Bangladesh: Supports UN investigation into grave abuses

(Geneva) – Bangladesh’s interim government should seek a resolution at the upcoming session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish an independent mechanism to investigate and prosecute recent grave abuses in Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch said in -a letter to the Chief Counsel. Muhammad Yunus and other interim government officials who were released today. The Council should also ensure continued monitoring of the human rights situation in Bangladesh by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and establish regular reports to the Council. The 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council begins on 9 September 2024.

The interim government should also work with the OHCHR and relevant UN experts to establish an independent national inquiry into enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings during the 15-year administration of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Human said Rights Watch. This internal mechanism should operate with the support and oversight of the UN to ensure its independence and adherence to international human rights standards.

“Following the resignation of Sheikh Hasina amid mass protests, Bangladesh’s interim government has a heavy responsibility to reckon with the past to steer the country towards a rights-respecting future,” said Lucy McKernan, UN Geneva Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch. “The government should support a Human Rights Council-backed investigation into recent abuses, while seeking UN support for an independent internal inquiry into the former government’s 15 years of rights abuses.”

The interim government should urgently implement measures to ensure civilian oversight of security forces, disband the notorious Rapid Action Battalion, reform institutions in line with international human rights standards, and overhaul abusive laws.

The crackdown on protests that led to Sheikh Hasina’s departure was the deadliest in Bangladesh’s recent history. At least 440 people were killed and thousands injured between July 15 and August 5, with most of the deaths and injuries attributed to excessive force by law enforcement and violence by student and youth groups affiliated with the Awami League, Sheikh’s political party Hasina. An additional 250 people are estimated to have died after August 5, mostly in violent reprisals against Sheikh Hasina’s supporters.

Since taking office, the interim government has replaced officials who allegedly engaged in political partisanship. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has resigned after protests calling for his resignation. Law enforcement collapsed after the fall of Hasina’s government, leaving Hindus and other minority communities at risk of violence, but the interim government said most police stations were now functioning. However, activists fear that the authorities are replicating the previous government’s abuses by arbitrarily arresting Awami League officials and supporters, including journalists, and denying due process and adequate access to legal counsel.

The Yunus administration publicly called for calm, acted to quell the violence, and pledged to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the unnecessary and excessive use of force to crush the protests. The interim government also quickly released political prisoners detained during the protests, dropped charges against activists, pledged to sign the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced disappearanceand pledged to investigate the more than 700 cases of enforced disappearances committed under Sheikh Hasina’s leadership.

To effectively fulfill its commitments to justice and accountability amid a highly divisive political environment, the interim government should call on the Human Rights Council to establish an independent mechanism with a comprehensive mandate to investigate, collect, store and analyze evidence and cooperate with credible institutions. and national and international judicial bodies independent of accountability for the violence of July and August and its root causes. An investigation mandated by the Human Rights Council would have the greatest independence and credibility for Bangladeshis, who distrust domestic institutions, and could avoid political interference that could undermine purely domestic measures.

The council resolution should also mandate the OHCHR to monitor the human rights situation in Bangladesh during the transition period until there are free and fair elections and report regularly.

The recent protests reflect frustration that Bangladesh’s economic progress has been unevenly shared. Social protection should be reformed to guarantee an adequate level of protection for all and to ensure that no one is excluded from public benefits because of their inability to pay bribes or because they lack social or political connections.

The interim government must reform institutions, the security sector, and its justice and legal system, all of which were deeply eroded under the previous government and previous administrations, to bring about lasting changes in human rights, Human Right Watch said. The interim government should welcome the technical assistance of the OHCHR to ensure the full independence of legal and judicial bodies.

In addition to disbanding the Rapid Action Battalion, the interim government should implement robust human rights training protocols in all security forces and eliminate laws that allow impunity for security force abuse, Human Rights Watch said.

“Without deep institutional reform and UN support to ensure independence and transparency, hard-won progress in Bangladesh could easily be lost,” McKernan said. “The UN and Member States should demonstrate their support for all Bangladeshis by supporting fact-finding and accountability measures and by investing in rights-based institutional and security sector reform.”