Child marriage is a strong social custom, particularly for girls in Bangladesh. There are many reasons for child marriage. But most vital reasons among them are poverty, superstition, lack of social security and lack of awareness. According to UNICEF report, "the State of the World"s Children, 2009", "Early marriage is pervasive in Bangladesh, with 64 percent of girls married before age 18. Early pregnancy often results from child marriage; one-third of girls aged 15 to 19 in Bangladesh are currently either mothers or pregnant." Although child marriage is prohibited legally, but occurrences of child marriage are still happening in rural areas of Bangladesh. According to the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 the minimum legal age for marriage is 18 years for females in Bangladesh. Along with this Act child marriage is punishable by law. The right to free and full consent to a marriage is recognized in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and in many subsequent human rights instrumentsconsent that cannot be "free and full" when at least one partner is very immature. Bangladesh also acceded to the UN Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages on 5 October, 1998. These laws, however, have little impact on the frequency of child marriage in Bangladesh. Laws should be enforced to discourage child marriage; however, legal actors alone are insufficient. Social awareness programmes may also be effective in deterring child marriage. To prevent child marriage, a wide range of individuals and organizations need to create awareness among people, particularly the poor. Especially, parents and government can play main role in reducing child marriage. An environment should be ensured where children get proper care and facility to grow up completely and properly. This paper attempts to present the socio-economic and physical consequences of girl child marriage and its legal protection with awareness level of parents in rural Bangladesh.

The elderly rights have tended to become an issue throughout the world. Old age is the closing period of life span. During this period of age, most people cannot do anything by their own efforts. They need materialistic and nonmaterialistic support from others. For this, reason age is considered as a social problem. Equally, they are neglected and abused from family and society. Protecting the rights of elderly people is a newly introduced phenomenon in Bangladesh. The developed countries have paid more attention on social support system and welfare based legal framework. In Bangladesh, the elderly problem is usually ignored as there is no comprehensive legal framework with relation to respecting, promoting and protecting the rights of older people. The first law has been enacted in 2013 (the Maintenance of Parents Act) to ensure the parents' maintenance by their children. Nevertheless, there is no separate welfare policy existing for the elderly in the country yet. It is a challenge to deliver the essential health care service, social security facilities through national laws. The purpose of the study is to overview the existing legal framework of elderly rights and to discuss the major challenges of older people under the existing social security programme in Bangladesh.

Dower and dowry have become two common terms of Muslim marriage in Bangladesh. Dower is an exclusive right of Muslim wife to receive a part of the husband's income at any time after marriage. Though it enhances the status and security of the Muslim, there is a situation where a wife does not receive dower from husband due to various socio-legal reasons. Moreover, there is a situation where a woman loses her legal rights of dower while she is entitled under both the Shariah and statutory laws. Then, there is an occurrence where a woman and her family become the victims of dowry practice by the husband even though it is un-Islamic. Nevertheless, there are some challenges to recover the dower but a dowry victim does not receive justice from laws and tradition. The article analyses the challenges of woman's right for dower practice under the Shariah and Statutory laws and the impact of the traditional practice of dowry offer some suggestions for improving the family justice in Bangladesh.

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Abstract:From the very beginning of civilization, children are made the subject matter of many social and clinical researches. Due to the vulnerabilities of physical frailty and mental immaturity, children's interests and rights need to be protected from the risks associated with any kind of research. Recently, there has been increased global concern towards the involvement of children in research for the protection of their rights by the ethical research practice. It emphasizes upon the ongoing nature of ethical considerations that ethical issues need to be considered throughout the research process and even the post research ethical issues are equally significant. The study explores some of the major ethical issues that arise in research involving children during and after the research in terms of the best interests of the children.