growing its customer base. Players at their Las Vegas venue accumulate points as they visit throughout the year. As a way of recognizing its most valued patrons, the Casino invites them to return at year end to take part in an annual "Gifts Extravaganza.”
The Client had seen a drop off in repeat-player interest in the event, and was concerned that the reward selections from its current vendor did not have the breadth and depth required to keep the promotion fresh.
Solution:
Based on its reputation for expertise in event planning and its broad merchandise offering, Maritz was asked to partner with the Casino to bring a new perspective to this event. Maritz started by gaining an understanding of the Casino’s business strategies and goals. It was apparent that the existing reward selection was not clearly targeted to the attendees’ demographics. Maritz recommended a strategic reward selection that would truly engage the customer base and also deliver a significant WOW factor to the event. Maritz support staff provided on-site merchandise samples and fulfillment of the rewards redeemed.
Results:
• 65 % of patrons who had attended previously said the 2006 event was better than ever
• 75% were pleased with the selection of gifts available
• Maritz dedicated staffing, and support of the event were noted by the client and the attendees
• Maritz and the Client studied post-event feedback to find ways to make the event even more appealing in 2007
Case Study: Leading Hospitality Company
Situation
The global frequent-guest program of this leading hospitality provider was designed to reward their best customers for their frequent visits. Located across the globe and varying widely in demographics, their most loyal guests are annually recognized during the holidays by way of a special award program. Customer complaints regarding back-orders and non-delivered rewards alerted the Client to problems with their existing award fulfillment vendor. This appeared to be a particular challenge in international markets. The Client needed a reward and fulfillment partner who could deliver appealing rewards, in a timely manner, to these high value guests. They chose to partner with Maritz based on its reputation for excellent service.
Solution
Maritz considered the demographics of the frequent guest membership and combined that input with historical redemption data and merchandising trends to develop a selection of rewards that would have the most appeal. The Client sent a targeted mailing to their guests, showing them the selection of rewards and directing them to a custom reward site, designed by Maritz, where they could order their selection. The user-friendly reward site allowed for expedited fulfillment of client orders both domestically and internationally. Maritz buyers paid close attention to inventories to prevent back-order issues and to track response to the reward offerings.
Results
• In the first year of the program Maritz efficiently handled a total of 5,452 orders.
• Customer complaints regarding back orders and non-deliveries were virtually eliminated.
• Problems with international shipping were eliminated.
• The program, now in its third year with Maritz, continues to source rewards that are fresh, appealing, and meaningful to the Clients most loyal guests
Case study:Maritz Increased Awareness of ALSA
Situation
The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association (ALSA) benefits ALS, more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Like most cause related agencies, the ALSA generates revenue by selling “pinups” through various retailers at the point of sale. Maritz helped increase the revenue and awareness for the ALSA, while at the same time generating incremental revenue for participating retailers. The objective of the turnkey program was to increase:
• ALSA Pinup Sales
• The Public’s knowledge of the cause and efforts of the ALSA
• Incremental Revenue
Solution
Maritz developed an easy to implement program designed to motivate retail employees to sell ALSA pinups during customer transactions. By introducing pre-denominated reward cards to employees, the program could be tiered to offer multiple rewards levels and drive performance. The reward cards, a Maritz proprietary product called the exclusively (EY) card, can be used at over 150 retail, travel, catalog and online merchants. Program elements included:
• Reward vehicle: The EY card gives the participant choice and is easy to use, just like a debit card
• Store Manager incentives: To promote the program through their store and motivate their employees, store managers also received a pre-denominated EY card
• Targeted communications: Program participants were given a clear understanding of program objectives and goals with ongoing communications
• Mystery Shopping: To motivate employees to exhibit the correct behavior, ALSA volunteers posed as normal customers in various retail partner stores. Employees exhibiting the correct behavior were rewarded with an additional reward card
• Store Coupons: Retail partners attached store coupons upon ALSA pinups as a contribution to the ALSA for their efforts
• Creative Theme: “R.U.N. to defeat ALS” was a memorable acronym that helped generate the desired program behavior from all program participants.
Case Study: A Major Casino Operator
Situation:
A key to the success of this Casino operator is its strong commitment to customer retention, and growing its customer base. Players at their Las Vegas venue accumulate points as they visit throughout the year. As a way of recognizing its most valued patrons, the Casino invites them to return at year end to take part in an annual "Gifts Extravaganza.”
The Client had seen a drop off in repeat-player interest in the event, and was concerned that the reward selections from its current vendor did not have the breadth and depth required to keep the promotion fresh.
Solution:
Based on its reputation for expertise in event planning and its broad merchandise offering, Maritz was asked to partner with the Casino to bring a new perspective to this event. Maritz started by gaining an understanding of the Casino’s business strategies and goals. It was apparent that the existing reward selection was not clearly targeted to the attendees’ demographics. Maritz recommended a strategic reward selection that would truly engage the customer base and also deliver a significant WOW factor to the event. Maritz support staff provided on-site merchandise samples and fulfillment of the rewards redeemed.
Results:
• 65 % of patrons who had attended previously said the 2006 event was better than ever
• 75% were pleased with the selection of gifts available
• Maritz dedicated staffing, and support of the event were noted by the client and the attendees
• Maritz and the Client studied post-event feedback to find ways to make the event even more appealing in 2007
Case Study: A Large Wireless Telecommunications Provider
Situation
The Client employed a large, diverse workforce. The company had recently undergone a merger leading to a mix of legacy employees and employees from the former company. The client operated both sales incentive and recognition of top performer programs. Although post-event surveys were completed, a broad reward and recognition assessment had not been done for all participants. The Client wanted to understand the business return on their program investment. Did the programs align with business objectives? Were the employees engaged and motivated?
“The post-event surveys that we had conducted in the past told us about the event, but they didn’t tell us if we were hitting home with the program as a whole. We needed to know more,” said the Client Sponsor.
Solution
The ultimate goal was to implement the most motivating reward and recognition program to drive increased performance and maximize business results. Maritz recommended a complete review of the client’s current programs, using a comprehensive, people-driven approach with a sophisticated research component.
The program began with an electronic survey which tested the alignment of program objectives with business objectives, as well as the program’s ability to influence behavior and activity.
This was followed by a Web-based survey in which respondents viewed multiple travel program design options side-by-side, and selected the option they would work harder to earn. This choice experiment was designed to optimize travel awards to address diversity, increase motivation and move middle performers to higher levels of achievement. In order to get the most meaningful feedback Maritz recommended surveying everyone who competes for the trip, not just past winners.
Employee feedback indicated;
• that rules structures were focused more on front-line sellers leaving managers unengaged.
• that sellers and managers wanted more timely performance feedback.
• that shorter stays at sun/fun destination are preferred over longer stays elsewhere.
• that a majority of sellers favor peer recognition.
• that a more regional approach was likely to result in improved performance.
Results
• Maritz was able to present a total strategic solution. They recommended that the national sales recognition travel program be revised to focus on regional events.
• A full communication strategy and solution to support the programs was created, including more timely and enhanced messages.
• In addition, Maritz recommended changes in the design and rules structure for the overall recognition program that would make it more relevant and appealing to a broad group of participants.
Case Study: A National Restaurant Chain
Situation
While the Client clearly understood the relationship between engaged employees and good customer experiences, their existing recognition and rewards program was not getting the results they needed. The rewards selection did not have particular appeal to the Gen X and Gen Y staff and redemption was difficult. Managers were not pushing the program down the line. The Company faced high employee turnover resulting in high recruiting and training costs. In each of their 52 locations there were three separate groups (bar, restaurant, gaming). They needed different programs with unique goals and objectives to increase the effectiveness of each one. They asked Maritz to develop a program that was simple and easy for managers to use.
Solution
Maritz designed the Most Valuable Producer (MVP) points-bank program using their Recognition Manage platform, with multiple budgets for individual managers. The MVP program offered a wide range of awards and redemption methods more tailored to their employee demographics. The program, which took only two and a half months from agreement to launch, was supported with a heavy communications push.
Results
• The MVP program, which is ongoing, saw a significant drop in employee turnover.
• Managers embraced the opportunity to recognize employees with more than verbal praise.
• Managers and employees bonded and became more engaged.
In the Client’s own words; “Our stores and team members have been singing the praises of the MVP program.”
Sometimes we have to see that,recognition is not necessary to legal consequence, here I can apply an example .
Case: Salimoff and co. Vs Standard oil company of New York, 1933
Situation:
In this case, salimoff was a Russian citizens, he had an oil company in Russia.
After 1917 October revolution, Russian government nationalized al the industry It should be noted here that after revolution Salimoff took shelter in America. At the subsequent times, Standard Oil Company of New York, made a treaty with Russian Government regarding the issues of oil buying .According to the treaty when oil has been exporting in New York, Spinoff demanded over oil. And a case filed in Court against Russia. His argument was that, Russian declaration of nationalization was illegal, on the other hand, until that time; U.S.A did not recognized to Russia.
What was the main concern of this case?
• Can Mr. salimoff get back oil?
• Recognition is necessary or not?
Solution:
Court refused to demand the Salimoff, Court also proclaim that Standard oil company can purchase of Oil to Russia, although America did not recognized to Russia. In this aspect, it is not necessary to recognized Russia .Because of until that time Russia s activities was going on over the years .
Result:
So Standard oil company of New York can purchase/import the oil without any barrier.
State practice
State practice relating the recognition states typically falls somewhere between the declaratory and constitutive approaches International law does not require a state to recognize other states.
Recognition is often withheld when a new state is seen as illegitimate or has come about in breach of international law. Almost universal non-recognition by the international community of Rhodesia and the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus are good examples of this. In the former case, recognition was widely withheld when the White minority seized power and attempted to form a state along the lines of Apartheid South Africa. A move which the United
Nations Security Council described as the creation of an "illegal racist minority régime". In the latter case recognition was widely withheld from a state created in Northern Cyprus on land which was illegally invaded by Turkey in 1974.
Recognition - U.S. policy in the recognition of states :
For its first century, the policy of the United States was to recognize de facto governments. (Despite many military coups and dictatorial governments established in Mexico between 1823 and 1860, for example, the United States withdrew its diplomatic representatives from Mexico City only three times, and that for only short periods.) In the early twentieth century this changed somewhat as a large element of moralism motivated the administration of Woodrow Wilson. Subsequent administrations reverted to the policy of "de factoism" during the 1920s and 1930s, but the United States refused to recognize forcible changes made in the territory or governments of victims of aggression, be the offender Japan, as in the case of Manchuria, the Soviet Union with respect to the Baltic states, or Germany with respect to its conquest of western Europe during World War II. A policy of no recognition was followed toward the Baltic States until these were freed of Russian control at the end of the Cold War. The United States also obtained collective support for the policy from democratic European nations and the Latin
Until Wilson's presidency, United States practice prior to extending recognition was to eschew the question of legitimacy and to demand effectiveness and evidence of popular consent, with the element of democratic legality proved by means of free elections. Although monarchic heads of state took as an open declaration of war by the French National Convention in 1792 that it would aid those seeking to recover their liberties, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson stated, "It accords with our principles to acknowledge any government to be rightful which is formed by the will of the people, substantially declared." By adding, however, that he would deal in certain instances with a "government de facto," he has been declared a pioneer of "de factoism."
Recognition - O.k. policy in the recognition of states:
The British waited until a political party was elected to the Government. The British then granted de jure recognition, with conditions. The territories Israel had acquired by war, outside of its declared Sovereign Boundaries, were considered to be ‘occupied’. I.e., NOT Israeli Sovereign territory.
Legal Consequence of Recognition
“Recognition is a unilateral act of a State and one that has international legal
Consequences”, for instance where State grant recognition to an entity, it accepts that they will have relations subject to international law on basis of State/State.
• Only a recognized state or government has locus standi in the UK courts
• Only a recognized state or government (or its agents), may plead immunity
• From suit. It cannot be sued without its consent.
• Only the legislative, executive or judicial acts of a recognized state or Government will be given legal effect within the United Kingdom”65 Shaw adds one more “it will be entitled to possession in the recognizing state of Property belonging to its predecessor”
• The recognized states becomes entitled to sue in the courts of the recognizing state
• In the concept of De jure recognition, diplomatic relations are establishment and thus rules of international law relating to privilege and immunities apply.
• In the international politics, act of state doctrine is being a popular doctrine. Act of state Doctrine is doctrine in one hand where a sovereign state can do anything within his territory; on the other hand, no state can do anything in this aspect.
• In practice, like claimed by declaratory theory, the political existence of a State is not bound to the recognition of other States, therefore an unrecognized State has to act comply with the international law rules.
• It means that, when the States sign an international agreement which is signed by a State they have not recognized, they will have the right to ask from that state to fulfill the responsibilities grow out of the agreement.
• After recognition, the recognizing States would respect to the rights of the new State which indicated in the International Law Commission Draft Declaration on Rights and Duties of States, 1949, such as “right to independence and hence to exercise freely, right to exercise jurisdiction over its territory and over all persons, right to equality in law with every other State, right of individual or collective self-defense against armed attack”
• The participation in the international process is not the only result of recognition, at the same time the recognized State will be able to enjoy usual legal consequences of recognition such as privileges and immunities within the domestic legal order.
Here it is important to bear in mind the limits between international law and state law. Reorganization confers on the recognized state or government a status under both international law and municipal law. In this section, we shall first deal with the status under municipal law and accordingly will examine for this purpose the law and practice normally applied by Anglo –American courts.
Conclusion:
Recognition is one of the most difficult and complicated topics in international
Law. It is complicated because it involves important political results and legal effects both in international and municipal law. Political assessments always effect the recognition decision . Where the States give a decision about recognition, of course they will weigh the advantages against the disadvantages of this decision. If it is looked into the some cases relevant to recognition in international law, I think it can be understood clearly, to grant recognition completely depends on political considerations. In my point of view, recognition for a State means merely to decide that, whether it is suitable for her needs or not there are basically two theories to explicate recognition; the constitutive and the declaratory theory. The constitutive theory asserts that States and governments do not legally exist until recognized by the international community and the declaratory theory adopts that States and governments gain in the international personality when they come
into existence. I think the declaratory theory is more conformable to reason and parallel to the practice of international law and it is supported by the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rashid –ur- Harun, “An introduction to international law”,(2nd. ed.Anupan Gyan Bhander press,Dhaka 1998)
Tunkin. G.I , “An introduction to international law” ,(3th.ed.Progress publishers ,Moscow1946 )
Brownlie, “Principles of Public International Law”, (6th . ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003)
Shaw H.S Malcolm, “ International law,(6th .ed. Cambridge university .London, 2007)
Dr. Harris L.L.m,Ph.D, “ Cases and materials :International law”,(5th .ed. London and sweet and Maxwell 1990)
William w.Bishop Jr,( International law :cases and materials(3th,ed Little brown :and company ,Boston)
HILLIER, TIM (1998). SOURCEBOOK ON PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW. ROUTLEDGE.PP. 201–2.ISBN 1859410502. HTTP://BOOKS.GOOGLE.COM/BOOKS?ID=KR0SOUIX8Q8C.
INTERNATIONALLAW,“RECOGNITION”, HTTP://WEB.WITS.AC.ZA/NR/RDONLYRES/E0A48346-CB0B-4BEC-95B1-
DD3FD4DEDD58/0/OVERHEAD15.DOC , ACCESSED ON 02 JANUARY 2011
J.B .Stark,Introduction to international law,( 9th.ed.Butterworth and Company,London 1984)p-131
Dr.S.K Kapoor,International law and human right,(New ed.Moulic Library,Calcutta 2008.
Dr.Mizanur Rhaman,”International law in the changing world”(New,ed.palal publication,Dhaka 2003,)p,76-77
Wikipedia, “ International Law en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law
.
Contents
Introduction:
History of Recognition:
Definition of state recognition:
Preconditions of Recognition:
Debate over recognition:
Is withdrawal of recognition possible?
1. Theory of recognition:
• Constitutive theory
• Declarative theory
2. The purpose of Recognition
3. Forms of recognition in International law:
• Explicit Recognition
• Implicit Recognition
4. Nature of Recognition:
• De facto and
• De jure stat
5. Case Study of recognition
6. State practices
• Recognition - U.S. policy in the recognition of states
• Recognition - U.k. policy in the recognition of states:
7. Legal Consequences of Recognition
8. Conclusion
Reference
Introduction:
A Sovereign state is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, independence from other states and powers, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. The government of a sovereign state holds legal title to all property therein. It is also normally understood to be a state which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. While in abstract terms a sovereign state can exist without being recognized by other sovereign states, unrecognized states will often find it hard to exercise full treaty-making powers and engage in diplomatic relations with other sovereign states. If want to see then we can say, A state must have some element Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States, 1933 lays down the most widely accepted formulation of the criteria of statehood in international law. It note that the state as an international person should possess the following qualifications: '(a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with other states'"
History of Recognition:
Since the late 19th century, virtually the entirety of the world's inhabitable land has been parceled up into areas with more or less definite borders claimed by various states. Earlier, quite large land areas had been either unclaimed or uninhabited, or inhabited by nomadic peoples who were not organized as states. However, even within present-day states there are vast areas of wilderness, like the Amazon Rainforest, which are uninhabited or inhabited solely or mostly by indigenous people (and some of them remain uncontested. Also, there are states which do not hold de facto control over all of their claimed territory or where this control is challenged (as in Somalia).
Currently the international community comprises more than 200 sovereign states, the vast majority of which are represented in the United Nations. These states form what international relations theorists call a system, where each state takes into account the behavior of other states when making their own calculations. From this point of view, states embedded in an international system face internal and external security and legitimating dilemmas Recently the notion of an international community has been developed to refer to a group of states who have established rules, procedures, and institutions for the conduct of their relations. In this way the foundation has been laid for international law, diplomacy, formal regimes, and organizations
Definition of state recognition:
The recognition of a state under international law is a declaration of intent by one state to acknowledge another power as a "state" within the meaning of international law. Recognition constitutes a unilateral declaration of intent. It is entirely at the discretion of any state to decide to recognize another as a subject of international law.
According to the American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy “In diplomacy, the act by which one nation acknowledges that a foreign government is legitimate and exchanges diplomats with it.The withholding of recognition is a way for one government to show its disapproval of another.”
According to the prof. L Oppenheim, in recognizing a state as a member of international community, existing states declared that in their own opinion the new state fulfill the condition statehood as required by international law.
State recognition signifies the decision of a sovereign state to treat another entity as also being a sovereign state. Recognition can be either express or implied and is usually retroactive in its effects. It doesn't necessarily signify a desire to establish or maintain diplomatic relations.
Form my personal point of view it can be said that, through recognition, the recognizing state acknowledge that the possesses the essential condition of statehood. However international law does not provide as how to these essential condition are to be determined.
Preconditions of Recognition:
The recognition of a state presupposes that it really exhibits the characteristics of a state within the meaning of international law. According to the prevailing three-element doctrine, this requires state territory, a state people and state power (i.e. a government that is effective and independent both externally and internally, as an expression of state sovereignty). Only the actual circumstances are relevant to the assessment of statehood (the "effectiveness principle").
In addition to the three elements mentioned, a state or an international organization can also set further conditions for recognition – for example compliance with the UN Charter or the observance of human rights.
If a state is recognized before all the preconditions for recognition are met (premature recognition), this is contrary to international law and legally ineffective. A state that prematurely recognizes another is in breach of the prohibition of interference in the internal affairs of a state (Art. 2 no. 4 of the Charter of the United Nations).
There is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations on the criteria for statehood. In actual practice, the criteria are mainly political, not legal. L.C. Green cited the recognition of the unborn Polish and Czech states in World War I and explained that "recognition of statehood is a matter of discretion; it is open to any existing state to accept as a state any entity it wishes, regardless of the existence of territory or an established government.
Debate over recognition:
Naturally, the question has been raised weather recognition is a necessary institution, and if not, according weather it ought to be discarded either generally or in most instances. this was a view indeed of the late Richard Baxter, judge of the International Court of justice ,1979-1980,who felt that recognition caused more problems than it solved, and that its partial withdrawal would the maintenance of relations with states in which Extra constitutional changes of government were taking place
In1930, the then minister for foreign affairs of Mexico , Mr. Estrada, announced that his government would no longer issues declarations in the sense of the grants of recognition inasmuch as `such a course is an insulting practice and one which, in addition to the fact it offends the sovereignty of others nations ,implies that judgment of some sort may be passed upon the internal affairs of those nations by other government” This policy as thus announced ,has become generally known as the Estrada doctrine.
Is withdrawal of recognition possible?
Recognition De jure is final and once given cannot be withdrawn. If recognizing state observe that de Facto recognized state has failed to fulfill the demand of the people at the same time state security is deteriorated day by day then recognizing state never go for de jure recognition. But sometimes de facto recognition can be withdrawn. But it is very rare in ternational politics. At the time it should be kept in mind if once de jure proclaim towards states, it is not possible to withdrawn.
