Forced eviction in Bangladesh: a human rights issue

The objective of this paper is to explore the situation of forced eviction from homes in Bangladesh and its implications in undermining poverty eradication. We argue that it should be considered as a human rights violation. Little is available in literature on forced eviction and this paper focuses on Bangladesh to illustrate a global problem. The main research question was how forced eviction from homes is related to poverty and violation of human rights. To answer this, the paper focuses on the nature and causes of forced eviction and its impacts on the livelihoods of the evictees. We conclude that forced eviction arises from poverty but is also a cause of poverty and human rights violations. We believe that while the study focuses on Bangladesh, the implications are international in scope. We outline a number of social work interventions which could address forced eviction and struggle for respect of human rights. Our findings are relevant to policy makers, human rights practitioners, government and non-government organizations (GOs-NGOs), and social workers.