Round Table on: Mob Violence

Sunday, 04 August 2019

Venue: Centre for Genocide Studies (CGS), University of Dhaka, Dhaka,
Bangladesh

Concept Note
Mob violence is not a new phenomenon in Bangladesh. The rising tide of mob violence in recent
years is emblematic of how the populace consider it as an alternative to customary law and
justice. Very recently, the country has witnessed a disturbing spate of mob violence incidents,
sparking concerns from civil society to rights activists regarding the lawlessness in the country.
Therefore, it is also necessary to understand the factors triggering Bangladesh’s epidemic of mob
violence. Institutions which emphasize on the collections of these data on violence faces new
challenges and obstacles stemming from processes of globalization, technical innovation, and
social transformation, regarding the solutions to the violence against the people who are at the
most risk in our society. Mapping of these changes and curbing the menace of mob violence is a
crucial determinant of peace and security in Bangladesh. The Centre for Genocide Studies
(CGS), University of Dhaka highly encourages every strings to bring altogether to work on the
ideas to make a better path of the solution on violence. Since the beginning at 2017, the
Bangladesh Peace Observatory (BPO) is a research facility housed at the Centre for Genocide
Studies at the University of Dhaka, which seeks to harness the power of Open Data to advance
knowledge and understanding of peace and development in the country. The BPO is a virtual
platform equipped with mapping and data analytics technology that informs users on the state of
violence – political, ethnic, communal, criminal, gender-based, as well as extremist – and other
forms of discord in terms of time, space and themes. It brings together different streams of
publicly available data, analyses and visualizes them in a useful and interactive way for decision
makers, civil society and media to understand, consume, and debate. It also seeks to support a
wide range of actors in making better public policy decisions, tailored interventions and
programming, enhanced research, and effective advocacy campaigning for social cohesion and
peace development based on evidence and data. This roundtable seeks to bring together a group
of scholars, experts, intellectuals, and practitioners from different organizations and institutions
of Bangladesh concerned with the mob violence taking place in the society. Creative and
experiential ways of addressing the theme methodologies through discussion, active
participation, and engaged dialogue among all participants and across all organizations are
welcome to participate in the roundtable.

BPO please visit on: http://peaceobservatory-cgs.org