Theory of recognition:
In international law however, there are several theories of when a state should be recognized as sovereign. Here mainly I will discuss two theory of recognition.
• Constitutive theory
The constitutive theory of statehood defines a state as a person of international law if, and only if, it is recognized as sovereign by other states. This theory of recognition was developed in the 19th century. Under it, a state was sovereign if another sovereign state recognized it as such. Because of this, new states could not immediately become part of the international community or be bound by international law, and recognized nations did not have to respect international law in their dealings with them. In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna the Final Act only recognize 39 sovereign states in the European diplomatic system, and as a result it was firmly established that in future new states would have to be recognized by other states, and that meant in practice recognition by one or more of the great powers.
One of the major criticisms of this law is the confusion caused when some states recognize a new entity, but other states do not. Herschel Lauterpack, one of the theory's main proponents, suggested that it is a state's duty to grant recognition as a possible solution. However, a state may use any criteria when judging if they should give recognition and they have no obligation to use such criteria. Many states may only recognize another state if it is to their advantage.
• Declarative theory
By contrast, the "declarative" theory defines a state as a person in international law if it meets the following criteria: 1) a defined territory; 2) a permanent population; 3) a government and 4) a capacity to enter into relations with other states. According to declarative theory, an entity's statehood is independent of its recognition by other states. The declarative model was most famously expressed in the 1933 Montevideo Convention.
Article 3 of the Convention declares that statehood is independent of recognition by other states. In contrast, recognition is considered a requirement for statehood by the constitutive theory of statehood.
A similar opinion about "the conditions on which an entity constitutes a state" is expressed by the European Economic Community Opinions of the Bandits Arbitration Committee. The Basinet Arbitration Committee found that a state was defined by having a territory, a population, and a political authority.
2. According to the purpose of Recognition, state recognition can be divided in several wayes
• Recognition of state
• Recognition of government
• Recognition of liberation movement
• Recognition of government in exile.
3. Forms of recognition in International law:
• Explicit Recognition
• Implicit Recognition
• Explicit Recognition:
Express recognition can be express through Diplomatic note ,Note verbal, making treaty , parliamentary declaration etc.
• Implicit Recognition:
Implicit recognition can be expressed through making diplomatic relations, making trade and cultural treaty etc.
Recognition can be explicit or implicit (tacit). In state practice there is generally an explicit declaration of recognition, perhaps addressed to the government of the new state.
A distinction is also drawn between de jure and de facto recognition. If a state is accorded de jure recognition that means all the preconditions under international law for final and complete recognition have been fulfilled. De facto recognition has a comparatively less binding effect, because the legal relationship – though effectively in existence – is only provisional. Provisional de facto recognition for political reasons can of course be converted to de jure recognition once all the required legal preconditions have been fulfilled.
Nature of Recognition:
• De facto and
• De jure states:
Most sovereign states are states de jure and de facto (i.e. they exist both in law and in reality). However, sometimes states exist only as de jure states in that an organization is recognized as having sovereignty over and being the legitimate government of a territory over which they have no actual control. Many continental European states maintained governments-in-exile during the Second World War which continued to enjoy diplomatic relations with the Allies, notwithstanding that their countries were under Nazi occupation. A present day example is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which is a United Nations observe, has bi-lateral diplomatic relations with 104 states, while having no territory since 1798 and possessing only extraterritorial are since (i.e. embassies and consulates.) Other states may have sovereignty over a territory but lack international recognition, these are de facto states only. Somaliland is commonly considered to be such a state. For a list of entities that wish to be universally recognized as sovereign states, but do not have complete worldwide diplomatist recognition, see the list of states with limited recognition.
Recognition – de facto or de jure:
The territories of the Sovereign State of Israel were recognized by the USA and Russia within days, as de jure by default, through the de facto recognition given to the A) authority of the Provisional Government over those territories declared. B) later the US, through the de jure recognition of the Government of Israel set up under the authority of the Provisional Government to govern, within the declared sovereign territories.
The British did likewise but included a caveat, not recognizing any territories acquired by war by 1949 as sovereign to Israel. I.e., de jure recognition within th declarer sovereign territories.
Now I will discuss Example with case studies: It is very important to note here that, in international arena recognition is very important to deal with legal activities. Then it would clear that how recognition is important
Case Study: A Major Pharmaceutical Company
Situation
this major pharmaceutical company wanted to build a culture of recognition where employees would be encouraged to reward each other for working to support their company priorities. In addition it wanted to recognize service anniversaries. The company had never had a formal recognition program. Employees thought of recognition as being tied to their compensation. With 21,000 employees at 24 locations, the Client saw the task of rolling out, and managing a recognition program as a major challenge.
Solution
Maritz recommended a custom web-based recognition solution on the Ascent platform. Features included Thank You cards that all employees could issue, and point-based awards which supervisors could issue. Points could be accumulated by employees for redemption on the Maritz site - Award. Service anniversary recipients also received their choice of merchandise awards, and a client-branded item. Client items were stored and fulfilled from the Maritz warehouse.
Development of the program started with a two-day working session where the Client and Maritz determined program rules and the website layout. Upon completion of the website, two flash emails were sent to communicate the program, first to supervisors only, introducing the program and asking for their attendance at an upcoming training session. A second email was sent to all employees, introducing the program, and showing them how to access the site. Then Maritz and the Client conducted ten training sessions on the program for supervisors. The presentation included training on recognition best practices, and instructions on how to use the website. Tutorials and video vignettes were included as visual aids. The sessions were a success reaching nearly 1,500 supervisors, HR reps, and administrative assistants. Materials from the training, including a supervisor’s toolkit, and the online tutorials were available for supervisors to access through the program website. The program, which is on-going, has evolved as data is gathered and analyzed.
Results
• Year-end analysis indicated 86% of employees had registered for the program against a 80% goal
• 91% of enrolled employees participated surpassing the 60% participation target
• Quarterly reviews provided the Client with actionable insights for supporting a culture of recognition
Case Study: A Major UK Financial Institution:
Situation
The Client, a major financial institution, made the decision to try and differentiate in a very mature European banking industry by radically overhauling its customer experience. Although the strategy was set, there was significant concern about whether or not the company’s 43,000 employees would be able to live into that vision. They knew that all their new advertising and marketing would be worthless if they failed to execute against the brand promise at the front line.
Solution
The Client came to Maritz seeking help in moving the organization into the new brand vision. The solution developed by Maritz was to attack the problem in three phases: employee research, internal alignment and recognition.
Research
Maritz leveraged decades of research expertise to build the methods and models that would help the firm better understand its employees. To do this, Maritz identified several key dimensions of desirable brand personality. The results were used to help determine the current and desired “DNA” of the organization.
Internal Alignment
Aligning 43,000 individuals to a major organizational change is no small feat. Maritz first launched the program to 1,000 senior managers, who cascaded the message to 5,000 midlevel managers. The next phase evolved the DNA through 360-degree feedback, manager one-on-ones and workshops. Finally, Maritz created a one-day brand launch for all 43,000 associates in retail branches, call centers and back offices, facilitated by “Brand Champions.”
Recognition
To sustain the desired behavior beyond the initial launch, Maritz suggested a formal recognition program which would seek out and award those displaying the desired behaviors in the new brand reality.
Results
• Current accounts were up significantly after one year.
• Products per customer increased from 2.5 to 4.3.
• Employee surveys showed overall improvements in commitment, views on management and belief in the Client's products
________________________________________
Case Study: A Leading Hospitality Company
Situation
The global frequent-guest program of this leading hospitality provider was designed to reward their best customers for their frequent visits. Located across the globe and varying widely in demographics, their most loyal guests are annually recognized during the holidays by way of a special award program. Customer complaints regarding back-orders and non-delivered rewards alerted the Client to problems with their existing award fulfillment vendor. This appeared to be a particular challenge in international markets. The Client needed a reward and fulfillment partner who could deliver appealing rewards, in a timely manner, to these high value guests. They chose to partner with Maritz based on its reputation for excellent service.
Solution
Maritz considered the demographics of the frequent guest membership and combined that input with historical redemption data and merchandising trends to develop a selection of rewards that would have the most appeal. The Client sent a targeted mailing to their guests, showing them the selection of rewards and directing them to a custom reward site, designed by Maritz, where they could order their selection. The user-friendly reward site allowed for expedited fulfillment of client orders both domestically and internationally. Maritz buyers paid close attention to inventories to prevent back-order issues and to track response to the reward offerings.
Results
• In the first year of the program Maritz efficiently handled a total of 5,452 orders.
• Customer complaints regarding back orders and non-deliveries were virtually eliminated.
• Problems with international shipping were eliminated.
• The program, now in its third year with Maritz, continues to source rewards that are fresh, appealing, and meaningful to the Clients most loyal guests
Case Study: A National Restaurant Chain
Situation
While the Client clearly understood the relationship between engaged employees and good customer experiences, their existing recognition and rewards program was not getting the results they needed. The rewards selection did not have particular appeal to the Gen X and Gen Y staff and redemption was difficult. Managers were not pushing the program down the line. The Company faced high employee turnover resulting in high recruiting and training costs. In each of their 52 locations there were three separate groups (bar, restaurant, gaming). They needed different programs with unique goals and objectives to increase the effectiveness of each one. They asked Maritz to develop a program that was simple and easy for managers to use.
Solution
Maritz designed the Most Valuable Producer (MVP) points-bank program using their Recognition Manager platform, with multiple budgets for individual managers. The MVP program offered a wide range of awards and redemption methods more tailored to their employee demographics. The program, which took only two and a half months from agreement to launch, was supported with a heavy communications push.
Results
• The MVP program, which is ongoing, saw a significant drop in employee turnover.
• Managers embraced the opportunity to recognize employees with more than verbal praise.
• Managers and employees bonded and became more engaged.
In the Client’s own words; “Our stores and team members have been singing the praises of the MVP program
r fail to meet our expectations
________________________________________
Case Study: A Major Casino Operator
Situation:
A key to the success of this Casino operator is its strong commitment to customer retention, and growing its customer base. Players at their Las Vegas venue accumulate points as they visit throughout the year. As a way of recognizing its most valued patrons, the Casino invites them to return at year end to take part in an annual "Gifts Extravaganza.”
The Client had seen a drop off in repeat-player interest in the event, and was concerned that the reward selections from its current vendor did not have the breadth and depth required to keep the promotion fresh.
Solution:
Based on its reputation for expertise in event planning and its broad merchandise offering, Maritz was asked to partner with the Casino to bring a new perspective to this event. Maritz started by gaining an understanding of the Casino’s business strategies and goals. It was apparent that the existing reward selection was not clearly targeted to the attendees’ demographics. Maritz recommended a strategic reward selection that would truly engage the customer base and also deliver a significant WOW factor to the event. Maritz support staff provided on-site merchandise samples and fulfillment of the rewards redeemed.
Results:
• 65 % of patrons who had attended previously said the 2006 event was better than ever
• 75% were pleased with the selection of gifts available
• Maritz dedicated staffing, and support of the event were noted by the client and the attendees
• Maritz and the Client studied post-event feedback to find ways to make the event even more appealing in 2007
Case Study: Leading Hospitality Company
Situation
The global frequent-guest program of this leading hospitality provider was designed to reward their best customers for their frequent visits. Located across the globe and varying widely in demographics, their most loyal guests are annually recognized during the holidays by way of a special award program. Customer complaints regarding back-orders and non-delivered rewards alerted the Client to problems with their existing award fulfillment vendor. This appeared to be a particular challenge in international markets. The Client needed a reward and fulfillment partner who could deliver appealing rewards, in a timely manner, to these high value guests. They chose to partner with Maritz based on its reputation for excellent service.
Solution
Maritz considered the demographics of the frequent guest membership and combined that input with historical redemption data and merchandising trends to develop a selection of rewards that would have the most appeal. The Client sent a targeted mailing to their guests, showing them the selection of rewards and directing them to a custom reward site, designed by Maritz, where they could order their selection. The user-friendly reward site allowed for expedited fulfillment of client orders both domestically and internationally. Maritz buyers paid close attention to inventories to prevent back-order issues and to track response to the reward offerings.
Results
• In the first year of the program Maritz efficiently handled a total of 5,452 orders.
• Customer complaints regarding back orders and non-deliveries were virtually eliminated.
• Problems with international shipping were eliminated.
• The program, now in its third year with Maritz, continues to source rewards that are fresh, appealing, and meaningful to the Clients most loyal guests
Case study:Maritz Increased Awareness of ALSA
Situation
The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association (ALSA) benefits ALS, more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Like most cause related agencies, the ALSA generates revenue by selling “pinups” through various retailers at the point of sale. Maritz helped increase the revenue and awareness for the ALSA, while at the same time generating incremental revenue for participating retailers. The objective of the turnkey program was to increase:
• ALSA Pinup Sales
• The Public’s knowledge of the cause and efforts of the ALSA
• Incremental Revenue
Solution
Maritz developed an easy to implement program designed to motivate retail employees to sell ALSA pinups during customer transactions. By introducing pre-denominated reward cards to employees, the program could be tiered to offer multiple rewards levels and drive performance. The reward cards, a Maritz proprietary product called the exclusively (EY) card, can be used at over 150 retail, travel, catalog and online merchants. Program elements included:
• Reward vehicle: The EY card gives the participant choice and is easy to use, just like a debit card
• Store Manager incentives: To promote the program through their store and motivate their employees, store managers also received a pre-denominated EY card
• Targeted communications: Program participants were given a clear understanding of program objectives and goals with ongoing communications
• Mystery Shopping: To motivate employees to exhibit the correct behavior, ALSA volunteers posed as normal customers in various retail partner stores. Employees exhibiting the correct behavior were rewarded with an additional reward card
• Store Coupons: Retail partners attached store coupons upon ALSA pinups as a contribution to the ALSA for their efforts
• Creative Theme: “R.U.N. to defeat ALS” was a memorable acronym that helped generate the desired program behavior from all program participants.
Case Study: A Major Casino Operator
Situation:
A key to the success of this Casino operator is its strong commitment to customer retention, and growing its customer base. Players at their Las Vegas venue accumulate points as they visit throughout the year. As a way of recognizing its most valued patrons, the Casino invites them to return at year end to take part in an annual "Gifts Extravaganza.”
The Client had seen a drop off in repeat-player interest in the event, and was concerned that the reward selections from its current vendor did not have the breadth and depth required to keep the promotion fresh.
Solution:
Based on its reputation for expertise in event planning and its broad merchandise offering, Maritz was asked to partner with the Casino to bring a new perspective to this event. Maritz started by gaining an understanding of the Casino’s business strategies and goals. It was apparent that the existing reward selection was not clearly targeted to the attendees’ demographics. Maritz recommended a strategic reward selection that would truly engage the customer base and also deliver a significant WOW factor to the event. Maritz support staff provided on-site merchandise samples and fulfillment of the rewards redeemed.
Results:
• 65 % of patrons who had attended previously said the 2006 event was better than ever
• 75% were pleased with the selection of gifts available
• Maritz dedicated staffing, and support of the event were noted by the client and the attendees
• Maritz and the Client studied post-event feedback to find ways to make the event even more appealing in 2007
Case Study: A Large Wireless Telecommunications Provider
Situation
The Client employed a large, diverse workforce. The company had recently undergone a merger leading to a mix of legacy employees and employees from the former company. The client operated both sales incentive and recognition of top performer programs. Although post-event surveys were completed, a broad reward and recognition assessment had not been done for all participants. The Client wanted to understand the business return on their program investment. Did the programs align with business objectives? Were the employees engaged and motivated?
“The post-event surveys that we had conducted in the past told us about the event, but they didn’t tell us if we were hitting home with the program as a whole. We needed to know more,” said the Client Sponsor.
Solution
The ultimate goal was to implement the most motivating reward and recognition program to drive increased performance and maximize business results. Maritz recommended a complete review of the client’s current programs, using a comprehensive, people-driven approach with a sophisticated research component.
The program began with an electronic survey which tested the alignment of program objectives with business objectives, as well as the program’s ability to influence behavior and activity.
This was followed by a Web-based survey in which respondents viewed multiple travel program design options side-by-side, and selected the option they would work harder to earn. This choice experiment was designed to optimize travel awards to address diversity, increase motivation and move middle performers to higher levels of achievement. In order to get the most meaningful feedback Maritz recommended surveying everyone who competes for the trip, not just past winners.
Employee feedback indicated;
• that rules structures were focused more on front-line sellers leaving managers unengaged.
• that sellers and managers wanted more timely performance feedback.
• that shorter stays at sun/fun destination are preferred over longer stays elsewhere.
• that a majority of sellers favor peer recognition.
• that a more regional approach was likely to result in improved performance.
Results
• Maritz was able to present a total strategic solution. They recommended that the national sales recognition travel program be revised to focus on regional events.
• A full communication strategy and solution to support the programs was created, including more timely and enhanced messages.
• In addition, Maritz recommended changes in the design and rules structure for the overall recognition program that would make it more relevant and appealing to a broad group of participants.
Case Study: A National Restaurant Chain
Situation
While the Client clearly understood the relationship between engaged employees and good customer experiences, their existing recognition and rewards program was not getting the results they needed. The rewards selection did not have particular appeal to the Gen X and Gen Y staff and redemption was difficult. Managers were not pushing the program down the line. The Company faced high employee turnover resulting in high recruiting and training costs. In each of their 52 locations there were three separate groups (bar, restaurant, gaming). They needed different programs with unique goals and objectives to increase the effectiveness of each one. They asked Maritz to develop a program that was simple and easy for managers to use.
Solution
Maritz designed the Most Valuable Producer (MVP) points-bank program using their Recognition Manage platform, with multiple budgets for individual managers. The MVP program offered a wide range of awards and redemption methods more tailored to their employee demographics. The program, which took only two and a half months from agreement to launch, was supported with a heavy communications push.
Results
• The MVP program, which is ongoing, saw a significant drop in employee turnover.
• Managers embraced the opportunity to recognize employees with more than verbal praise.
• Managers and employees bonded and became more engaged.
In the Client’s own words; “Our stores and team members have been singing the praises of the MVP program.”
Sometimes we have to see that,recognition is not necessary to legal consequence, here I can apply an example .
Case: Salimoff and co. Vs Standard oil company of New York, 1933
Situation:
In this case, salimoff was a Russian citizens, he had an oil company in Russia.
After 1917 October revolution, Russian government nationalized al the industry It should be noted here that after revolution Salimoff took shelter in America. At the subsequent times, Standard Oil Company of New York, made a treaty with Russian Government regarding the issues of oil buying .According to the treaty when oil has been exporting in New York, Spinoff demanded over oil. And a case filed in Court against Russia. His argument was that, Russian declaration of nationalization was illegal, on the other hand, until that time; U.S.A did not recognized to Russia.
What was the main concern of this case?
• Can Mr. salimoff get back oil?
• Recognition is necessary or not?
Solution:
Court refused to demand the Salimoff, Court also proclaim that Standard oil company can purchase of Oil to Russia, although America did not recognized to Russia. In this aspect, it is not necessary to recognized Russia .Because of until that time Russia s activities was going on over the years .
Result:
So Standard oil company of New York can purchase/import the oil without any barrier.
State practice
State practice relating the recognition states typically falls somewhere between the declaratory and constitutive approaches International law does not require a state to recognize other states.
Recognition is often withheld when a new state is seen as illegitimate or has come about in breach of international law. Almost universal non-recognition by the international community of Rhodesia and the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus are good examples of this. In the former case, recognition was widely withheld when the White minority seized power and attempted to form a state along the lines of Apartheid South Africa. A move which the United
Nations Security Council described as the creation of an "illegal racist minority régime". In the latter case recognition was widely withheld from a state created in Northern Cyprus on land which was illegally invaded by Turkey in 1974.
Recognition - U.S. policy in the recognition of states :
For its first century, the policy of the United States was to recognize de facto governments. (Despite many military coups and dictatorial governments established in Mexico between 1823 and 1860, for example, the United States withdrew its diplomatic representatives from Mexico City only three times, and that for only short periods.) In the early twentieth century this changed somewhat as a large element of moralism motivated the administration of Woodrow Wilson. Subsequent administrations reverted to the policy of "de factoism" during the 1920s and 1930s, but the United States refused to recognize forcible changes made in the territory or governments of victims of aggression, be the offender Japan, as in the case of Manchuria, the Soviet Union with respect to the Baltic states, or Germany with respect to its conquest of western Europe during World War II. A policy of no recognition was followed toward the Baltic States until these were freed of Russian control at the end of the Cold War. The United States also obtained collective support for the policy from democratic European nations and the Latin
Until Wilson's presidency, United States practice prior to extending recognition was to eschew the question of legitimacy and to demand effectiveness and evidence of popular consent, with the element of democratic legality proved by means of free elections. Although monarchic heads of state took as an open declaration of war by the French National Convention in 1792 that it would aid those seeking to recover their liberties, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson stated, "It accords with our principles to acknowledge any government to be rightful which is formed by the will of the people, substantially declared." By adding, however, that he would deal in certain instances with a "government de facto," he has been declared a pioneer of "de factoism."
