Bangladesh Police implements UNFPA’s “Standard Operating Procedures”

New guidelines namely “Standard Operating Procedures” or SOP have been introduced to Bangladesh Police to teach them how to deal with women victims when they seek their help.

The UN population agency or UNFPA helped frame the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) or guidelines on how to behave and deal with women victims of sexual assault and other forms of violence.

The guidelines were launched at the police headquarters in Dhaka on Nov 7, and are expected to reach every police station as well as outposts and NGOs across Bangladesh within a month, according to a Muhammed Ayub, an Additional Superintendent of Police (SP) closely linked with the UNFPA-supported project. SOP is necessary to ensure that the Bangladesh police could adopt a survivor-centred human-rights-based approach to combating Gender-Based-Violence or GBV.

A recent report by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and UNFPA indicated that more than 70 percent of currently married women experience some form of violence, but the number of cases actually reported stands at only 2.6 percent of those suffering from violence. A culture of impunity and silence prevents survivors of gender-based violence from coming forward and seeking legal help.
Source: http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2016/12/07/bangladesh-police-get-new-guidelines-on-handling-women-victims