* By abeer hoque Kalpona Akhter* is a former child garment worker, labour rights activist, and leader of*BCWS* <http://www.manusher.org/BCWS_7_2.html> who was arrested on August 13, 2010. She is now on remand and in the hands of interrogators for triple the number of days as cases against her. According to earlier reports, she is named in 6 cases, so that means she could be held for 18 days. *Babul Akter*, another BCWS leader also arrested has been named in 8 cases.
I met Kalpona four years ago in Dhaka and was instantly bowled over by her positive, charming, and ebullient manner. Self taught, intensely passionate about her work, and always ready to laugh, Kalpona is an amazing woman and one I'm proud to call a friend. *Clean Clothes Campaign* has a great video of Kalpona talking about her work as a child garment worker and a labour rights activist: http://vimeo.com/12425670 There is one leading garment factory which appears to be responsible, *Nassa Global Wear*, whose company owners are retired military officers who may have used their political influence to have BCWS's NGO registration revoked (they knew about it 4 days before BCWS did). Nassa Global Wear produces for Walmart, Tesco, JC Penney, H&M, Sears, and Boy Scouts of America. See http://www.sweatfree.org/bcwsalert-7-2010#factory for more information. Write *Walmart, Sears, JC Penney, H&M*: http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4058/action/bcws810 Write to the *Bangladesh government*: http://action.laborrights.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=372 *Please forward this note onwards, post it on your wall, send letters, call, talk about it*. And if you have any updates, corrections, suggestions, links, notes, news, anything - post a comment or email Here are links to articles written about the current garment workers and activists crisis: 1. *Sweatfree.org* (BCWS is a part of Sweatfree Communities and has been supported by them in myriad ways including raising funds after the arrests and continually publicising new developments): http://www.sweatfree.org/bcwsalert-7-2010 2. *New York Times* (August 17, 2010): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/business/global/17labor.html?partner=rss&emc=rss 3. *Human Rights Watch* (August 10, 2010): http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/08/10/bangladesh-stop-harassment-and-intimidation-apparel-worker-leaders 4. *Clean Clothes Campaign* (August 10, 2010): http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/bangladesh-labour-leaders-fearing-for-physical-safety 6. *Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights* (*BIHR*) (August 12, 2010): http://bihr-bihr.blogspot.com/ 6. *Daily Star* (August 11, 2010): http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=25276 7. *News From Bangladesh* (Daily News Monitoring Service) (August 12, 2010): http://bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidRecord=330677 8. *Wake up Walmart* (August 11, 2010): http://letters.wakeupwalmart.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2266 9. *Industrial Workers of the World* (August 15, 2010): http://www.iww.org.au/node/1263 * More about *BCWS at the International Labor Rights Forum*: http://www.laborrights.org/creating-a-sweatfree-world/sweatshops/partner-spotlight-bangladesh-center-for-workers-solidarity -- Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal +919820749204 skype-lawyercumactivist "After a war, the silencing of arms is not enough. Peace means respecting all rights. You can’t respect one of them and violate the others. When a society doesn’t respect the rights of its citizens, it undermines peace and leads it back to war.” -- Maria Julia Hernandez www.otherindia.org www.binayaksen.net www.phm-india.org www.phmovement.org www.ifhhro.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