Recognition - O.k. policy in the recognition of states:
The British waited until a political party was elected to the Government. The British then granted de jure recognition, with conditions. The territories Israel had acquired by war, outside of its declared Sovereign Boundaries, were considered to be ‘occupied’. I.e., NOT Israeli Sovereign territory.
Legal Consequence of Recognition
“Recognition is a unilateral act of a State and one that has international legal
Consequences”, for instance where State grant recognition to an entity, it accepts that they will have relations subject to international law on basis of State/State.
• Only a recognized state or government has locus standi in the UK courts
• Only a recognized state or government (or its agents), may plead immunity
• From suit. It cannot be sued without its consent.
• Only the legislative, executive or judicial acts of a recognized state or Government will be given legal effect within the United Kingdom”65 Shaw adds one more “it will be entitled to possession in the recognizing state of Property belonging to its predecessor”
• The recognized states becomes entitled to sue in the courts of the recognizing state
• In the concept of De jure recognition, diplomatic relations are establishment and thus rules of international law relating to privilege and immunities apply.
• In the international politics, act of state doctrine is being a popular doctrine. Act of state Doctrine is doctrine in one hand where a sovereign state can do anything within his territory; on the other hand, no state can do anything in this aspect.
• In practice, like claimed by declaratory theory, the political existence of a State is not bound to the recognition of other States, therefore an unrecognized State has to act comply with the international law rules.
• It means that, when the States sign an international agreement which is signed by a State they have not recognized, they will have the right to ask from that state to fulfill the responsibilities grow out of the agreement.
• After recognition, the recognizing States would respect to the rights of the new State which indicated in the International Law Commission Draft Declaration on Rights and Duties of States, 1949, such as “right to independence and hence to exercise freely, right to exercise jurisdiction over its territory and over all persons, right to equality in law with every other State, right of individual or collective self-defense against armed attack”
• The participation in the international process is not the only result of recognition, at the same time the recognized State will be able to enjoy usual legal consequences of recognition such as privileges and immunities within the domestic legal order.
Here it is important to bear in mind the limits between international law and state law. Reorganization confers on the recognized state or government a status under both international law and municipal law. In this section, we shall first deal with the status under municipal law and accordingly will examine for this purpose the law and practice normally applied by Anglo –American courts.
Conclusion:
Recognition is one of the most difficult and complicated topics in international
Law. It is complicated because it involves important political results and legal effects both in international and municipal law. Political assessments always effect the recognition decision . Where the States give a decision about recognition, of course they will weigh the advantages against the disadvantages of this decision. If it is looked into the some cases relevant to recognition in international law, I think it can be understood clearly, to grant recognition completely depends on political considerations. In my point of view, recognition for a State means merely to decide that, whether it is suitable for her needs or not there are basically two theories to explicate recognition; the constitutive and the declaratory theory. The constitutive theory asserts that States and governments do not legally exist until recognized by the international community and the declaratory theory adopts that States and governments gain in the international personality when they come
into existence. I think the declaratory theory is more conformable to reason and parallel to the practice of international law and it is supported by the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rashid –ur- Harun, “An introduction to international law”,(2nd. ed.Anupan Gyan Bhander press,Dhaka 1998)
Tunkin. G.I , “An introduction to international law” ,(3th.ed.Progress publishers ,Moscow1946 )
Brownlie, “Principles of Public International Law”, (6th . ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003)
Shaw H.S Malcolm, “ International law,(6th .ed. Cambridge university .London, 2007)
Dr. Harris L.L.m,Ph.D, “ Cases and materials :International law”,(5th .ed. London and sweet and Maxwell 1990)
William w.Bishop Jr,( International law :cases and materials(3th,ed Little brown :and company ,Boston)
HILLIER, TIM (1998). SOURCEBOOK ON PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW. ROUTLEDGE.PP. 201–2.ISBN 1859410502. HTTP://BOOKS.GOOGLE.COM/BOOKS?ID=KR0SOUIX8Q8C.
INTERNATIONALLAW,“RECOGNITION”, HTTP://WEB.WITS.AC.ZA/NR/RDONLYRES/E0A48346-CB0B-4BEC-95B1-
DD3FD4DEDD58/0/OVERHEAD15.DOC , ACCESSED ON 02 JANUARY 2011
J.B .Stark,Introduction to international law,( 9th.ed.Butterworth and Company,London 1984)p-131
Dr.S.K Kapoor,International law and human right,(New ed.Moulic Library,Calcutta 2008.
Dr.Mizanur Rhaman,”International law in the changing world”(New,ed.palal publication,Dhaka 2003,)p,76-77
Wikipedia, “ International Law en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law
.
Water Security: The Threat Bangladesh is Facing
University of Dhaka
Assignment
On
Water Security: The Threat Bangladesh is Facing
Course title: Environmental Politics
Course no: 307
Submitted to
Sheikh Shams Mursalin
Lecturer
Dept. of International Relations
University of Dhaka
Submitted by
Mohammad Bashir Uddin Class Roll No: SS-51
Md. Khairul Bashar Bhuiyan Pavel Class Roll No: SS-44
Md. Ariful Islam Class Roll No: MM-62
Md. Abdul Halim Class Roll No: ZIA-35
B.S.S (hon’s), 6th semester, 3rd year
Dept. of international relations Date of submission: 10th January, 2010
University of Dhaka
Letter of transmission
Sir,
We are the students of the dept. of international relations; university of Dhaka. We are so much glad to inform you, that we have made our assignment on Water Security: the Threat Bangladesh is Facing of the Environmental Politics, course no: 307.
We worked hard for this purpose and became successful to finish our works and present our assignment nicely.
Therefore, we hope that you would be kind enough to accept our assignment on Environmental Politics
Sincerely yours
Mohammad Bashir Uddin Class Roll No: SS-51
Md. Khairul Bashar Bhuiyan Pavel Class Roll No: SS-44
Md Ariful Islam Class Roll No: MM-62
Md Abdul Halim Class Roll No: MM-35
Acknowledgement
First of all, we would like to thank almighty Allah for blessing us with this opportunity to do this work. Next we would like to thank our honorable course teacher Sheikh Shams Mursalin for this idea and for the chance he has given us and for all the support during the making of this paper. We also would like to thank Dr. Mohammad Didar-ul- Alam, dept. of soil, water and environment, university of Dhaka. And Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed, professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka,
We tried heart and soul to fulfilling our assignment with required information. For this purpose we went through different places such as public library and our central library. In public library & central library we got some related articles and journals on water security of Bangladesh.
At last of all, we have spent a huge time in our central library cyber center to collect the latest information about our topic. But due to some limitations of gaining information our assignments may have some lacking. More over we tried to flourish our assignment with huge information.
Executive Summary
Water that synonym life is causing lives in terms of not being adequate according to the demand and again for being abundant in the form of flood. Bangladesh’s huge dependency on water shows the grievous picture of destabilizing the survival of the country which can crumble down the country and make the region unstable. So there is the need to understand the study of water from security perspective.
This paper gives a glimpse on the causes of water security challenges that Bangladesh faces besides being a river-reign county and analyze the security threats, its impact on the most dynamic deltaic country Bangladesh, in a national and regional level. We focused on Indian strategy about river linking project. We also discussed how to begin desertification in the northern region of Bangladesh. Then the paper discusses a few recommendations to solve this atrocious threat towards the nation.
It is a great irony that our planet that has 70% of its surface covered with water is facing an acute water crisis. It is alleged that the next world conflict would be for water. Water is very important for a nation to survive and to ensure their existence. Water is a strategic resource in the globe and an important element in many political conflicts. As water is a strategic resource, we try to find out how water is a strategic resource of Bangladesh.
Water Security: the threat Bangladesh is facing
Contents
Introduction
Case of Bangladesh
Causes of water security in Bangladesh
o Sharing water of trans-boundary rivers
o Inter-river linking project
o Faraka Barrage
o Tipaimukh Dam
o Diminishing underground water
o Pollution
o Climate change
o Unplanned urbanization
Indo-Bengal water sharing treaties
Adverse impacts of water scarcity on Bangladesh
o Impact on domestic, municipal water demand
o Impact on agriculture
o Impact on fisheries and wildlife
o Impact on navigation
o Impact on environment/ecological imbalance
o Impact on groundwater
o Increases in salinity
o Impact on forestry
A case study: begins of north Bengal desertification/ drying up Padma river
The Indian Plans
What must Bangladesh do to Survive
What should be done?
Conclusion
Water Security: The Threat Bangladesh is Facing
Introduction
In addition to the food, energy and physical security issue, Bangladesh and its people will soon be facing a massive water security problem which will outweigh all other problems in gravity because without sweet-water (the water we drink and wash with, farm with, grow fishes in, water our plants, vegetables and fruits with) nothing gets done; without sweet-water life and living is impossible. Sweet-water, provided with by rains and snow, carried by rivers, stored underground in natural reservoirs and stored over ground in both artificial and natural reservoirs is quite literally the life-line to survival of all living beings including humans.
Water is considered as one of the most crucial non-traditional security issues. Water security is an elusive concept, but consensus is beginning to emerge in the world community. Water security is essential for human access for health, wellbeing, economic and political stability. It is essential to limit risks of water related hazards. A complete and fair valuation of the resource, sustainability of ecosystems at all parts of the hydrologic cycle and an equitable and cooperative sharing of water resources is very necessary.
For Bangladesh that survival is at stake because ever since 1972, right after Bangladesh became independent, India has been damming off our rivers in its upper reaches, starting with the Farraka Barrage which went into operation in 1974. Bangladesh, because it is one of the world's largest and dynamic deltaic countries, is particularly vulnerable to this threat.
Case of Bangladesh
The sources of water in Bangladesh are rivers and ground-water. Bangladesh is a lower riparian, river-reign country. There are 808 rivers in Bangladesh where most rivers rise from Himalayan reign and falls into the Bay of Bengal. There are 57 trans-boundary rivers that Bangladesh shares with her neighboring countries; 54 with India and 3 with Myanmar.
Each year about 2.4 billion tons of sediment from the Himalayas is carried by the rivers of Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal. This sediment is deposited on the continental shelf causing accretion of land to the coast of the country. The high sediment load results in a net accretion about 35 square kilometers of land per year to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is situated in the deltaic part of the region. Huge volume of water enters into the country from outside and flow into the Bay of Bengal through three mighty rivers and their tributaries and distributaries, namely the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna drain. The Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna river systems drain a total catchment area of about 1.72 million sq km through Bangladesh into the Bay of Bengal. Out of this large catchment area, only 7% lies in Bangladesh. The other co-riparian countries are India, Nepal, Bhutan and China.
Causes of water scarcity in Bangladesh
As the demand for water increases, share of water per person will decrease, gradually it would result in greater demand for water. It was reported in media that 80 rivers are about to die out in Bangladesh, while 100 have lost their natural characteristics due to withdrawal of water in the upstream by structures, such as dams and barrages in India. Water scarcity in Bangladesh has various dimensions. An external dimension has the impact for being a lower riparian country, the upper riparian country like India can withdraw water by creating dams and embankments. The internal dimension of water scarcity addresses contaminated ground and surface water. Ground water supply 80% of water that people use. For constant floods, shortage in surface water, inadequate tree plantation, the level of under-ground water is depleting. This increases arsenic presence in under-ground water. Pollution caused by throwing waste into the water, continues the pressure on water that is yet available.
This creates a class division reaction which can be harmful in the long run. There is again regional dimension on scarcity of water by withdrawal of water from other upper riparian countries like China, Nepal. So considering the causes of water shortage in Bangladesh there are various causes. A glimpse of the causes has been addressed bellow.
Sharing water of trans-boundary Rivers:
During each monsoon season of June to September, one third of Bangladesh is gripped with flood calamities; two thirds of the country is vulnerable to flood. During the dry months water flow in major rivers decrease drastically. Fresh water becomes scare for use in agriculture, fisheries, navigation, industries, drinking or domestic purposes. As India surrounds Bangladesh from three sides, all the main rivers, especially the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna gets water that comes from Himalayan reign and flow through India, then enter Bangladesh.
Thus the total water system of Bangladesh depends on sharing water with India. Rivers of Bangladesh are both snow-fed and rain-fed, which is the cause of getting water flow into these rivers during the lean season.
Figure: 1 Red balls in the map shows the common/ border rivers of Bangladesh
Source:Oxford school atlas by scan
South Indian Rivers like: Krishna, Godavari and Narmada are only rain-fed, for which they becomes dry during the lean season. India supplies water to these rivers by creating dams, embankments and linking the rivers to transfer the flow. Thus most of the rivers of Bangladesh do not get the proper flow of water that she supposed to get in her rivers. The main problems with sharing water of trans-boundary Rivers are related to Ganges water sharing, India’s plan for Tipaimukh dam, and India’s river linking project.
Inter-river linking project
India initiated the Inter-River Linking Project which created controversies even in India. The huge inter river linkage program has been taken to link 37 rivers by thirty one 9,000km long lakes to give water access to 150 million lands within India. According to this plan the water of Brahmaputra would be taken to Ganges, from Ganges to Mahananda and Godabari. Water from Godabari would be taken to Krishna and from there to Penar and Cauvery River. The water of
Narmada would be taken to Sabarmati. In dry seasons Bangladesh gets 85% of its sweet water flow from Brahmapurta and Ganges water. Only from Brahmaputra she gets 65% of her water flow. This project would keep Bangladesh to an acute straiten towards her socioeconomic and environmental ecology. Rather there would be structural changes to the rivers.
Figure: 2 the map shows the Inter-River Linking Project of India
Tipaimukh Dam:
Another ominous factor for Bangladesh is the Tipaimukhi Dam which was initiated in 1948. Indian President Manmohan Singh established the foundation stone of this project in 23 November 2005. A high capacity dam would be created in the Tipaimukhi Hydroelectric project of India having a height of 162.8 meter. The water containing power of this dam is 15.5 billion cubic meter and electricity produce capacity is 1,500 megawatt. 226 big dams would be created in their convenient places in south east of India to produce 99,000 megawatt electricity within the next 50years. It would be created align the border of Karimganj of Assam above the River Borak. This Borak River is the main stream of the Branch Rivers; Surma and Kushiara. Both these rivers conjointly created the big Meghna in Bangladesh. The Tipaimukhi High Dam is situated very adjacent to Bangladesh border.
If the rivers Surma and Kushiara die there would be no Meghna River in Bangladesh. Thus it is not only Sylhet and the Hawor localization that is in danger but also the localization around Meghna is in big risk. Economy of the country and the normal life of the people of Bangladesh would be paralyzed.
Figure: 3 the map shows the part of Bangladesh that would get affected by the Tipaimukh Dam Project by India
Diminishing underground water:
Under-ground water is the second large source of fresh water for Bangladesh. Before the discovery of arsenic contamination in Bangladesh, in 1994 (officially) groundwater used to be considered a safer source of drinking water. People get 80% water of their total need from underground. Annual ground water produced in Bangladesh is 21.09 km-cube/year and the surface water is 83.91 kmcube/ year. Nearly 97% people are dependent on groundwater sources.
Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh is now considered the world's largest case of water pollution. Groundwater in Bangladesh is also polluted by a number of anthropogenic and natural sources. The most widespread anthropogenic sources are the infiltration of industrial and urban wastes disposed on the ground or in surface water bodies. Also intrusion or infiltration of saline water contaminates groundwater.
Pollution:
Pollution is one of the important and alarming elements of water scarcity. We have a short supply of water hence that is being contaminated for many reasons. Therefore the scarcity and the demand for fresh water are increasing. Water gets polluted by wastes from industry, agriculture and human generated wastes. About 2 million tons of wastes are dumped everyday into rivers, lakes and streams, with one liter of waste water sufficient to pollute about eight liters of fresh water. Seepage of agro chemicals also pollutes the water for human and animal consumption.
Pollution water causes chlorine induced diarrhea. Sources of pollution are factories, power plants and sewage treatment plants because they emit pollutants at discrete locations, usually through a pipe that leads to a lake or stream.
Climate Change
Climate is a very significant factor as Bangladesh is an agro-based country and is largely dependent on nature. The fertile land and soil helps to grow grain that feed the huge population. Lives of people are largely dependent on climate, as a huge population lives in river banks and coastal areas. Thus any reaction of the environment would create a large number of environmental refugees that would destabilize the country. The Himalayan glacier is melting which increases water flow of the rivers. But India’s withdrawal of water from trans-boundary Rivers does not let the rivers of Bangladesh get proper flow of water.
The World Water Development Report, published in March 2003 reveal, that by the middle of this century (2050), 7 billion people in 60 countries including Bangladesh are likely to face acute shortage of water. Only 50cm rise in the sea level would engulf two-thirds of the country. A rise of only 1.5 m would have the impact on Bangladesh a 17 million (15%) affected population and 222,000 kmsquare (16%) affected land.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) The global watchdog on climate change has identified South Asia as the most susceptible region in the world to climate change. The international community also recognizes that Bangladesh is especially vulnerable due to hydro-geological and socio-economic factors that include: geography, flat deltaic topography with low elevation, extreme climate variability governed by monsoons, high population density, poverty, dependency on crop, agriculture, highly influenced by climate variability and change.
Figure 4: The map shows the affect of sea level rise Source: global warming art. Com
The climate change threat for Bangladesh is related to development, which causes the most threatening impacts on the natural, social, and economic systems of the country. The impact on the Bangladesh economy of climate change would be extremely adverse: an annual loss of $1 billion of GDP by 2010, $5 billion by 2070.
Unplanned Urbanization:
The way to development in name of urbanization creates pressure on water. For the process of urbanization and growing population increases houses and high rises, which is created by filling marshy lands, ponds or lakes. The wastes from housing constructions creates blockage in the drains, which hampers rain water flow during rainy season and causes flood.
Indo-Bengal water sharing treaties
The River Ganges, originating from the glaciers of the Himalayas at a height of about 7,000 metres, flows 2,550 km down through the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal before joining the Jamuna (Brahmaputra) at Goalandaghat in Bangladesh. India first planned to build a barrage at Farakka in 1951, and since then Pakistan government began to point out its likely adverse effects on East Pakistan (Bangladesh).
After the liberation of Bangladesh in December 1971, to ensure an equitable sharing of the water resources of the region, the Bangladesh Prime Minister Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi made a joint declaration on 19 March, 1972 to set up a permanent Joint River Commission. In pursuit of that declaration a Joint River Commission was formed in November 1972.
In May 1974, the prime ministers of the two countries in a joint declaration acknowledged that there was a need to augment the dry season flow of the Ganges at Farakka to meet the full requirement of Bangladesh and of Kolkata port. Before the Farakka Barrage was put into operation there was a need for an acceptable agreement between the two countries. In 1975, an interim agreement was signed to allow India to operate the feeder canals of the barrage experimentally for 41 days from April 21 to May 31.
In 1976 and 1977, India unilaterally withdrew the Ganges water despite strong protests from Bangladesh. The efforts at negotiation broke down in September 1976, and Bangladesh decided to internationalize the issue.
Following the formation of the Janata Dal government in Delhi a more favorable atmosphere for talks was created and in November 1977, a five-year treaty with the Ziaur Rahman government of Bangladesh on water sharing was concluded. The term of the treaty expired in 1982. On 4 October 1982, the government of Hussain Muhammad Ershad signed with India a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on water sharing for two years. On 22 November 1985 another understanding for three years was signed.
Following the formation of the Awami League government, negotiations resumed and finally, a 30-year treaty on sharing of the Ganges water was signed between India and Bangladesh on 12 December 1996 in New Delhi. According to the treaty, the Ganges water would be distributed from Farakka for the two countries between January 1 and May 31 each year on the basis of an agreed formula, and that India would make every effort to maintain the flow at Farakka at the average level of previous 40 years. At any critical period Bangladesh would get the guaranteed flow of 35,000 cusec. The two countries also agreed to the need for mutual cooperation in augmenting the flow of the Ganges on a long-term basis, and for entering into similar accords in sharing the flows of other common rivers.
Figure: 5 Impact of water scarcity in North of Bangladesh Source: globalwarmingart.com
In spite of the long term treaty Bangladesh still do not getting the amount of water that she supposed to get according to the treaty. The Gorai, which is the main tributary, carrying water to the south west region becomes totally dry at the beginning of lean period.
Adverse Impacts of water scarcity on Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a river-reign country. Her huge population is largely dependent of water. The Ganges has been flowing through Bangladesh from time immemorial. The lives and livelihoods of people, together with flora and fauna, are conjoined. The rivers provide drinking water, sustains agriculture, forestry, fisheries and inland navigation, helps to operate a quarter of the county’s industrial activities, prevents salinity intrusion from the Bay of Bengal and plays the most significant role to maintain the ecology and bio-diversity of the country. There impact of water scarcity has a major impact on individual life and on the country as well.
