Introduction

The right to expression of views, including dissent, through public demonstrations and social mobilization is a democratic right enshrined in international law and practiced throughout the world -- from demonstrating against multilateral trade regimes, to rallying for the protection of the environment, to protesting against illegitimate regimes. The voicing of differing views and political debate over policies is a healthy feature of any modern democracy. As the Human Development Report 2002 notes:

Changes in the world have shifted human development priorities and made political freedom, participation and collective action much more important as public policy issues.... Open space for free political debate and the diverse ways in which people can express their views are the essence democratic life and are what make decision making work in democracies

In this context, the right to call ‘a hartal’ -- a particular form of protest used in Bangladesh and in other parts of South Asia -- could be viewed is a legitimate democratic right. However, when this right impinges on the rights of individuals to earn a living and to go about their daily lives in peace and security, a situation of ‘conflict of competing rights’ arises. Hartals are often called in ‘the name of the people’, but it is ordinary people whose movements are restricted, property endangered, and progress curbed. Children miss school, the sick miss treatment, and business miss targets. In addition, the reality in Bangladesh is that the success of hartals often rests on coercion, or even the use of payment to ‘hired hands’ by hartal organisers to mobilise support.

At the same time, hartals can also be viewed a ‘symptom’ of the frustration of opposition parties at the lack of space for them to play a constructive role in democratic dialogue and the ‘winner takes all’ style of successive