According to a UN climate report, the Himalayan glaciers that are the sources of Asia's biggest rivers - Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Yellow - could disappear by 2035 as temperatures rise. Approximately 2.4 billion people live in the drainage basin of the Himalayan Rivers. India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar could experience floods followed by droughts in coming decades. In India alone, the Ganges provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people.
Impact on Domestic, municipal water demand:
Fresh water is a fundamental requirement of all living organisms, crops, livestock and humanity. According to World Health Organization (WTO), each human being requires 20 liters of fresh water per day, though this figure varies from country to country. 1 billion people live without clean drinking water. In Bangladesh population with access to water supply is: Urban 99%, Rural
97%.
The Gorai River is the main tributary; carrying water to the southwest region is becoming dry because of not getting proper water flow for India’s waters withdrawal from Ganges. Gorai plays a vital role as it passes through the industrial belt of Khulna, linking Rupsa-Passur and Sibsa river system and eventually emptying into the Bay of Bengal. The sweet water supply through the Gorai is vital for pushing back the salinity and keeping an overall environmental balance. This shrinks the supply of fresh water to the region. In Dhaka city the daily need for water is 2billion liters where the supply is 1600- 1700 liters only. Access to fresh water is decreasing day by day for shortage of fresh water, for population growth and for contaminated water.
Impact on Agriculture:
Food production depends on availability of water. The interdependency of these two areas is evident. Crops in hot countries need 70% of all the water use in the world. It is alleged that to produce 1kg of wheat needs 1000 liters, rice 1400 liters, and beef 13,000 liters. Thus we see that there is a huge demand of sweet water to grow crops.
Agriculture contributes about 30% of the GDP in Bangladesh. However, the agricultural production is heavily dependent on irrigation, which in turn depends on the availability of water. The availability of water has been affected by the global environmental changes in the region since water flows are controlled by tri state, Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Out of total water available, agriculture alone withdraws 86% in which 73% comes from ground water and the rest 27% from surface water sources in Bangladesh. In case of total irrigated area, surface water covers 31% and ground water covers 69% of irrigated area.
As the salinity is increasing more lands are becoming barren. Most of the agricultural work uses water from rivers, wells, tube-wells. For the presence of arsenic and using that water in agriculture the vegetables that Bangladesh grows is losing actually food value.
Impact on Fisheries and Wildlife:
Fisheries sector takes 9% water of the country that contributes 4% in the GDP. Total number of species available in the water bodies estimated in 1990s is of 260 kinds. From fresh water every year 510,509 metric tons of fish was caught in 1990 and 810,832 metric tons in 2000. Freshwater aquaculture production was 135,442 metric tons in 1987 and 387,223 metric tons in 1997.
Fisheries and wildlife are integral aspects of economic development in Bangladesh and strongly linked to the advancement of the country. Fish supplies 75% protein to Bangladesh people.
The people who are dependent on water for their livelihood and living would try to find an alternate for survival. They would start resettling into the cities which are already over populated. This huge number of people would remain jobless, thousands of mouth without food, and a place to live. It would completely destabilize the country gradually.
Impact on Navigation:
Inland navigation holds one of the most important economic assets of Bangladesh. The water ways provides the cheapest mean of transportation. But the growing sedimentation and siltation from the upper riparian rives disrupted communications in many water channels. It would again create joblessness and resettlements and would result in the high prices of goods in the market.
Impact on Environment:
It is very important to preserve and protect the natural environment to have a sustainable development. All the environmental resources are linked to water. Water is essential for the protection, restoration, and preservation of the environment and its bio-diversity including wetlands, mangrove and other national forests, endangered species, and the water quality. Water is life and is necessary for all ecosystems to survive. Sound ecosystems ensure balanced communities of species and rich livelihoods. Rich and diverse livelihoods are fundamental for our well-being and for the survival of the poorest. Currently, around 1, 9 million species are described in the world and millions of others are still to discover.
Figure 6: The map shows the areas affected by sea level rise Source:http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Arsenic.pdf
Global warming and the inadequate river water flow, creating dams in the upper riparian countries causes flood in Bangladesh. The alluvial lands go under water, the crops cultivation gets affected, a lot of people become homeless, epidemic breaks out that kills thousands of people, the ground-water level gets affected which cause arsenic problem in the water.
Impact on Groundwater:
It has been observed that lowered river levels resulted in a reversal of the existing groundwater gradient affecting the availability of groundwater. The fall of groundwater about 10 feet has been observed in most of the wells along both the banks of the rivers the Ganges, the Mohananda and the Gorai-Madhumati The fall of groundwater level is maximum in the districts of Rajshahi and Pabna followed by Kushtia and Jessore. The quality of ground water has also deteriorated.
Out of 150 million population of Bangladesh nearly 80 million people are exposed to aquifer contamination caused by a metallic element called arsenic, the white, tasteless metallic powder which can cause skin cancer, kidney and liver failure and in extreme cases death.
Increases in Salinity:
The most devastating effect of the diversion of the Ganges water has been caused by increase in salinity, both in surface and ground water leading to higher soil salinity in the south-west region of Bangladesh. Since the Farakka withdrawals commenced, the salinity ingress pattern in the area has a tendency of cumulative increase due to residual deposits which would further aggravate if the present pattern of Ganges flow continues.
Water reduction in the dry season results the increased salinity in Khulna area from 380 micro-mhos/cm during the pre-diversion period (1974) to about 29,500 micro-mhos/cm in April, 1992. The salinity front of 500 micro-mhos/cm moved through the Passur Estuary from 90 miles to about 136 miles inland after the diversion.
Impact on Forestry:
The Sundarbans extend about 50 miles north of the Bay of Bengal and are bounded on the east by the Baleswar River and on the west by the international boundary with India. With the increase of salinity, Sundri, the main species of Sundarbans, started drying and the regeneration of the species also decreased. Sundri may ultimately disappear if the salinity goes above the tolerance limit. Again a lot of people are dependent on Sundarbans for their living, which would make this people live a life below the poverty.
Impact on Public Health:
Today, one person in five across the world has no access to safe drinking water, and one in two lacks to safe sanitation, more than 30,000 children die before reaching their fifth birthdays, either by hunger or by easily-preventable diseases. And adequate safe water is key to good health and a proper diet. 1.8 million People die every year from diarrheal diseases. 3 900 children die every day from water borne diseases 90% of all deaths caused by diarrhea diseases are children under 5 years of age. Each year more than five million people die from water-related disease. For the first time, the number of people without improved drinking water has dropped below one billion.
A case study: begins of north Bengal desertification/ drying up Padma river:
The effects of the Indian "River Linking Project", the dams and the barrages are already proving horrendous for Bangladesh and can be looked at under three broad heads:
Siltation of rivers, Periodic Desertification & Flooding: The artificially controlled reduction of water flows along rivers result in increasing siltation of all rivers in Bangladesh and with reduction of flows of major rivers, large tracts of land in the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin are turning into semi-arid regions unfit for habitation or cultivation; with the building of Tipaimukh dam and Fulertal barrage even more areas will turn inhabitable.
With the River Linking Project completed, India will have complete control of waters of all rivers running through Bangladesh: during dry seasons withdrawal of waters from already silted up rivers will make of Bangladesh a desert and during the monsoons, release of excess waters will flood the whole of Bangladesh since silted up rivers will be unable to carry waters to the sea. Such periodic desertification and flooding will neither permit habitation nor cultivation, turning Bangladesh into hostile territory for any sort of permanent settlement - the nation-state of Bangladesh will, for all practical purposes, cease to exist.
The Indian Plans
The Ganges-Brahmaputra basin is Bangladesh and the 54 or so major and minor rivers which flow through it to the Bay of Bengal, all originate in the Himalayas in Nepal, Bhutan and India, all pass through India and India has put into effect plans to garner all the waters of all these rivers to ensure its own water security, leaving Bangladesh high and dry, quite literally.
So besides the Farraka, Teesta and dozens of other smaller barrages along dozens of other smaller rivers, India is building the Tipaimukh dam and Fulertal barrage upstream of the Surma and Kushiara running through the Sylhet division. Since 2004 India is implementing its "River Linking Project" which will link up major rivers in India to their sources in Nepal and Bhutan where massive reservoirs would be built to hold up water. The canal systems developed or under development for the "River Linking Project" will divert waters of major rivers in the east to the much drier west of India. The barrages/dams at Farraka, Teesta and the upcoming ones at Tipaimukh and Fulertal are part of a well thought out plan, implemented in phases.
What must Bangladesh do to Survive?
National interests being paramount, one doesn't see India backing out from its program of linking rivers through building dams/barrages/reservoirs and canals to garner waters from rivers, notwithstanding Bangladesh's profuse profession & rhetoric of undying friendship and love towards India. One must consider that such "friendship" did not prevent India from building and putting into operation the Farraka barrage in the period 1971 to 1974, when India-Bangladesh relations were at their zenith ever; neither will friendship & good neighborly relations now prevent India from going ahead with the Tipaimukh dam, the Fulertal barrage or the greater River Linking Project.
The only way to persuade India to giving us our rights to survival is to pursue an aggressive and sustained diplomatic and media offensive in every multi-lateral forum including the UN, the SAARC, the OIC, the EU, building world opinions, putting continuous pressure on India to desist from measures which will make Bangladesh uninhabitable.
What Should be done?
Bangladesh can solve this problem in three ways. Such as
Adaptation
o Bangladesh should increase her susceptibility and its ability to manage environmental threats. National awareness, national and international cooperation is essential to help the country and its people build the necessary capacity and resilience.
o There are a few methods that we can take to solve the situation like: collecting rain water. During the monsoon Bangladesh have plenty of water which goes waste and in dry season she lacks to survive.
o There is abundant water in the monsoon season, but the scarcity of water is in dry seasons. So if the abundant water can be used in productive sectors like: reservation, producing hydroelectricity and navigation routes, irrigation facilities within tri-partite arrangements, and all the countries of the region can be benefited. On Bangladesh’s claim to India of not getting proper flow of water in Padma for the Farakka barrage, India continuously deny the fact.
Bi-lateral negotiations
o Bangladesh to get in action, to make the Joint River Committee more active and get the proper data and if there occurs any problem there should be open or non-governmental governmental bi-lateral discussions and rapid actions.
Raise the issue in international arena.
o Bangladesh can also solve this years old dispute by taking the issue to the International Court of Justice.
Conclusion:
Bangladesh is a developing small nation with a huge population of over 150 million. This country, since her birth has been fighting so many challenges. People of this nation always fight back whenever there is an external, internal or natural threat. Scarcity of water is creating human life miserable. This country is still largely based on nature. Discussing various dimensions of water security it is possible to face the challenges and live in a sound environment. Considering all the consciousness, internal dimensions can be changed. It is the upper riparian countries who need to understand that de-stabilizing one country in the region would de-stabilize the whole region.
People would constantly try to find their way out which would turmoil the tranquil environment. India should understand the impacts of withdrawal of water from the trans-boundary Rivers. The water that flows within India is not only India’s water. Even India is facing the same consequences when the upper riparian country China also planned to withdraw water from her river, which would make the whole region unstable. Tibet has the world largest river systems. Its river waters are a lifeline to the world’s two most populous states China and India as well as to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Cambodia, Pakistan, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. These countries make up 47% of the global population. To reserve the bounteous water reserves that the Tibetan plateau holds, China implemented a plan that has dammed rivers not just to produce hydropower but also to channel water for irrigation and other purpose, and is currently toying with massive inter-basin and inter-river water transfer projects.
In terms of playing global politics it’s again the strength of unity that this region can have to face the world besides being a threat to each other. If the home, the region is not supportive no one nation can play a stronger part in the global politics. So to maintain the peace of the region it is very important that this small land country with huge population remains safe.
References
M.Rafiqul Islam,The Ganges Water Dispute,( University press limited, Dhaka, July1987).pp. 35-37.
Emajuddin Ahamed, Military Rule and the myth of Bangladesh.( University press limited, Dhaka.1988).p,55
Faruque Hasan, “Bangladesh drowning: A reality or a myth?”, The Daily Star, Dhaka, 11 January 2008. Available at http://www .thedailystar.com. Accessed on 28 December 2010
M.Abdul Hafiz and Abdur Rob khan,,Security of small states(,University press limited,Dhaka1987)p,33
Rehaman sobhan,public enterprise and the nature of state;The case of South Asia .(Center for social studies ,Dhaka1983)
Tareque Shamsul Haque “Bharotiyo Paani Agrashon, Antorjatic Ain O Bangladesh” Palal prokashini.Dhaka.2003)p,44-49
Lutfor Rahman,” Climate Change and Biodiversity loss: new challenges for scientists and policy makers”,The daily Star. November 30, 2007.Available at, http://www.thedailystar.com.Accessed on 1 January2011.
B.M. Abbas.A.T The Ganges water dispute,(University press limited ,Dhaka1997)pp.33-35
Abdus Sattar , “For survival of environmental refugees”, , the daily star.Dhaka. 30 November 2007 Available at, http://www.thedailystar.com. ,Accessed on 28 December2010
The Daily Star Magazine.Dhaka,volume-14 issue,646 , 13 February 2009
, Available at, http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine,Accessed on 1 January 2011
Interviews:
Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed, professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka,
Dr. Mohammad Didar-ul-Alam, professor, dept. of soil, water and environment, university of Dhaka.
Assignment
On
Water Security: The Threat Bangladesh is Facing
Course title: Environmental Politics
Course no: 307
Submitted to
Sheikh Shams Mursalin
Lecturer
Dept. of International Relations
University of Dhaka
Submitted by
Mohammad Bashir Uddin Class Roll No: SS-51
Md. Khairul Bashar Bhuiyan Pavel Class Roll No: SS-44
Md. Ariful Islam Class Roll No: MM-62
Md. Abdul Halim Class Roll No: ZIA-35
B.S.S (hon’s), 6th semester, 3rd year
Dept. of international relations Date of submission: 10th January, 2010
University of Dhaka
Letter of transmission
Sir,
We are the students of the dept. of international relations; university of Dhaka. We are so much glad to inform you, that we have made our assignment on Water Security: the Threat Bangladesh is Facing of the Environmental Politics, course no: 307.
We worked hard for this purpose and became successful to finish our works and present our assignment nicely.
Therefore, we hope that you would be kind enough to accept our assignment on Environmental Politics
Sincerely yours
Mohammad Bashir Uddin Class Roll No: SS-51
Md. Khairul Bashar Bhuiyan Pavel Class Roll No: SS-44
Md Ariful Islam Class Roll No: MM-62
Md Abdul Halim Class Roll No: MM-35
Acknowledgement
First of all, we would like to thank almighty Allah for blessing us with this opportunity to do this work. Next we would like to thank our honorable course teacher Sheikh Shams Mursalin for this idea and for the chance he has given us and for all the support during the making of this paper. We also would like to thank Dr. Mohammad Didar-ul- Alam, dept. of soil, water and environment, university of Dhaka. And Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed, professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka,
We tried heart and soul to fulfilling our assignment with required information. For this purpose we went through different places such as public library and our central library. In public library & central library we got some related articles and journals on water security of Bangladesh.
At last of all, we have spent a huge time in our central library cyber center to collect the latest information about our topic. But due to some limitations of gaining information our assignments may have some lacking. More over we tried to flourish our assignment with huge information.
Executive Summary
Water that synonym life is causing lives in terms of not being adequate according to the demand and again for being abundant in the form of flood. Bangladesh’s huge dependency on water shows the grievous picture of destabilizing the survival of the country which can crumble down the country and make the region unstable. So there is the need to understand the study of water from security perspective.
This paper gives a glimpse on the causes of water security challenges that Bangladesh faces besides being a river-reign county and analyze the security threats, its impact on the most dynamic deltaic country Bangladesh, in a national and regional level. We focused on Indian strategy about river linking project. We also discussed how to begin desertification in the northern region of Bangladesh. Then the paper discusses a few recommendations to solve this atrocious threat towards the nation.
It is a great irony that our planet that has 70% of its surface covered with water is facing an acute water crisis. It is alleged that the next world conflict would be for water. Water is very important for a nation to survive and to ensure their existence. Water is a strategic resource in the globe and an important element in many political conflicts. As water is a strategic resource, we try to find out how water is a strategic resource of Bangladesh.
Water Security: the threat Bangladesh is facing
Contents
Introduction
Case of Bangladesh
Causes of water security in Bangladesh
o Sharing water of trans-boundary rivers
o Inter-river linking project
o Faraka Barrage
o Tipaimukh Dam
o Diminishing underground water
o Pollution
o Climate change
o Unplanned urbanization
Indo-Bengal water sharing treaties
Adverse impacts of water scarcity on Bangladesh
o Impact on domestic, municipal water demand
o Impact on agriculture
o Impact on fisheries and wildlife
o Impact on navigation
o Impact on environment/ecological imbalance
o Impact on groundwater
o Increases in salinity
o Impact on forestry
A case study: begins of north Bengal desertification/ drying up Padma river
The Indian Plans
What must Bangladesh do to Survive
What should be done?
Conclusion
Water Security: The Threat Bangladesh is Facing
Introduction
In addition to the food, energy and physical security issue, Bangladesh and its people will soon be facing a massive water security problem which will outweigh all other problems in gravity because without sweet-water (the water we drink and wash with, farm with, grow fishes in, water our plants, vegetables and fruits with) nothing gets done; without sweet-water life and living is impossible. Sweet-water, provided with by rains and snow, carried by rivers, stored underground in natural reservoirs and stored over ground in both artificial and natural reservoirs is quite literally the life-line to survival of all living beings including humans.
Water is considered as one of the most crucial non-traditional security issues. Water security is an elusive concept, but consensus is beginning to emerge in the world community. Water security is essential for human access for health, wellbeing, economic and political stability. It is essential to limit risks of water related hazards. A complete and fair valuation of the resource, sustainability of ecosystems at all parts of the hydrologic cycle and an equitable and cooperative sharing of water resources is very necessary.
For Bangladesh that survival is at stake because ever since 1972, right after Bangladesh became independent, India has been damming off our rivers in its upper reaches, starting with the Farraka Barrage which went into operation in 1974. Bangladesh, because it is one of the world's largest and dynamic deltaic countries, is particularly vulnerable to this threat.
Case of Bangladesh
The sources of water in Bangladesh are rivers and ground-water. Bangladesh is a lower riparian, river-reign country. There are 808 rivers in Bangladesh where most rivers rise from Himalayan reign and falls into the Bay of Bengal. There are 57 trans-boundary rivers that Bangladesh shares with her neighboring countries; 54 with India and 3 with Myanmar.
Each year about 2.4 billion tons of sediment from the Himalayas is carried by the rivers of Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal. This sediment is deposited on the continental shelf causing accretion of land to the coast of the country. The high sediment load results in a net accretion about 35 square kilometers of land per year to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is situated in the deltaic part of the region. Huge volume of water enters into the country from outside and flow into the Bay of Bengal through three mighty rivers and their tributaries and distributaries, namely the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna drain. The Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna river systems drain a total catchment area of about 1.72 million sq km through Bangladesh into the Bay of Bengal. Out of this large catchment area, only 7% lies in Bangladesh. The other co-riparian countries are India, Nepal, Bhutan and China.
Causes of water scarcity in Bangladesh
As the demand for water increases, share of water per person will decrease, gradually it would result in greater demand for water. It was reported in media that 80 rivers are about to die out in Bangladesh, while 100 have lost their natural characteristics due to withdrawal of water in the upstream by structures, such as dams and barrages in India. Water scarcity in Bangladesh has various dimensions. An external dimension has the impact for being a lower riparian country, the upper riparian country like India can withdraw water by creating dams and embankments. The internal dimension of water scarcity addresses contaminated ground and surface water. Ground water supply 80% of water that people use. For constant floods, shortage in surface water, inadequate tree plantation, the level of under-ground water is depleting. This increases arsenic presence in under-ground water. Pollution caused by throwing waste into the water, continues the pressure on water that is yet available.
This creates a class division reaction which can be harmful in the long run. There is again regional dimension on scarcity of water by withdrawal of water from other upper riparian countries like China, Nepal. So considering the causes of water shortage in Bangladesh there are various causes. A glimpse of the causes has been addressed bellow.
Sharing water of trans-boundary Rivers:
During each monsoon season of June to September, one third of Bangladesh is gripped with flood calamities; two thirds of the country is vulnerable to flood. During the dry months water flow in major rivers decrease drastically. Fresh water becomes scare for use in agriculture, fisheries, navigation, industries, drinking or domestic purposes. As India surrounds Bangladesh from three sides, all the main rivers, especially the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna gets water that comes from Himalayan reign and flow through India, then enter Bangladesh.
Thus the total water system of Bangladesh depends on sharing water with India. Rivers of Bangladesh are both snow-fed and rain-fed, which is the cause of getting water flow into these rivers during the lean season.
Figure: 1 Red balls in the map shows the common/ border rivers of Bangladesh
Source:Oxford school atlas by scan
South Indian Rivers like: Krishna, Godavari and Narmada are only rain-fed, for which they becomes dry during the lean season. India supplies water to these rivers by creating dams, embankments and linking the rivers to transfer the flow. Thus most of the rivers of Bangladesh do not get the proper flow of water that she supposed to get in her rivers. The main problems with sharing water of trans-boundary Rivers are related to Ganges water sharing, India’s plan for Tipaimukh dam, and India’s river linking project.
Inter-river linking project
India initiated the Inter-River Linking Project which created controversies even in India. The huge inter river linkage program has been taken to link 37 rivers by thirty one 9,000km long lakes to give water access to 150 million lands within India. According to this plan the water of Brahmaputra would be taken to Ganges, from Ganges to Mahananda and Godabari. Water from Godabari would be taken to Krishna and from there to Penar and Cauvery River. The water of
Narmada would be taken to Sabarmati. In dry seasons Bangladesh gets 85% of its sweet water flow from Brahmapurta and Ganges water. Only from Brahmaputra she gets 65% of her water flow. This project would keep Bangladesh to an acute straiten towards her socioeconomic and environmental ecology. Rather there would be structural changes to the rivers.
Figure: 2 the map shows the Inter-River Linking Project of India
Tipaimukh Dam:
Another ominous factor for Bangladesh is the Tipaimukhi Dam which was initiated in 1948. Indian President Manmohan Singh established the foundation stone of this project in 23 November 2005. A high capacity dam would be created in the Tipaimukhi Hydroelectric project of India having a height of 162.8 meter. The water containing power of this dam is 15.5 billion cubic meter and electricity produce capacity is 1,500 megawatt. 226 big dams would be created in their convenient places in south east of India to produce 99,000 megawatt electricity within the next 50years. It would be created align the border of Karimganj of Assam above the River Borak. This Borak River is the main stream of the Branch Rivers; Surma and Kushiara. Both these rivers conjointly created the big Meghna in Bangladesh. The Tipaimukhi High Dam is situated very adjacent to Bangladesh border.
If the rivers Surma and Kushiara die there would be no Meghna River in Bangladesh. Thus it is not only Sylhet and the Hawor localization that is in danger but also the localization around Meghna is in big risk. Economy of the country and the normal life of the people of Bangladesh would be paralyzed.
Figure: 3 the map shows the part of Bangladesh that would get affected by the Tipaimukh Dam Project by India
Diminishing underground water:
Under-ground water is the second large source of fresh water for Bangladesh. Before the discovery of arsenic contamination in Bangladesh, in 1994 (officially) groundwater used to be considered a safer source of drinking water. People get 80% water of their total need from underground. Annual ground water produced in Bangladesh is 21.09 km-cube/year and the surface water is 83.91 kmcube/ year. Nearly 97% people are dependent on groundwater sources.
Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh is now considered the world's largest case of water pollution. Groundwater in Bangladesh is also polluted by a number of anthropogenic and natural sources. The most widespread anthropogenic sources are the infiltration of industrial and urban wastes disposed on the ground or in surface water bodies. Also intrusion or infiltration of saline water contaminates groundwater.
Pollution:
Pollution is one of the important and alarming elements of water scarcity. We have a short supply of water hence that is being contaminated for many reasons. Therefore the scarcity and the demand for fresh water are increasing. Water gets polluted by wastes from industry, agriculture and human generated wastes. About 2 million tons of wastes are dumped everyday into rivers, lakes and streams, with one liter of waste water sufficient to pollute about eight liters of fresh water. Seepage of agro chemicals also pollutes the water for human and animal consumption.
Pollution water causes chlorine induced diarrhea. Sources of pollution are factories, power plants and sewage treatment plants because they emit pollutants at discrete locations, usually through a pipe that leads to a lake or stream.
Climate Change
Climate is a very significant factor as Bangladesh is an agro-based country and is largely dependent on nature. The fertile land and soil helps to grow grain that feed the huge population. Lives of people are largely dependent on climate, as a huge population lives in river banks and coastal areas. Thus any reaction of the environment would create a large number of environmental refugees that would destabilize the country. The Himalayan glacier is melting which increases water flow of the rivers. But India’s withdrawal of water from trans-boundary Rivers does not let the rivers of Bangladesh get proper flow of water.
The World Water Development Report, published in March 2003 reveal, that by the middle of this century (2050), 7 billion people in 60 countries including Bangladesh are likely to face acute shortage of water. Only 50cm rise in the sea level would engulf two-thirds of the country. A rise of only 1.5 m would have the impact on Bangladesh a 17 million (15%) affected population and 222,000 kmsquare (16%) affected land.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) The global watchdog on climate change has identified South Asia as the most susceptible region in the world to climate change. The international community also recognizes that Bangladesh is especially vulnerable due to hydro-geological and socio-economic factors that include: geography, flat deltaic topography with low elevation, extreme climate variability governed by monsoons, high population density, poverty, dependency on crop, agriculture, highly influenced by climate variability and change.
Figure 4: The map shows the affect of sea level rise Source: global warming art. Com
The climate change threat for Bangladesh is related to development, which causes the most threatening impacts on the natural, social, and economic systems of the country. The impact on the Bangladesh economy of climate change would be extremely adverse: an annual loss of $1 billion of GDP by 2010, $5 billion by 2070.
Unplanned Urbanization:
The way to development in name of urbanization creates pressure on water. For the process of urbanization and growing population increases houses and high rises, which is created by filling marshy lands, ponds or lakes. The wastes from housing constructions creates blockage in the drains, which hampers rain water flow during rainy season and causes flood.
Indo-Bengal water sharing treaties
The River Ganges, originating from the glaciers of the Himalayas at a height of about 7,000 metres, flows 2,550 km down through the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal before joining the Jamuna (Brahmaputra) at Goalandaghat in Bangladesh. India first planned to build a barrage at Farakka in 1951, and since then Pakistan government began to point out its likely adverse effects on East Pakistan (Bangladesh).
After the liberation of Bangladesh in December 1971, to ensure an equitable sharing of the water resources of the region, the Bangladesh Prime Minister Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi made a joint declaration on 19 March, 1972 to set up a permanent Joint River Commission. In pursuit of that declaration a Joint River Commission was formed in November 1972.
In May 1974, the prime ministers of the two countries in a joint declaration acknowledged that there was a need to augment the dry season flow of the Ganges at Farakka to meet the full requirement of Bangladesh and of Kolkata port. Before the Farakka Barrage was put into operation there was a need for an acceptable agreement between the two countries. In 1975, an interim agreement was signed to allow India to operate the feeder canals of the barrage experimentally for 41 days from April 21 to May 31.
In 1976 and 1977, India unilaterally withdrew the Ganges water despite strong protests from Bangladesh. The efforts at negotiation broke down in September 1976, and Bangladesh decided to internationalize the issue.
Following the formation of the Janata Dal government in Delhi a more favorable atmosphere for talks was created and in November 1977, a five-year treaty with the Ziaur Rahman government of Bangladesh on water sharing was concluded. The term of the treaty expired in 1982. On 4 October 1982, the government of Hussain Muhammad Ershad signed with India a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on water sharing for two years. On 22 November 1985 another understanding for three years was signed.
Following the formation of the Awami League government, negotiations resumed and finally, a 30-year treaty on sharing of the Ganges water was signed between India and Bangladesh on 12 December 1996 in New Delhi. According to the treaty, the Ganges water would be distributed from Farakka for the two countries between January 1 and May 31 each year on the basis of an agreed formula, and that India would make every effort to maintain the flow at Farakka at the average level of previous 40 years. At any critical period Bangladesh would get the guaranteed flow of 35,000 cusec. The two countries also agreed to the need for mutual cooperation in augmenting the flow of the Ganges on a long-term basis, and for entering into similar accords in sharing the flows of other common rivers.
Figure: 5 Impact of water scarcity in North of Bangladesh Source: globalwarmingart.com
In spite of the long term treaty Bangladesh still do not getting the amount of water that she supposed to get according to the treaty. The Gorai, which is the main tributary, carrying water to the south west region becomes totally dry at the beginning of lean period.
Adverse Impacts of water scarcity on Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a river-reign country. Her huge population is largely dependent of water. The Ganges has been flowing through Bangladesh from time immemorial. The lives and livelihoods of people, together with flora and fauna, are conjoined. The rivers provide drinking water, sustains agriculture, forestry, fisheries and inland navigation, helps to operate a quarter of the county’s industrial activities, prevents salinity intrusion from the Bay of Bengal and plays the most significant role to maintain the ecology and bio-diversity of the country. There impact of water scarcity has a major impact on individual life and on the country as well.
According to a UN climate report, the Himalayan glaciers that are the sources of Asia's biggest rivers - Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Yellow - could disappear by 2035 as temperatures rise. Approximately 2.4 billion people live in the drainage basin of the Himalayan Rivers. India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar could experience floods followed by droughts in coming decades. In India alone, the Ganges provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people.
Impact on Domestic, municipal water demand:
Fresh water is a fundamental requirement of all living organisms, crops, livestock and humanity. According to World Health Organization (WTO), each human being requires 20 liters of fresh water per day, though this figure varies from country to country. 1 billion people live without clean drinking water. In Bangladesh population with access to water supply is: Urban 99%, Rural
97%.
The Gorai River is the main tributary; carrying water to the southwest region is becoming dry because of not getting proper water flow for India’s waters withdrawal from Ganges. Gorai plays a vital role as it passes through the industrial belt of Khulna, linking Rupsa-Passur and Sibsa river system and eventually emptying into the Bay of Bengal. The sweet water supply through the Gorai is vital for pushing back the salinity and keeping an overall environmental balance. This shrinks the supply of fresh water to the region. In Dhaka city the daily need for water is 2billion liters where the supply is 1600- 1700 liters only. Access to fresh water is decreasing day by day for shortage of fresh water, for population growth and for contaminated water.
Impact on Agriculture:
Food production depends on availability of water. The interdependency of these two areas is evident. Crops in hot countries need 70% of all the water use in the world. It is alleged that to produce 1kg of wheat needs 1000 liters, rice 1400 liters, and beef 13,000 liters. Thus we see that there is a huge demand of sweet water to grow crops.
Agriculture contributes about 30% of the GDP in Bangladesh. However, the agricultural production is heavily dependent on irrigation, which in turn depends on the availability of water. The availability of water has been affected by the global environmental changes in the region since water flows are controlled by tri state, Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Out of total water available, agriculture alone withdraws 86% in which 73% comes from ground water and the rest 27% from surface water sources in Bangladesh. In case of total irrigated area, surface water covers 31% and ground water covers 69% of irrigated area.
As the salinity is increasing more lands are becoming barren. Most of the agricultural work uses water from rivers, wells, tube-wells. For the presence of arsenic and using that water in agriculture the vegetables that Bangladesh grows is losing actually food value.
Impact on Fisheries and Wildlife:
Fisheries sector takes 9% water of the country that contributes 4% in the GDP. Total number of species available in the water bodies estimated in 1990s is of 260 kinds. From fresh water every year 510,509 metric tons of fish was caught in 1990 and 810,832 metric tons in 2000. Freshwater aquaculture production was 135,442 metric tons in 1987 and 387,223 metric tons in 1997.
Fisheries and wildlife are integral aspects of economic development in Bangladesh and strongly linked to the advancement of the country. Fish supplies 75% protein to Bangladesh people.
The people who are dependent on water for their livelihood and living would try to find an alternate for survival. They would start resettling into the cities which are already over populated. This huge number of people would remain jobless, thousands of mouth without food, and a place to live. It would completely destabilize the country gradually.
Impact on Navigation:
Inland navigation holds one of the most important economic assets of Bangladesh. The water ways provides the cheapest mean of transportation. But the growing sedimentation and siltation from the upper riparian rives disrupted communications in many water channels. It would again create joblessness and resettlements and would result in the high prices of goods in the market.
Impact on Environment:
It is very important to preserve and protect the natural environment to have a sustainable development. All the environmental resources are linked to water. Water is essential for the protection, restoration, and preservation of the environment and its bio-diversity including wetlands, mangrove and other national forests, endangered species, and the water quality. Water is life and is necessary for all ecosystems to survive. Sound ecosystems ensure balanced communities of species and rich livelihoods. Rich and diverse livelihoods are fundamental for our well-being and for the survival of the poorest. Currently, around 1, 9 million species are described in the world and millions of others are still to discover.
Figure 6: The map shows the areas affected by sea level rise Source:http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Arsenic.pdf
Global warming and the inadequate river water flow, creating dams in the upper riparian countries causes flood in Bangladesh. The alluvial lands go under water, the crops cultivation gets affected, a lot of people become homeless, epidemic breaks out that kills thousands of people, the ground-water level gets affected which cause arsenic problem in the water.
Impact on Groundwater:
It has been observed that lowered river levels resulted in a reversal of the existing groundwater gradient affecting the availability of groundwater. The fall of groundwater about 10 feet has been observed in most of the wells along both the banks of the rivers the Ganges, the Mohananda and the Gorai-Madhumati The fall of groundwater level is maximum in the districts of Rajshahi and Pabna followed by Kushtia and Jessore. The quality of ground water has also deteriorated.
Out of 150 million population of Bangladesh nearly 80 million people are exposed to aquifer contamination caused by a metallic element called arsenic, the white, tasteless metallic powder which can cause skin cancer, kidney and liver failure and in extreme cases death.
Increases in Salinity:
The most devastating effect of the diversion of the Ganges water has been caused by increase in salinity, both in surface and ground water leading to higher soil salinity in the south-west region of Bangladesh. Since the Farakka withdrawals commenced, the salinity ingress pattern in the area has a tendency of cumulative increase due to residual deposits which would further aggravate if the present pattern of Ganges flow continues.
Water reduction in the dry season results the increased salinity in Khulna area from 380 micro-mhos/cm during the pre-diversion period (1974) to about 29,500 micro-mhos/cm in April, 1992. The salinity front of 500 micro-mhos/cm moved through the Passur Estuary from 90 miles to about 136 miles inland after the diversion.
Impact on Forestry:
The Sundarbans extend about 50 miles north of the Bay of Bengal and are bounded on the east by the Baleswar River and on the west by the international boundary with India. With the increase of salinity, Sundri, the main species of Sundarbans, started drying and the regeneration of the species also decreased. Sundri may ultimately disappear if the salinity goes above the tolerance limit. Again a lot of people are dependent on Sundarbans for their living, which would make this people live a life below the poverty.
Impact on Public Health:
Today, one person in five across the world has no access to safe drinking water, and one in two lacks to safe sanitation, more than 30,000 children die before reaching their fifth birthdays, either by hunger or by easily-preventable diseases. And adequate safe water is key to good health and a proper diet. 1.8 million People die every year from diarrheal diseases. 3 900 children die every day from water borne diseases 90% of all deaths caused by diarrhea diseases are children under 5 years of age. Each year more than five million people die from water-related disease. For the first time, the number of people without improved drinking water has dropped below one billion.
A case study: begins of north Bengal desertification/ drying up Padma river:
The effects of the Indian "River Linking Project", the dams and the barrages are already proving horrendous for Bangladesh and can be looked at under three broad heads:
Siltation of rivers, Periodic Desertification & Flooding: The artificially controlled reduction of water flows along rivers result in increasing siltation of all rivers in Bangladesh and with reduction of flows of major rivers, large tracts of land in the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin are turning into semi-arid regions unfit for habitation or cultivation; with the building of Tipaimukh dam and Fulertal barrage even more areas will turn inhabitable.
With the River Linking Project completed, India will have complete control of waters of all rivers running through Bangladesh: during dry seasons withdrawal of waters from already silted up rivers will make of Bangladesh a desert and during the monsoons, release of excess waters will flood the whole of Bangladesh since silted up rivers will be unable to carry waters to the sea. Such periodic desertification and flooding will neither permit habitation nor cultivation, turning Bangladesh into hostile territory for any sort of permanent settlement - the nation-state of Bangladesh will, for all practical purposes, cease to exist.
The Indian Plans
The Ganges-Brahmaputra basin is Bangladesh and the 54 or so major and minor rivers which flow through it to the Bay of Bengal, all originate in the Himalayas in Nepal, Bhutan and India, all pass through India and India has put into effect plans to garner all the waters of all these rivers to ensure its own water security, leaving Bangladesh high and dry, quite literally.
So besides the Farraka, Teesta and dozens of other smaller barrages along dozens of other smaller rivers, India is building the Tipaimukh dam and Fulertal barrage upstream of the Surma and Kushiara running through the Sylhet division. Since 2004 India is implementing its "River Linking Project" which will link up major rivers in India to their sources in Nepal and Bhutan where massive reservoirs would be built to hold up water. The canal systems developed or under development for the "River Linking Project" will divert waters of major rivers in the east to the much drier west of India. The barrages/dams at Farraka, Teesta and the upcoming ones at Tipaimukh and Fulertal are part of a well thought out plan, implemented in phases.
What must Bangladesh do to Survive?
National interests being paramount, one doesn't see India backing out from its program of linking rivers through building dams/barrages/reservoirs and canals to garner waters from rivers, notwithstanding Bangladesh's profuse profession & rhetoric of undying friendship and love towards India. One must consider that such "friendship" did not prevent India from building and putting into operation the Farraka barrage in the period 1971 to 1974, when India-Bangladesh relations were at their zenith ever; neither will friendship & good neighborly relations now prevent India from going ahead with the Tipaimukh dam, the Fulertal barrage or the greater River Linking Project.
The only way to persuade India to giving us our rights to survival is to pursue an aggressive and sustained diplomatic and media offensive in every multi-lateral forum including the UN, the SAARC, the OIC, the EU, building world opinions, putting continuous pressure on India to desist from measures which will make Bangladesh uninhabitable.
What Should be done?
Bangladesh can solve this problem in three ways. Such as
Adaptation
o Bangladesh should increase her susceptibility and its ability to manage environmental threats. National awareness, national and international cooperation is essential to help the country and its people build the necessary capacity and resilience.
o There are a few methods that we can take to solve the situation like: collecting rain water. During the monsoon Bangladesh have plenty of water which goes waste and in dry season she lacks to survive.
o There is abundant water in the monsoon season, but the scarcity of water is in dry seasons. So if the abundant water can be used in productive sectors like: reservation, producing hydroelectricity and navigation routes, irrigation facilities within tri-partite arrangements, and all the countries of the region can be benefited. On Bangladesh’s claim to India of not getting proper flow of water in Padma for the Farakka barrage, India continuously deny the fact.
Bi-lateral negotiations
o Bangladesh to get in action, to make the Joint River Committee more active and get the proper data and if there occurs any problem there should be open or non-governmental governmental bi-lateral discussions and rapid actions.
Raise the issue in international arena.
o Bangladesh can also solve this years old dispute by taking the issue to the International Court of Justice.
Conclusion:
Bangladesh is a developing small nation with a huge population of over 150 million. This country, since her birth has been fighting so many challenges. People of this nation always fight back whenever there is an external, internal or natural threat. Scarcity of water is creating human life miserable. This country is still largely based on nature. Discussing various dimensions of water security it is possible to face the challenges and live in a sound environment. Considering all the consciousness, internal dimensions can be changed. It is the upper riparian countries who need to understand that de-stabilizing one country in the region would de-stabilize the whole region.
People would constantly try to find their way out which would turmoil the tranquil environment. India should understand the impacts of withdrawal of water from the trans-boundary Rivers. The water that flows within India is not only India’s water. Even India is facing the same consequences when the upper riparian country China also planned to withdraw water from her river, which would make the whole region unstable. Tibet has the world largest river systems. Its river waters are a lifeline to the world’s two most populous states China and India as well as to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Cambodia, Pakistan, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. These countries make up 47% of the global population. To reserve the bounteous water reserves that the Tibetan plateau holds, China implemented a plan that has dammed rivers not just to produce hydropower but also to channel water for irrigation and other purpose, and is currently toying with massive inter-basin and inter-river water transfer projects.
In terms of playing global politics it’s again the strength of unity that this region can have to face the world besides being a threat to each other. If the home, the region is not supportive no one nation can play a stronger part in the global politics. So to maintain the peace of the region it is very important that this small land country with huge population remains safe.
References
M.Rafiqul Islam,The Ganges Water Dispute,( University press limited, Dhaka, July1987).pp. 35-37.
Emajuddin Ahamed, Military Rule and the myth of Bangladesh.( University press limited, Dhaka.1988).p,55
Faruque Hasan, “Bangladesh drowning: A reality or a myth?”, The Daily Star, Dhaka, 11 January 2008. Available at http://www .thedailystar.com. Accessed on 28 December 2010
M.Abdul Hafiz and Abdur Rob khan,,Security of small states(,University press limited,Dhaka1987)p,33
Rehaman sobhan,public enterprise and the nature of state;The case of South Asia .(Center for social studies ,Dhaka1983)
Tareque Shamsul Haque “Bharotiyo Paani Agrashon, Antorjatic Ain O Bangladesh” Palal prokashini.Dhaka.2003)p,44-49
Lutfor Rahman,” Climate Change and Biodiversity loss: new challenges for scientists and policy makers”,The daily Star. November 30, 2007.Available at, http://www.thedailystar.com.Accessed on 1 January2011.
B.M. Abbas.A.T The Ganges water dispute,(University press limited ,Dhaka1997)pp.33-35
Abdus Sattar , “For survival of environmental refugees”, , the daily star.Dhaka. 30 November 2007 Available at, http://www.thedailystar.com. ,Accessed on 28 December2010
The Daily Star Magazine.Dhaka,volume-14 issue,646 , 13 February 2009
, Available at, http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine,Accessed on 1 January 2011
Interviews:
Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed, professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka,
Dr. Mohammad Didar-ul-Alam, professor, dept. of soil, water and environment, university of Dhaka.
Enclaves of Angarpota-Dahagram
University of Dhaka
Assignment on
Enclaves of Angarpota-Dahagram
A critical Analysis of governance mechanism
Course title: Development and governance
Course No: 305
Submitted to
Atiq Rhaman
Course Teacher
Dept. of international Relations
Submitted by
Md. Ariful Islam B.B.S (Hon`s) 3rd year 6th Semester
Roll.(62)
Dept. of International Relations
University of Dhaka
Acknowledgement
At first we want gratitude of my honorable course teacher Atiq Rahman .When we talk with you. we told you that we are very interested to visit APDH and then we want to make an assignment. He encouraged and inspired us at the same time he gave us some instructions which is very necessary for us.Special thanks go to Sydur Rahman who is a local businessman; he arranged our accommodation.
We also want to thank Upazilla Norah officer Md.Bulbul Ahamed .And the Chairman of the AGDH Md Sydur Rahman..Both two persons give me some valuable data which is very important to complete my assignment. I also grateful for the inhabitants because they give me valuable time in an interview with me Rasel, lizu(university of Dhaka.)
Thanks to press institute of Bangladesh (PIB) and Bangladesh institute international studies .I collected most of assignment related Secondary data from these institutions.
It should be noted here that it is impossible for us to complete our assignment without the Kind helping of our honorable course Teacher. He gave me some instruction like, how should I go ahead regarding my work. What should be focused? What should I go to get interview.
At last I place my humble acknowledgement to Almighty Allah for everything.
Enclaves of Angarpota-Dahagram
A critical Analysis of governance mechanism
Abstract:
Acknowledgement:
Introduction:
What is Enclaves?
Brief History of AGDH Enclaves:
Condition of AGDH inhabitants before 1992:
Human rights and the people’s constitution of BD:
Government Initiative towards AGDH after independence:
Present condition of AGDH Inhabitants
Communication Problem
Poverty Problem
Infrastructure Problem
What they want?
What should be done?
Conclusion
Reference
Abstract:
Bangladesh has failed to fulfill its constitutional Commitments Towards its people living in the enclaves of Angorpota Dhogram .In order to seeing What is actual situation in a Cristal clear ,Last month 12 November I visited AGDH enclaves through the TIN Bihar corridor with my friend .If we want to see our constitution Article 36, “subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by the in the public interest , every Citizens Shall have the right to move freely throughout the Bangladesh ,Reside and settle in any place therein and to leave and re-enter” , the Picture is totally different in this enclaves . Specifically, I focus on fieldwork in Angarpota-Dahagram (AGDH), two large Bangladeshi enclaves joined together as a Union Parishad within Upazila Patgram in the Lalmonirhat district of Banglades
After crossing the corridor, when I entered the AGDG enclaves I discovered that local Bangladeshis are faced Multidimensional problems. When I spoke to the local Bangladeshis they expressed their untold stories. They said the Bangladeshi nationals living the two enclaves do not have 24 hours access through the corridor, before 1992 the situation was more measurable At this moment corridor is opened is only 12 hours 6.30 AM to 6.30 pm out of 24 hours. New Dhili does not allow them beyond 12 hours through the corridor even if any medical emergency arise. (Recently because of initiative of Bangladesh government BSF allow the emergency patients but the process is opening the corridor is very time consuming as a result sometimes patients are died or recover.
.
It is very important to note here that although 1974 agreement was signed regarding the Tin Begha corridor between Bangladesh and India .But India opened this corridor on July 1992 only for 2 hours in a day. After 1994 India opened this corridor 6 hours in a day the process was that 1 hour opened and 1 hour closed. How was the cruel Behavior! At the moment Corridor is opened only 12 hours as I mention above.
As the Accords has it: "India will retain the southern half of South Berubari Union No.12 … in exchange Bangladesh will retain the Dahagram and Angarpota enclaves. India will lease in perpetuity to Bangladesh an area … to connect Dahagram with … Bangladesh."
In this paper I will try my best to find out the following question. How this Kinds of Enclaves came into being. What was the situation APDH inhabitant before 1992 and after? What Bangladesh constitution says and what kinds of initiative have been taken after independence. And why India opened this corridor 1992 although a treaty was signed in 1974.Have any politics involve here. Because of the government level lack of initiative what kinds of problem they were faced before 1992 and the present .If any lack of initiative of Bangladesh government, is it not the violation of our constitution, The APDG, what they want now. What are the government initiatives in the present? And finally I try to focus on some recommendation regarding the issues.
Introduction:
AGDH is a loosely knit network of nine villages. The majority of its residents live in thatched houses, while some of the more wealthy residents side in tin-roofed and sometimes even brick walled, homes. Covering approximately 4,600 acres, AGDH is largely fertile farmland. The majority of the residents make a living through small-scale agriculture, sharecropping, and forms of day labor. Primary crops AGDH include wheat, corn, rice, peanuts, tobacco, potatoes and various other vegetables. Physically, it both resembles many other enclaves and, indeed, villages in Lalmonirhat, one of the most impoverished districts in Bangladesh. However, AGDH is complex even within the scope of the already Byzantine history of The enclaves because of a long struggle over the opening of the Tin Bigha Corridor,  land bridge through Indian territory connecting AGDH to the Bangladeshi  mainland This Corridor, originally promised to Bangladesh by India in the 1974 Indira-Mujib Accords, was the focus of prolonged political debate by both countries, and the subject of fierce and Occasionally violent political action by residents of both AGDH and the surrounding Mekhliganj Thana in India. Since 1992 the Tin Bigha Corridor has been opened and maintained by Indies Border Security Force (BSF); and the BSF, the area, and its inhabitants are in turn monitored by Bangladeshi border security force, the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).While initially opened for only one hour a day, the Corridor currently
Open from 6 am to 6 pm(Indian time)
Geographical size of AGDG. Source: Authors Own Collection.
What Is An Enclave?
The world has several parts of countries that are detached from the mainland of that country. The general name for these areas is fragments. If a fragment is completely surrounded by one foreign country, it is called an enclave’s According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word „enclave‟ was first used in English in 1868.3 Oxford English Dictionary defines an enclave
As “a portion of territory entirely surrounded by foreign dominations”. In other words, an enclave is a geographical territory which is completely surrounded by foreign territory (including foreign territory.
Brief History of AGDH Enclaves:
The corridor has a long and complex background. For a proper appreciation, one needs to go back to the Radcliffe Award, the Berubari dispute and the legal developments that followed. The then East Pakistan was created by dividing the province of Bengal and by adding to the part separated from India some areas of Assam. This division took place on the basis of the report of the Bengal Boundary Commission, known as the Radcliffe Award. The terms of reference of the Boundary Commission were as follows:
" The Boundary Commission is instructed to demarcate the boundaries of the two parts of Bengal on the basis of ascertaining the contiguous areas of Muslims and non-Muslims. In doing so, it will take into account other factors."
"Other factors" were taken into account, because as the Radcliffe Award, inter alia, said "The province offers few, if any, satisfactory natural boundaries, and its development has been on lines that do not well accord with a division by contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims majorities", In the first few months after the Radcliffe Award, disputes of interpretation arose. These disputes were not resolved until the Indo-Pakistan Agreement of September 10, 1958, (the Nehru-Noon Agreement). Because these disputes, originally arising out of the anomalies in the Radcliffe Award, were not settled for such a long time, tension continued and new disputes arose.
The Berubari dispute was one such. Radcliffe divided the district of Jalpaiguri between India and Pakistan by awarding some thanas to one country and others to the other country. The boundary line was determined on the basis of the boundaries of the thanes. In describing this boundary, Radcliffe awarded Berubari Union No. 12 which lied within Jalpaiguri Thana to India. He also awarded another part of Berubari to the then Pakistan.
Within a year of Partition of Bengal (1947), the issue began to surface and posed potential political and communal tensions between India and Pakistan. To tackle the situation, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India, and Prime Minister Firoz Khan Noon of Pakistan entered upon an agreement in 1952 aiming to 'exchange the enclaves between the two countries'. But when a part of southern Beriberi (7.39 sq km), an East Bengal enclave adjacent to the Boda thana of Panchagarh district, was about to be handed over to East Bengal, opposition in India against the decision was so strong that it was decided 'to retain the piece of land by India, but in exchange for a stretch of an acre of land called 'Tin Bigha' to link Angarpota-Dahagram enclave under Patgram thana of the Nilphamari district with mainland East Bengal'. This decision was not imply in 1958, there was an official agreement to exchange all of the enclaves in the Nehru-Noon Accords, though deteriorating relations between East Pakistan and India and a series of court cases in India prevented this from being implemented. Another attempt to resolve the enclave issue was mounted in 1974 under the Indira-Mujib Accords. The accords make specific provisions to exchange all of the enclaves with the exception of AGDH and Berubari Union, a disputed area along the border with Jalpaiguri. As the Accords have it: "India will retain the southern half of South Berubari Union No.12 … in exchange Bangladesh will retain the Dahagram and Angarpota enclaves. India will lease in perpetuity to Bangladesh an area … to connect Dahagram with … Bangladesh." emented for more than two decades because of legal wrangles on the Indian side.
Source: Brendan R. Whyte, Waiting for the Esquimo, available at: http://eprints.infodiv.unimelb.edu.au/archive/00001443/01/whyte.pdf, accessed on 23 December 2010.
Government Initiative towards AGDH after independence:
Emergence of independent Bangladesh in 1971 created some optimism about resolution of issues relating to the enclaves and other outstanding boundary disputes. In the agreement signed on 16 May 1974 by Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh, it was decided to put into effect the demarcation of boundaries at selected stretches. Section 14 of the agreement was about handing over of the southern part of South Berubari to India in exchange of a passage in perpetuity linking Angarpota-Dahagram with Patgram in Bangladesh. The Berubari dispute was thus finally resolved by Article 1.14 of the Agreement which stated:
"India will retain the southern half of South Berubari Union No. 12 and the adjacent enclaves, measuring an area of 2.64 square miles approximately, and in exchange Bangladesh will retain the Dahagram and Angorpota enclaves. India will lease in perpetuity to Bangladesh an area of 178 metres x 85 metres near 'Tin Bigha' to connect Dahagram with Panbari Mouza (P.S. Patgram) of Bangladesh."In this regard Third Amendment was held: The Constitution (Third Amendment) Act 1974 was passed to give effect to the agreement with India giving up the claim in respect of Berubari and retaining Dahagram and Angorpota.
Picture: Author is standing beside the corridor.
Source: Authors Own Collection
The activities of the two committees did succeed in attracting attention to the issue in both countries. In India, the cause of the Anti-Movement Committee was championed by the Bharatiya Jananta Party (BJP), which fought bitterly against the opening of the corridor, locally and in the Look Sahba. On the Bangladesh side, in 1986, then president Ershad made the first of two visits to the enclave, becoming the first head of state to visit the chhitmahals. For many, this visit was a long-overdue acknowledgement of AGDH's belonging to Bangladesh. As a resident recalled: "After Ershad's arrival, we were quite speechless. It was as though we helpless folks got our father. We began weeping before him." Ershad's visit became a rallying cry for AGDH members, both encouraging them that the Bangladeshi central government was aware of their suffering and giving them hope that some resolution to the issue would be reached.
Ershad proposed a number of solutions to the AGDH problem, including constructing a flyover so that residents could cross the Tin Bigha corridor without ever touching Indian soil. However, it was not until 1992, under the BNP, that the corridor was finally opened amidst strong protest from the Anti-Movement Committee. "At last, we got it," said one resident. "Now the corridor is open for 12 hours a day. Even if it were for 1 hour a day, still we would be happy, because we have suffered a lot, which embittered our heart so much that I never wish to step in India. Now, by God's grace, every
Indian attitude towards Angarpota-Dahagram:
During the Pakistani period, under the 1952 agreement, India agreed to hand over 'Tin Bigha' to Pakistan in perpetuity to link Angarpota-Dahagram in exchange of the southern half of South Berubari Union No. 12 and the adjacent enclaves. Whereas, in 1974 agreement, India instead of handing over 'Tin Bigha' to Bangladesh in perpetuity, only agreed to grant a lease in perpetuity of Tin Bigha to Bangladesh despite the fact that Bangladesh agreed and handed over the sovereignty of half of South Berubari union No. 12 to India in perpetuity. The Bangladeshi draftsmen of the agreement completely ignored this due to which by handing over the sovereignty of South Berubari Union No. 12 to India, Bangladesh in exchange received nothing except a lease in perpetuity of the Tin Bigha from India.
Ignoring this issue of grave national importance, the Bangladesh government ratified the agreement forthwith and handed over the relevant part of South Berubari to India in 1974. But the handing over of the lease of Tin-Bigha corridor to Bangladesh was again delayed due to long constitutional and legal wrangling in India. This continued until 7 October 1982, when another agreement was signed. In the new agreement the exchange status in perpetuity in handing over Tin-Bigha was compromised with residual jurisdiction vested upon India, resulting in an unclear arrangement of limited access to the corridor by citizens of Bangladesh for movement between the mainland and the enclave.
However, India took another decade to implement the agreement with deteriorated terms. In India, the opposition to the 1974 and 1982 Agreements came from the people of Kuchlibari. Dhaprahat and Mekhliganj. Two organizations to spearhead the agitation, the Kuchlibari Sangram Committee and the Tin Bigha Sangram Committee were formed. In March 1983, the agitators filed three writ petitions challenging the 1982 Lease Agreement on various constitutional grounds in the Calcutta High Court. Among them, persons including the owner of a plot of land which would have to be acquired for being leased to Bangladesh. The court in delivering the judgment declared that, "…(e)Since Dahagram and Angorpota would remain as parts of the Bangladesh territory, the Agreements were necessary to enable Bangladesh to exercise its sovereignty in full over the said enclaves. (f) Inspite of the said Agreements India would retain its sovereignty, ownership and control over Tin Bigha…"
Not satisfied with the earlier judgment, the Kuchlibari Sangram Parishad filed an appeal on 12 April, 1984 before a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court. The Division Bench pronounced their judgment in the appeal case on 19 September 1986, which broadly upheld the earlier judgment of the Calcutta High Court. The Bench maintained that as a result of 1974 and 1982 agreements, it could not be said that India had surrendered its sovereignty over Tin Bigha as there was a clause in the 1982 Agreement that sovereignty over Tin Bigha would continue to vest in India.
On 18 December 1986, upon a Special Leave Petition filed by the government of India, the Supreme Court of India delivered its judgment in May 1990 certifying that, as stipulated in the 1982 Lease Agreement, sovereignty over the Tin Bigha corridor would continue to vest in India and that Bangladesh would merely have "undisturbed possession" and "use" for the express purpose of connecting Dahagram with Panbari Mouza of Bangladesh in order to exercise sovereignty over Dahagram and Angorpota and for no other purpose.
Subsequently, in November 1991, a case challenging the acquisition of land for the corridor filed in the Calcutta High Court under the West Bengal Land/Acquisition Act was dismissed by the Court. The Supreme Court of India concluded that the Agreements did not amount to the lease or surrender of sovereignty as understood in international law.
Once these hurdles were settled, the governments of two countries signed another protocol on 26 March 1992 relating to security, control, and use of the corridor for movement of people and vehicular traffic between the enclave and the mainland of Bangladesh. The control of the passage rested almost fully with Indian authorities.
Condition of APDG inhabitants before 1992: To understand the situation in AGDH, one must understand its history leading up to the opening of the corridor. AGDH is unique amongst the Indian and Bangladeshi chhitmahals. Its access to the Tista river, its size (approximately 4,000 acres), and the political struggle fought at both local and national levels over the opening of the corridor distinguish it from other areas. Yet many of the difficulties its residents have faced over the past 60 years are similar in kind to other enclaves'. Before the opening of the corridor, the lives of AGDH's residents were, to a large extent, governed by the tide of relations between India and East Pakistan and, later, Bangladesh.
When relations were good, residents were able to go to Mekhliganj, the surrounding Indian Thana, to sell crops and buy essentials. But even during these periods of relative calm, residents faced numerous kinds of exploitation. As one resident described it to me: "We had to go through the camp, where the BSF man would note our names, inspect the goods we were carrying, and suggest, 'Okay, you can go to market later, first come inside the camp and cut the grass, or clean the lavatory, or so on.' They used to force us to pay in labour for around one hour. Afterward , we were allowed to bring rice, or wheat, weighing at most 5 kg."
When relations between the two countries were less good, residents had to risk crossings at night to reach the village of Patgram to buy and sell goods. They were subject to periodic blockades where conditions inside AGDH often reached near famine states. Many residents shared experiences with me of having to survive by eating shrubs while staying trapped in the enclave for months on end. "We had to bury our dead in rags or banana leaves," many told me. Looting was a constant problem, as was cattle theft and even abduction of women. Many residents complained of communal tensions that frequently escalated into outright conflict amongst residents of AGDH, the BSF, or residents of Mekhliganj.
One of the most serious incidents took place in the months before the India-Pakistan war in 1965. One night in March, members of surrounding Indian areas burned the village to the ground. Many of the villagers remember the horror and confusion of that evening. One man described the event to me. "We noticed some hasty movement of villagers and noticed fire on the north side. Most of the men returned home, shutting their shops … We saw people north of the village crossing the road. Everybody was carrying bundles, gripping their children, and walking fast. The fire in the north was widening … My father rushed to the cow-shed and untied all of the cows, so that they could save their lives … My father took hold of the rice pot. We kids were walking alongside my mother. We reached Tin Bigha …Then the population of the enclave was around 12,000. Around 3000 stayed at their homes. These were non-Muslims (Hindus). The rest of the mass gathered there. When we arrived at the Tin Bigha, the BSF weren't allowing us to pass. I remember hearing a few gunshots. The BSF was firing to prevent people from crossing Indian territory, but we were desperate, and by 10 p.m. we passed Tin Bigha and reached the mainland."
Picture: Author himself discussed with some young boys Source: Authors Own Collection
The bulk of the refugees sheltered in makeshift camps in Patgram thana, staying there for three weeks while cross-border tension remained high. Eventually, residents were allowed back into the enclave and received nominal compensation from the Indian government, including a cow for each family and other household essentials. Many residents report that they were forced to eat the cow to survive during the ensuing months of hardship, while houses were rebuilt and crops re-sown.
Such experiences were certainly not unique to AGDH. Indeed, many residents of Indian also reported incidents of looting, land grabbing, cattle theft, burning, and blockades, particularly during the East Pakistan period. However, AGDH's size and politics have made it a particular focus of conflict and tension since the Indira-Mujib accords.
In the early 1980s, several young activists inside AGDH formed a Dahagram Movement Committee to advocate for the implementation of the '74 treaty. This group staged public awareness campaigns and activist events to call attention to their cause. As one former member described it: "We printed hand-bills informing people of the condition in Dahagram, asking for help. We stuck these hand-bills in railway compartments to inform the country. We used to meet with the DC and suggest ways to solve our problem." Among other things, the committee organised a long "funeral" march to the Tin Bigha. As another member recalled: "We performed janaja [funeral rights] prayer in Dhaka. Then we began the Long March. We said that we would go through the Tin Bigha, as it should have been Bangladeshi land according to the treaty … It was a huge procession, looking like it was just waiting to explode. We were stopped, however, by Bangladeshi authorities short of the border."
At roughly the same time, in Mekhliganj, an Anti-Tin Bigha Movement Committee was also formed, pursuing a parallel campaign to try and prevent the corridor from being opened. For the Anti-Tin Bigha activists, the issue was also one of complicated geography. Committee members argued that ceding the Tin Bigha to Bangladesh would cut off a large portion of Mekhliganj thana, effectively making it into an enclave itself.2 Activists from each group took constant risks, defying the authority of both border security forces and frequently ending up on either country's wanted lists.
Ershad proposed a number of solutions to the AGDH problem, including constructing a flyover so that residents could cross the Tin Bigha corridor without ever touching Indian soil. However, it was not until 1992, under the BNP, that the corridor was finally opened amidst strong protest from the Anti-Movement Committee. "At last, we got it," said one resident. "Now the corridor is open for 12 hours a day. Even if it were for 1 hour a day, still we would be happy, because we have suffered a lot, which embittered our heart so much that I never wish to step in India. Now, by God's grace, every .
People rights, Government duties and the people’s constitution of BD:
If we want to see our constitution of Bangladesh we can that there are different kinds rights and duties are ensure there. It matter of very regret that. lack of political will, these are only committed on paper. Our constitution ensure that---
Article 11. Democracy and human rights.
The Republic shall be a democracy in which fundamental human rights and freedoms and
Respect for the dignity and worth of the human person shall be guaranteed, and in which effective
Participation by the people through their elected representatives in administration at
All levels shall be ensured.
Article 14. Emancipation of peasants and workers.
It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the State to emancipate the toiling masses the
Peasants and workers and backward sections of the people from all forms and exploitation.
Article 16. Rural development and agricultural revolution.
The State shall adopt effective measures to bring about a radical transformation in the rural
areas through the promotion of a agricultural revolution, the provision of rural electrification,
the development of cottage and other industries, and the improvement of education,
Communications and public health, in those areas, so as progressively to remove the disparity
in the standards of living between the urban and the rules areas.
Article 18. Public health and morality.
(1) The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the improvement of public Health as moving its primary duties, and in particular shall adopt effective measures to prevent The consumption, except for medical purposes or for such other purposes as may bePrescribed by law, of alcoholic and other intoxicating drinks and drugs which are injurious To health.
Article 19. Equality of opportunity.
(1) The State shall endeavour to ensure equality of opportunity to all citizens.
Article 27. Equality before law.
All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.
Article 28. Discrimination on grounds of religion, etc.
(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race
Caste, sex or place of birth.
Article 36. Freedom of movement.
Subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the public interest, every citizen
Shall have the right to move freely throughout Bangladesh, to reside and settle in any place Therein and to leave and re-enter Bangladesh.
Present condition of APDH Inhabitants:
The opening of the corridor was undoubtedly a positive step for AGDH members. The existence of the corridor means that residents can access markets, services, and resources in Patgram every day, which has provided a stable basis for agricultural trade and growth. As importantly, the corridor facilitates access to services inside of AGDH, including micro-credit and government aid initiatives. Further, the BDR has established camps in both the north and south of AGDH. Residents can bring border issues to the BDR, who can mediate with the BSF through Flag-meetings, often allowing for peaceful resolutions to tense situations.
In addition to this overall improvement of security and well-being for residents, the creation of the corridor has wrought a number of social changes as well. The most dramatic of these is an influx of new people. Following the opening of the corridor, the majority of Hindu residents in the enclave moved to India, creating a surfeit of cheap land. A number of people living on chars and erosion prone areas along the banks of the Jamuna purchased this land. These new residents, who the locals call Bhatiyas, now compose roughly 50 percent of the population. This has radically redrawn the political landscape of AGDH where, now, elections tend to be fought not along party lines, but between "original" inhabitants and the newcomers.
Beyond these changes, the corridor has served to formalize the border. While many residents used to conduct business in Mekhliganj haats, less than one km from the northern end of AGDH, now they report that going to India is no longer possible. All business is conducted in Patgram. This proves a significant difficulty for some residents, particularly those who live in Angarpota, situated in the north of the enclave. These residents are forced to travel 12 km south to the Tin Bigha, before reversing direction and traveling another 12 km north-east to Patgram.
Further, the fact that the corridor is under sovereign control of the BSF means that residents themselves do not control what goes into, and out of, the enclave. Last September, the BSF implemented a "cattle ceiling" to combat what they claimed was illegal smuggling of cattle to the slaughter markets in Patgram byway of AGDH. This ceiling limits the number of cattle that can be taken to market on any given haat day to 10, a ludicrously small number for an impoverished village of 16,000. Many AGDH residents posses no significant assets other than their cattle, and the ceiling, which is monitored and governed by the local UP Council, makes raising money for everything from land purchases to medical emergencies next to impossible.
The most pressing issues facing residents access to Bangladeshi mainland during evening hours. For most medical procedures, residents must make the journey to Patgram. Thisis particularly problematic in medical emergencies that take place during the night when the corridor is closed.
A BDR officer in charge of handling frequent local negotiations with the BSF, highlighted this issue. "Yesterday morning, just after the morning prayer [before dawn], my sentry knocked at my door to inform me that there was a critical patient with a baby who needed to go to Patgram. I ordered two jawans to take her up to Tin Bigha and make a request to the BSF. They allowed her to pass. These sorts of necessities frequently occur and we have to play our part. The problem happens during the night. If it is 9 p.m. or more, the BSF has many formalities … and these processes swallow one hour or more of time, which is critical for a patient or someone in medical emergency or labor pain. They dilly-dally and sometimes they just don't allow. They don't categorically deny passage because they may be condemned for violating international law. But they pretend to talk to other authorities, and after some time come out suggesting: "Our company commander isn't available now, so we can't allow you."
Now let us see that what sorts of problem enclave dwellers are facing:
Restricted Movements:
As we mentioned earlier that the enclave dwellers can move to and from the mainland in between a particular period of time, which is actually a barrier to their free movements. This barrier gives birth of numerous problems
During our visit, we also came to know that if anybody becomes sick and needs to be admitted in the Hospital in Patgram after dusk, they have to report in the Bangladesh Riffles (BDR) camp of Dahagram first. And then BDR authority contacts with Border Security Force (BSF) to open the gate of the corridor. But if BSF wishes they open the gate and if do not, the patient has to struggle for his life till dusk.
Zero Medical Facilities:
Dahagram Government Hospital‟ which was formally started in 1995 is the only hospital in the Dahagram-Angorpota Enclaves. This ten-bed hospital was built at the cost of 12 crore taka and started its journey with three doctors and later it became four.31 But, the fact is that, at present the inhabitants are not getting any kind of medical assistance from the hospital.
.
Picture: 10 bed hospital.
Source: Authors Own Collection
Trade Barriers:
For selling paddy or buying commodities, one has to walk to the corridor to Patgram. Transport is almost unlikely. BSF does not allow passing more than ten cows through the corridor from the whole enclaves to Patgram in the „Hat Bars. Lack of better transportation, it is very tough for the dwellers to carry their goods.
Educational Problems:
Through conversations with the local teachers and students, we came to know that the number of primary schools and high school are inadequate compared to the number of the students and their conditions are also vulnerable.
Picture: High school of AGDH
Source: Authors Own Collection
The numbers of teachers are also very much inadequate. In fact, there is no college. Once the government provided scholarship to the poor and meritorious students which are stopped now. All these reasons are declining interests of the students towards education.
Unnecessary Harassments:
Dahagram-Angorpota enclaves are separated from Indian land by only some scattered boundary pillars. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to identify that which are enclaves‟ land and which are India”s. That is why; often the dwellers enter into Indian lands unconsciously. But BSF does not allow such mistakes and sometime they fire from their observation posts if any dweller enters into Indian land by mistake.
Sometime it becomes easy for the smugglers to enter into Dahagram-Angorpota and halt there to save themselves from the security forces because of lack of adequate BDR camps & observation towers inside the enclaves. And it is reported that, sometimes to capture those criminals, BSF behave like a crucial animal. They fire from their borders and sometimes they enter into the enclaves which are totally illegal. Similarly, these Criminals can enter into the mainland of Bangladesh through the corridor which can be vulnerability for Bangladesh
.
■ River Bank Erosion:
River bank erosion is a common problem of our country and Dahagram-Angorpota enclaves are not exceptions regarding this case. It is informed by the local farmers of the enclaves that, because of the erosion, about 40% of their cultivable lands have gone under the bed of Tista River. Only about 1 km of river bank of Dahagram-Angorpota enclaves adjacent to the river Tista is protected by CC blocks which are inadequate. While visiting Taste River inside the enclaves, we saw that India has already captured a large portion of land areas which has risen out of the bed of Tista on their side.
On the other hand, large area of lands is rising out of the bed of Tista on India‟s side. Since, in the river the border is not properly demarked, India can naturally acquire the whole of the enclaves if this erosion continues. Until now, no such effective initiatives have been taken by either Bangladesh or India to demark the boundary of the enclaves throughout Tista River.
■ Economic Miseries:
Most of the enclaves‟ people are very much poor. There is lack of scope for working inside the enclaves. On the other hand, for the restrictions on the
Movement through the corridor, they do not work outside the enclaves properly. In fact, they usually do not receive adequate relief from the government in the times of emergency. Moreover, during the period of „Monga‟ they suffer from severe economic hurdle movement through the corridor, they do not work outside the enclaves properly. In fact, they usually do not receive adequate relief from the government in the times of emergency. Moreover, during the period of „Monga‟ they suffer from severe economic hurdle Monga is seasonal food insecurity in ecologically vulnerable and economically weak parts of north-western Bangladesh, primarily caused by an employment and income deficit before ‘aman’ is harvested.
Picture 12: Day Laborers at Dahagram Source: Authors‟ Own collection
What they want?
• Corridor must be opened in 24 hours.
• Although bed hospitals is situated here but it not operated well because of lack of specialist Doctors and others facilities and it should be open 24 hours both indoor and outdoor services.
• BSF does not allow passing more than ten cows through the corridor from the whole enclaves to Pat gram in the „Hat Bars. it must be increased in number.
• River bank erosion is a common problem of our country and Dahagram-Angorpota enclaves are not exceptions regarding this case. So inhabitants demand that, government should take necessary steps .regarding the issue.
• One High school has there, but it should be nationalized. At least one Collage must be stablished.Primary school should be number in 10.
• Electricity system should be expanding.
• Government should create special coda for the inhabitants because of improving their life style.
• Mobile tower should be built.
• At least one bank branch must be established.
• BGB camps should be increased.
• Social safety services should be increased such as V.G.F, V.G.D
What should be done?
From the above discussion it may be clear that what kinds of problems are faced AGDH inhabitants .In This Case, they are in a position where Bangladesh government can do something at the same time Indian government has the responsibility to ----------. These problems should be solved in two ways 1. The bi-lateral level of India and Bangladesh 2. And another in their domestic level.
Whenever we analyze india .Bangladesh relations,it is very clear to us. India has failed to test the friendship of Bangladesh.Because ,although a treaty was signed in 1974 regarding the issues of a AGDH,but it took long time to open the Corridor. Now Bangladesh government try to negotiated with India that India must open this corridor 24 hours according to the 1974 treaty
Bangladesh government should priority to improve the infrastructural situation of AGDH. And which I mentioned above. .On the other hand Bangladesh government is not very much interested to improved socio- economic and political situation.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion we see that the socio-economic conditions of the inhabitants of the Dahagram-Angorpota enclaves are helpless. Their fundamental rights are being violated in every part of their lives. The politics is going on between India and Bangladesh but these innocent peoples are suffering. Dahagram-Angorpota is a part of Bangladesh. So the inhabitants of these enclaves should enjoy the same self-determination as exist elsewhere in Bangladesh. They should not feel themselves as isolated, unsecured, imprisoned or deprived.
Assignment on
Enclaves of Angarpota-Dahagram
A critical Analysis of governance mechanism
Course title: Development and governance
Course No: 305
Submitted to
Atiq Rhaman
Course Teacher
Dept. of international Relations
Submitted by
Md. Ariful Islam B.B.S (Hon`s) 3rd year 6th Semester
Roll.(62)
Dept. of International Relations
University of Dhaka
Acknowledgement
At first we want gratitude of my honorable course teacher Atiq Rahman .When we talk with you. we told you that we are very interested to visit APDH and then we want to make an assignment. He encouraged and inspired us at the same time he gave us some instructions which is very necessary for us.Special thanks go to Sydur Rahman who is a local businessman; he arranged our accommodation.
We also want to thank Upazilla Norah officer Md.Bulbul Ahamed .And the Chairman of the AGDH Md Sydur Rahman..Both two persons give me some valuable data which is very important to complete my assignment. I also grateful for the inhabitants because they give me valuable time in an interview with me Rasel, lizu(university of Dhaka.)
Thanks to press institute of Bangladesh (PIB) and Bangladesh institute international studies .I collected most of assignment related Secondary data from these institutions.
It should be noted here that it is impossible for us to complete our assignment without the Kind helping of our honorable course Teacher. He gave me some instruction like, how should I go ahead regarding my work. What should be focused? What should I go to get interview.
At last I place my humble acknowledgement to Almighty Allah for everything.
Enclaves of Angarpota-Dahagram
A critical Analysis of governance mechanism
Abstract:
Acknowledgement:
Introduction:
What is Enclaves?
Brief History of AGDH Enclaves:
Condition of AGDH inhabitants before 1992:
Human rights and the people’s constitution of BD:
Government Initiative towards AGDH after independence:
Present condition of AGDH Inhabitants
Communication Problem
Poverty Problem
Infrastructure Problem
What they want?
What should be done?
Conclusion
Reference
Abstract:
Bangladesh has failed to fulfill its constitutional Commitments Towards its people living in the enclaves of Angorpota Dhogram .In order to seeing What is actual situation in a Cristal clear ,Last month 12 November I visited AGDH enclaves through the TIN Bihar corridor with my friend .If we want to see our constitution Article 36, “subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by the in the public interest , every Citizens Shall have the right to move freely throughout the Bangladesh ,Reside and settle in any place therein and to leave and re-enter” , the Picture is totally different in this enclaves . Specifically, I focus on fieldwork in Angarpota-Dahagram (AGDH), two large Bangladeshi enclaves joined together as a Union Parishad within Upazila Patgram in the Lalmonirhat district of Banglades
After crossing the corridor, when I entered the AGDG enclaves I discovered that local Bangladeshis are faced Multidimensional problems. When I spoke to the local Bangladeshis they expressed their untold stories. They said the Bangladeshi nationals living the two enclaves do not have 24 hours access through the corridor, before 1992 the situation was more measurable At this moment corridor is opened is only 12 hours 6.30 AM to 6.30 pm out of 24 hours. New Dhili does not allow them beyond 12 hours through the corridor even if any medical emergency arise. (Recently because of initiative of Bangladesh government BSF allow the emergency patients but the process is opening the corridor is very time consuming as a result sometimes patients are died or recover.
.
It is very important to note here that although 1974 agreement was signed regarding the Tin Begha corridor between Bangladesh and India .But India opened this corridor on July 1992 only for 2 hours in a day. After 1994 India opened this corridor 6 hours in a day the process was that 1 hour opened and 1 hour closed. How was the cruel Behavior! At the moment Corridor is opened only 12 hours as I mention above.
As the Accords has it: "India will retain the southern half of South Berubari Union No.12 … in exchange Bangladesh will retain the Dahagram and Angarpota enclaves. India will lease in perpetuity to Bangladesh an area … to connect Dahagram with … Bangladesh."
In this paper I will try my best to find out the following question. How this Kinds of Enclaves came into being. What was the situation APDH inhabitant before 1992 and after? What Bangladesh constitution says and what kinds of initiative have been taken after independence. And why India opened this corridor 1992 although a treaty was signed in 1974.Have any politics involve here. Because of the government level lack of initiative what kinds of problem they were faced before 1992 and the present .If any lack of initiative of Bangladesh government, is it not the violation of our constitution, The APDG, what they want now. What are the government initiatives in the present? And finally I try to focus on some recommendation regarding the issues.
Introduction:
AGDH is a loosely knit network of nine villages. The majority of its residents live in thatched houses, while some of the more wealthy residents side in tin-roofed and sometimes even brick walled, homes. Covering approximately 4,600 acres, AGDH is largely fertile farmland. The majority of the residents make a living through small-scale agriculture, sharecropping, and forms of day labor. Primary crops AGDH include wheat, corn, rice, peanuts, tobacco, potatoes and various other vegetables. Physically, it both resembles many other enclaves and, indeed, villages in Lalmonirhat, one of the most impoverished districts in Bangladesh. However, AGDH is complex even within the scope of the already Byzantine history of The enclaves because of a long struggle over the opening of the Tin Bigha Corridor,  land bridge through Indian territory connecting AGDH to the Bangladeshi  mainland This Corridor, originally promised to Bangladesh by India in the 1974 Indira-Mujib Accords, was the focus of prolonged political debate by both countries, and the subject of fierce and Occasionally violent political action by residents of both AGDH and the surrounding Mekhliganj Thana in India. Since 1992 the Tin Bigha Corridor has been opened and maintained by Indies Border Security Force (BSF); and the BSF, the area, and its inhabitants are in turn monitored by Bangladeshi border security force, the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).While initially opened for only one hour a day, the Corridor currently
Open from 6 am to 6 pm(Indian time)
Geographical size of AGDG. Source: Authors Own Collection.
What Is An Enclave?
The world has several parts of countries that are detached from the mainland of that country. The general name for these areas is fragments. If a fragment is completely surrounded by one foreign country, it is called an enclave’s According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word „enclave‟ was first used in English in 1868.3 Oxford English Dictionary defines an enclave
As “a portion of territory entirely surrounded by foreign dominations”. In other words, an enclave is a geographical territory which is completely surrounded by foreign territory (including foreign territory.
Brief History of AGDH Enclaves:
The corridor has a long and complex background. For a proper appreciation, one needs to go back to the Radcliffe Award, the Berubari dispute and the legal developments that followed. The then East Pakistan was created by dividing the province of Bengal and by adding to the part separated from India some areas of Assam. This division took place on the basis of the report of the Bengal Boundary Commission, known as the Radcliffe Award. The terms of reference of the Boundary Commission were as follows:
" The Boundary Commission is instructed to demarcate the boundaries of the two parts of Bengal on the basis of ascertaining the contiguous areas of Muslims and non-Muslims. In doing so, it will take into account other factors."
"Other factors" were taken into account, because as the Radcliffe Award, inter alia, said "The province offers few, if any, satisfactory natural boundaries, and its development has been on lines that do not well accord with a division by contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims majorities", In the first few months after the Radcliffe Award, disputes of interpretation arose. These disputes were not resolved until the Indo-Pakistan Agreement of September 10, 1958, (the Nehru-Noon Agreement). Because these disputes, originally arising out of the anomalies in the Radcliffe Award, were not settled for such a long time, tension continued and new disputes arose.
The Berubari dispute was one such. Radcliffe divided the district of Jalpaiguri between India and Pakistan by awarding some thanas to one country and others to the other country. The boundary line was determined on the basis of the boundaries of the thanes. In describing this boundary, Radcliffe awarded Berubari Union No. 12 which lied within Jalpaiguri Thana to India. He also awarded another part of Berubari to the then Pakistan.
Within a year of Partition of Bengal (1947), the issue began to surface and posed potential political and communal tensions between India and Pakistan. To tackle the situation, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India, and Prime Minister Firoz Khan Noon of Pakistan entered upon an agreement in 1952 aiming to 'exchange the enclaves between the two countries'. But when a part of southern Beriberi (7.39 sq km), an East Bengal enclave adjacent to the Boda thana of Panchagarh district, was about to be handed over to East Bengal, opposition in India against the decision was so strong that it was decided 'to retain the piece of land by India, but in exchange for a stretch of an acre of land called 'Tin Bigha' to link Angarpota-Dahagram enclave under Patgram thana of the Nilphamari district with mainland East Bengal'. This decision was not imply in 1958, there was an official agreement to exchange all of the enclaves in the Nehru-Noon Accords, though deteriorating relations between East Pakistan and India and a series of court cases in India prevented this from being implemented. Another attempt to resolve the enclave issue was mounted in 1974 under the Indira-Mujib Accords. The accords make specific provisions to exchange all of the enclaves with the exception of AGDH and Berubari Union, a disputed area along the border with Jalpaiguri. As the Accords have it: "India will retain the southern half of South Berubari Union No.12 … in exchange Bangladesh will retain the Dahagram and Angarpota enclaves. India will lease in perpetuity to Bangladesh an area … to connect Dahagram with … Bangladesh." emented for more than two decades because of legal wrangles on the Indian side.
Source: Brendan R. Whyte, Waiting for the Esquimo, available at: http://eprints.infodiv.unimelb.edu.au/archive/00001443/01/whyte.pdf, accessed on 23 December 2010.
Government Initiative towards AGDH after independence:
Emergence of independent Bangladesh in 1971 created some optimism about resolution of issues relating to the enclaves and other outstanding boundary disputes. In the agreement signed on 16 May 1974 by Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh, it was decided to put into effect the demarcation of boundaries at selected stretches. Section 14 of the agreement was about handing over of the southern part of South Berubari to India in exchange of a passage in perpetuity linking Angarpota-Dahagram with Patgram in Bangladesh. The Berubari dispute was thus finally resolved by Article 1.14 of the Agreement which stated:
"India will retain the southern half of South Berubari Union No. 12 and the adjacent enclaves, measuring an area of 2.64 square miles approximately, and in exchange Bangladesh will retain the Dahagram and Angorpota enclaves. India will lease in perpetuity to Bangladesh an area of 178 metres x 85 metres near 'Tin Bigha' to connect Dahagram with Panbari Mouza (P.S. Patgram) of Bangladesh."In this regard Third Amendment was held: The Constitution (Third Amendment) Act 1974 was passed to give effect to the agreement with India giving up the claim in respect of Berubari and retaining Dahagram and Angorpota.
Picture: Author is standing beside the corridor.
Source: Authors Own Collection
The activities of the two committees did succeed in attracting attention to the issue in both countries. In India, the cause of the Anti-Movement Committee was championed by the Bharatiya Jananta Party (BJP), which fought bitterly against the opening of the corridor, locally and in the Look Sahba. On the Bangladesh side, in 1986, then president Ershad made the first of two visits to the enclave, becoming the first head of state to visit the chhitmahals. For many, this visit was a long-overdue acknowledgement of AGDH's belonging to Bangladesh. As a resident recalled: "After Ershad's arrival, we were quite speechless. It was as though we helpless folks got our father. We began weeping before him." Ershad's visit became a rallying cry for AGDH members, both encouraging them that the Bangladeshi central government was aware of their suffering and giving them hope that some resolution to the issue would be reached.
Ershad proposed a number of solutions to the AGDH problem, including constructing a flyover so that residents could cross the Tin Bigha corridor without ever touching Indian soil. However, it was not until 1992, under the BNP, that the corridor was finally opened amidst strong protest from the Anti-Movement Committee. "At last, we got it," said one resident. "Now the corridor is open for 12 hours a day. Even if it were for 1 hour a day, still we would be happy, because we have suffered a lot, which embittered our heart so much that I never wish to step in India. Now, by God's grace, every
Indian attitude towards Angarpota-Dahagram:
During the Pakistani period, under the 1952 agreement, India agreed to hand over 'Tin Bigha' to Pakistan in perpetuity to link Angarpota-Dahagram in exchange of the southern half of South Berubari Union No. 12 and the adjacent enclaves. Whereas, in 1974 agreement, India instead of handing over 'Tin Bigha' to Bangladesh in perpetuity, only agreed to grant a lease in perpetuity of Tin Bigha to Bangladesh despite the fact that Bangladesh agreed and handed over the sovereignty of half of South Berubari union No. 12 to India in perpetuity. The Bangladeshi draftsmen of the agreement completely ignored this due to which by handing over the sovereignty of South Berubari Union No. 12 to India, Bangladesh in exchange received nothing except a lease in perpetuity of the Tin Bigha from India.
Ignoring this issue of grave national importance, the Bangladesh government ratified the agreement forthwith and handed over the relevant part of South Berubari to India in 1974. But the handing over of the lease of Tin-Bigha corridor to Bangladesh was again delayed due to long constitutional and legal wrangling in India. This continued until 7 October 1982, when another agreement was signed. In the new agreement the exchange status in perpetuity in handing over Tin-Bigha was compromised with residual jurisdiction vested upon India, resulting in an unclear arrangement of limited access to the corridor by citizens of Bangladesh for movement between the mainland and the enclave.
However, India took another decade to implement the agreement with deteriorated terms. In India, the opposition to the 1974 and 1982 Agreements came from the people of Kuchlibari. Dhaprahat and Mekhliganj. Two organizations to spearhead the agitation, the Kuchlibari Sangram Committee and the Tin Bigha Sangram Committee were formed. In March 1983, the agitators filed three writ petitions challenging the 1982 Lease Agreement on various constitutional grounds in the Calcutta High Court. Among them, persons including the owner of a plot of land which would have to be acquired for being leased to Bangladesh. The court in delivering the judgment declared that, "…(e)Since Dahagram and Angorpota would remain as parts of the Bangladesh territory, the Agreements were necessary to enable Bangladesh to exercise its sovereignty in full over the said enclaves. (f) Inspite of the said Agreements India would retain its sovereignty, ownership and control over Tin Bigha…"
Not satisfied with the earlier judgment, the Kuchlibari Sangram Parishad filed an appeal on 12 April, 1984 before a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court. The Division Bench pronounced their judgment in the appeal case on 19 September 1986, which broadly upheld the earlier judgment of the Calcutta High Court. The Bench maintained that as a result of 1974 and 1982 agreements, it could not be said that India had surrendered its sovereignty over Tin Bigha as there was a clause in the 1982 Agreement that sovereignty over Tin Bigha would continue to vest in India.
On 18 December 1986, upon a Special Leave Petition filed by the government of India, the Supreme Court of India delivered its judgment in May 1990 certifying that, as stipulated in the 1982 Lease Agreement, sovereignty over the Tin Bigha corridor would continue to vest in India and that Bangladesh would merely have "undisturbed possession" and "use" for the express purpose of connecting Dahagram with Panbari Mouza of Bangladesh in order to exercise sovereignty over Dahagram and Angorpota and for no other purpose.
Subsequently, in November 1991, a case challenging the acquisition of land for the corridor filed in the Calcutta High Court under the West Bengal Land/Acquisition Act was dismissed by the Court. The Supreme Court of India concluded that the Agreements did not amount to the lease or surrender of sovereignty as understood in international law.
Once these hurdles were settled, the governments of two countries signed another protocol on 26 March 1992 relating to security, control, and use of the corridor for movement of people and vehicular traffic between the enclave and the mainland of Bangladesh. The control of the passage rested almost fully with Indian authorities.
Condition of APDG inhabitants before 1992: To understand the situation in AGDH, one must understand its history leading up to the opening of the corridor. AGDH is unique amongst the Indian and Bangladeshi chhitmahals. Its access to the Tista river, its size (approximately 4,000 acres), and the political struggle fought at both local and national levels over the opening of the corridor distinguish it from other areas. Yet many of the difficulties its residents have faced over the past 60 years are similar in kind to other enclaves'. Before the opening of the corridor, the lives of AGDH's residents were, to a large extent, governed by the tide of relations between India and East Pakistan and, later, Bangladesh.
When relations were good, residents were able to go to Mekhliganj, the surrounding Indian Thana, to sell crops and buy essentials. But even during these periods of relative calm, residents faced numerous kinds of exploitation. As one resident described it to me: "We had to go through the camp, where the BSF man would note our names, inspect the goods we were carrying, and suggest, 'Okay, you can go to market later, first come inside the camp and cut the grass, or clean the lavatory, or so on.' They used to force us to pay in labour for around one hour. Afterward , we were allowed to bring rice, or wheat, weighing at most 5 kg."
When relations between the two countries were less good, residents had to risk crossings at night to reach the village of Patgram to buy and sell goods. They were subject to periodic blockades where conditions inside AGDH often reached near famine states. Many residents shared experiences with me of having to survive by eating shrubs while staying trapped in the enclave for months on end. "We had to bury our dead in rags or banana leaves," many told me. Looting was a constant problem, as was cattle theft and even abduction of women. Many residents complained of communal tensions that frequently escalated into outright conflict amongst residents of AGDH, the BSF, or residents of Mekhliganj.
One of the most serious incidents took place in the months before the India-Pakistan war in 1965. One night in March, members of surrounding Indian areas burned the village to the ground. Many of the villagers remember the horror and confusion of that evening. One man described the event to me. "We noticed some hasty movement of villagers and noticed fire on the north side. Most of the men returned home, shutting their shops … We saw people north of the village crossing the road. Everybody was carrying bundles, gripping their children, and walking fast. The fire in the north was widening … My father rushed to the cow-shed and untied all of the cows, so that they could save their lives … My father took hold of the rice pot. We kids were walking alongside my mother. We reached Tin Bigha …Then the population of the enclave was around 12,000. Around 3000 stayed at their homes. These were non-Muslims (Hindus). The rest of the mass gathered there. When we arrived at the Tin Bigha, the BSF weren't allowing us to pass. I remember hearing a few gunshots. The BSF was firing to prevent people from crossing Indian territory, but we were desperate, and by 10 p.m. we passed Tin Bigha and reached the mainland."
Picture: Author himself discussed with some young boys Source: Authors Own Collection
The bulk of the refugees sheltered in makeshift camps in Patgram thana, staying there for three weeks while cross-border tension remained high. Eventually, residents were allowed back into the enclave and received nominal compensation from the Indian government, including a cow for each family and other household essentials. Many residents report that they were forced to eat the cow to survive during the ensuing months of hardship, while houses were rebuilt and crops re-sown.
Such experiences were certainly not unique to AGDH. Indeed, many residents of Indian also reported incidents of looting, land grabbing, cattle theft, burning, and blockades, particularly during the East Pakistan period. However, AGDH's size and politics have made it a particular focus of conflict and tension since the Indira-Mujib accords.
In the early 1980s, several young activists inside AGDH formed a Dahagram Movement Committee to advocate for the implementation of the '74 treaty. This group staged public awareness campaigns and activist events to call attention to their cause. As one former member described it: "We printed hand-bills informing people of the condition in Dahagram, asking for help. We stuck these hand-bills in railway compartments to inform the country. We used to meet with the DC and suggest ways to solve our problem." Among other things, the committee organised a long "funeral" march to the Tin Bigha. As another member recalled: "We performed janaja [funeral rights] prayer in Dhaka. Then we began the Long March. We said that we would go through the Tin Bigha, as it should have been Bangladeshi land according to the treaty … It was a huge procession, looking like it was just waiting to explode. We were stopped, however, by Bangladeshi authorities short of the border."
At roughly the same time, in Mekhliganj, an Anti-Tin Bigha Movement Committee was also formed, pursuing a parallel campaign to try and prevent the corridor from being opened. For the Anti-Tin Bigha activists, the issue was also one of complicated geography. Committee members argued that ceding the Tin Bigha to Bangladesh would cut off a large portion of Mekhliganj thana, effectively making it into an enclave itself.2 Activists from each group took constant risks, defying the authority of both border security forces and frequently ending up on either country's wanted lists.
Ershad proposed a number of solutions to the AGDH problem, including constructing a flyover so that residents could cross the Tin Bigha corridor without ever touching Indian soil. However, it was not until 1992, under the BNP, that the corridor was finally opened amidst strong protest from the Anti-Movement Committee. "At last, we got it," said one resident. "Now the corridor is open for 12 hours a day. Even if it were for 1 hour a day, still we would be happy, because we have suffered a lot, which embittered our heart so much that I never wish to step in India. Now, by God's grace, every .
People rights, Government duties and the people’s constitution of BD:
If we want to see our constitution of Bangladesh we can that there are different kinds rights and duties are ensure there. It matter of very regret that. lack of political will, these are only committed on paper. Our constitution ensure that---
Article 11. Democracy and human rights.
The Republic shall be a democracy in which fundamental human rights and freedoms and
Respect for the dignity and worth of the human person shall be guaranteed, and in which effective
Participation by the people through their elected representatives in administration at
All levels shall be ensured.
Article 14. Emancipation of peasants and workers.
It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the State to emancipate the toiling masses the
Peasants and workers and backward sections of the people from all forms and exploitation.
Article 16. Rural development and agricultural revolution.
The State shall adopt effective measures to bring about a radical transformation in the rural
areas through the promotion of a agricultural revolution, the provision of rural electrification,
the development of cottage and other industries, and the improvement of education,
Communications and public health, in those areas, so as progressively to remove the disparity
in the standards of living between the urban and the rules areas.
Article 18. Public health and morality.
(1) The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the improvement of public Health as moving its primary duties, and in particular shall adopt effective measures to prevent The consumption, except for medical purposes or for such other purposes as may bePrescribed by law, of alcoholic and other intoxicating drinks and drugs which are injurious To health.
Article 19. Equality of opportunity.
(1) The State shall endeavour to ensure equality of opportunity to all citizens.
Article 27. Equality before law.
All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.
Article 28. Discrimination on grounds of religion, etc.
(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race
Caste, sex or place of birth.
Article 36. Freedom of movement.
Subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the public interest, every citizen
Shall have the right to move freely throughout Bangladesh, to reside and settle in any place Therein and to leave and re-enter Bangladesh.
Present condition of APDH Inhabitants:
The opening of the corridor was undoubtedly a positive step for AGDH members. The existence of the corridor means that residents can access markets, services, and resources in Patgram every day, which has provided a stable basis for agricultural trade and growth. As importantly, the corridor facilitates access to services inside of AGDH, including micro-credit and government aid initiatives. Further, the BDR has established camps in both the north and south of AGDH. Residents can bring border issues to the BDR, who can mediate with the BSF through Flag-meetings, often allowing for peaceful resolutions to tense situations.
In addition to this overall improvement of security and well-being for residents, the creation of the corridor has wrought a number of social changes as well. The most dramatic of these is an influx of new people. Following the opening of the corridor, the majority of Hindu residents in the enclave moved to India, creating a surfeit of cheap land. A number of people living on chars and erosion prone areas along the banks of the Jamuna purchased this land. These new residents, who the locals call Bhatiyas, now compose roughly 50 percent of the population. This has radically redrawn the political landscape of AGDH where, now, elections tend to be fought not along party lines, but between "original" inhabitants and the newcomers.
Beyond these changes, the corridor has served to formalize the border. While many residents used to conduct business in Mekhliganj haats, less than one km from the northern end of AGDH, now they report that going to India is no longer possible. All business is conducted in Patgram. This proves a significant difficulty for some residents, particularly those who live in Angarpota, situated in the north of the enclave. These residents are forced to travel 12 km south to the Tin Bigha, before reversing direction and traveling another 12 km north-east to Patgram.
Further, the fact that the corridor is under sovereign control of the BSF means that residents themselves do not control what goes into, and out of, the enclave. Last September, the BSF implemented a "cattle ceiling" to combat what they claimed was illegal smuggling of cattle to the slaughter markets in Patgram byway of AGDH. This ceiling limits the number of cattle that can be taken to market on any given haat day to 10, a ludicrously small number for an impoverished village of 16,000. Many AGDH residents posses no significant assets other than their cattle, and the ceiling, which is monitored and governed by the local UP Council, makes raising money for everything from land purchases to medical emergencies next to impossible.
The most pressing issues facing residents access to Bangladeshi mainland during evening hours. For most medical procedures, residents must make the journey to Patgram. Thisis particularly problematic in medical emergencies that take place during the night when the corridor is closed.
A BDR officer in charge of handling frequent local negotiations with the BSF, highlighted this issue. "Yesterday morning, just after the morning prayer [before dawn], my sentry knocked at my door to inform me that there was a critical patient with a baby who needed to go to Patgram. I ordered two jawans to take her up to Tin Bigha and make a request to the BSF. They allowed her to pass. These sorts of necessities frequently occur and we have to play our part. The problem happens during the night. If it is 9 p.m. or more, the BSF has many formalities … and these processes swallow one hour or more of time, which is critical for a patient or someone in medical emergency or labor pain. They dilly-dally and sometimes they just don't allow. They don't categorically deny passage because they may be condemned for violating international law. But they pretend to talk to other authorities, and after some time come out suggesting: "Our company commander isn't available now, so we can't allow you."
Now let us see that what sorts of problem enclave dwellers are facing:
Restricted Movements:
As we mentioned earlier that the enclave dwellers can move to and from the mainland in between a particular period of time, which is actually a barrier to their free movements. This barrier gives birth of numerous problems
During our visit, we also came to know that if anybody becomes sick and needs to be admitted in the Hospital in Patgram after dusk, they have to report in the Bangladesh Riffles (BDR) camp of Dahagram first. And then BDR authority contacts with Border Security Force (BSF) to open the gate of the corridor. But if BSF wishes they open the gate and if do not, the patient has to struggle for his life till dusk.
Zero Medical Facilities:
Dahagram Government Hospital‟ which was formally started in 1995 is the only hospital in the Dahagram-Angorpota Enclaves. This ten-bed hospital was built at the cost of 12 crore taka and started its journey with three doctors and later it became four.31 But, the fact is that, at present the inhabitants are not getting any kind of medical assistance from the hospital.
.
Picture: 10 bed hospital.
Source: Authors Own Collection
Trade Barriers:
For selling paddy or buying commodities, one has to walk to the corridor to Patgram. Transport is almost unlikely. BSF does not allow passing more than ten cows through the corridor from the whole enclaves to Patgram in the „Hat Bars. Lack of better transportation, it is very tough for the dwellers to carry their goods.
Educational Problems:
Through conversations with the local teachers and students, we came to know that the number of primary schools and high school are inadequate compared to the number of the students and their conditions are also vulnerable.
Picture: High school of AGDH
Source: Authors Own Collection
The numbers of teachers are also very much inadequate. In fact, there is no college. Once the government provided scholarship to the poor and meritorious students which are stopped now. All these reasons are declining interests of the students towards education.
Unnecessary Harassments:
Dahagram-Angorpota enclaves are separated from Indian land by only some scattered boundary pillars. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to identify that which are enclaves‟ land and which are India”s. That is why; often the dwellers enter into Indian lands unconsciously. But BSF does not allow such mistakes and sometime they fire from their observation posts if any dweller enters into Indian land by mistake.
Sometime it becomes easy for the smugglers to enter into Dahagram-Angorpota and halt there to save themselves from the security forces because of lack of adequate BDR camps & observation towers inside the enclaves. And it is reported that, sometimes to capture those criminals, BSF behave like a crucial animal. They fire from their borders and sometimes they enter into the enclaves which are totally illegal. Similarly, these Criminals can enter into the mainland of Bangladesh through the corridor which can be vulnerability for Bangladesh
.
■ River Bank Erosion:
River bank erosion is a common problem of our country and Dahagram-Angorpota enclaves are not exceptions regarding this case. It is informed by the local farmers of the enclaves that, because of the erosion, about 40% of their cultivable lands have gone under the bed of Tista River. Only about 1 km of river bank of Dahagram-Angorpota enclaves adjacent to the river Tista is protected by CC blocks which are inadequate. While visiting Taste River inside the enclaves, we saw that India has already captured a large portion of land areas which has risen out of the bed of Tista on their side.
On the other hand, large area of lands is rising out of the bed of Tista on India‟s side. Since, in the river the border is not properly demarked, India can naturally acquire the whole of the enclaves if this erosion continues. Until now, no such effective initiatives have been taken by either Bangladesh or India to demark the boundary of the enclaves throughout Tista River.
■ Economic Miseries:
Most of the enclaves‟ people are very much poor. There is lack of scope for working inside the enclaves. On the other hand, for the restrictions on the
Movement through the corridor, they do not work outside the enclaves properly. In fact, they usually do not receive adequate relief from the government in the times of emergency. Moreover, during the period of „Monga‟ they suffer from severe economic hurdle movement through the corridor, they do not work outside the enclaves properly. In fact, they usually do not receive adequate relief from the government in the times of emergency. Moreover, during the period of „Monga‟ they suffer from severe economic hurdle Monga is seasonal food insecurity in ecologically vulnerable and economically weak parts of north-western Bangladesh, primarily caused by an employment and income deficit before ‘aman’ is harvested.
Picture 12: Day Laborers at Dahagram Source: Authors‟ Own collection
What they want?
• Corridor must be opened in 24 hours.
• Although bed hospitals is situated here but it not operated well because of lack of specialist Doctors and others facilities and it should be open 24 hours both indoor and outdoor services.
• BSF does not allow passing more than ten cows through the corridor from the whole enclaves to Pat gram in the „Hat Bars. it must be increased in number.
• River bank erosion is a common problem of our country and Dahagram-Angorpota enclaves are not exceptions regarding this case. So inhabitants demand that, government should take necessary steps .regarding the issue.
• One High school has there, but it should be nationalized. At least one Collage must be stablished.Primary school should be number in 10.
• Electricity system should be expanding.
• Government should create special coda for the inhabitants because of improving their life style.
• Mobile tower should be built.
• At least one bank branch must be established.
• BGB camps should be increased.
• Social safety services should be increased such as V.G.F, V.G.D
What should be done?
From the above discussion it may be clear that what kinds of problems are faced AGDH inhabitants .In This Case, they are in a position where Bangladesh government can do something at the same time Indian government has the responsibility to ----------. These problems should be solved in two ways 1. The bi-lateral level of India and Bangladesh 2. And another in their domestic level.
Whenever we analyze india .Bangladesh relations,it is very clear to us. India has failed to test the friendship of Bangladesh.Because ,although a treaty was signed in 1974 regarding the issues of a AGDH,but it took long time to open the Corridor. Now Bangladesh government try to negotiated with India that India must open this corridor 24 hours according to the 1974 treaty
Bangladesh government should priority to improve the infrastructural situation of AGDH. And which I mentioned above. .On the other hand Bangladesh government is not very much interested to improved socio- economic and political situation.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion we see that the socio-economic conditions of the inhabitants of the Dahagram-Angorpota enclaves are helpless. Their fundamental rights are being violated in every part of their lives. The politics is going on between India and Bangladesh but these innocent peoples are suffering. Dahagram-Angorpota is a part of Bangladesh. So the inhabitants of these enclaves should enjoy the same self-determination as exist elsewhere in Bangladesh. They should not feel themselves as isolated, unsecured, imprisoned or deprived.
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