Image credit : UN News/Daniel Johnson
By Emdadul Haque, 23 August 2022
Declining trend of human rights is a global concern and Bangladesh is not an exception. Successive governments irrespective of political affiliations, can be blamed for poor human rights records in 50 years of Bangladesh. Concerns for human rights violations in Bangladesh have crossed national boundary. The recent visit of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) chief Michelle Bachelet is a glaring testimony.
A report of Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), from 2009 to June 2022, has revealed that at least 2658 people are victims of extrajudicial killing and 619 are of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. According to a national human rights body named Odhikar, between January 2001 to September 2021, 3,135 people are killed extrajudicially either in crossfire or gunfight. Most human rights abuses are targeted at opposition party activists, members of civil society organisations (CSOs), journalists, social media professionals and other human rights campaigners.
In maximum cases, accusations are pointed against the law enforcing agencies and ruling party influential leaders. In a recent newspaper interview of Dhaka University Professor Mizanur Rahman and former head of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) from 2006 to 2016, the truth of such accusations is reflected. Professor Mizanur exposed 90 percent complaints filed with the NHRC during his tenure were against Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the police personnel and other law enforcing bodies.
Observing the long standing human rights violation records, the United State treasury department has imposed sanction on the elite force RAB and seven of its past and present high ranked officers on 10 December 2021. The embargo is working like a magic to halt the human rights abuses in the country as the incidents of enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killing and other forms of torture have gone down significantly.
The official visit of the UNHRC chief Michelle Bachelet during 14 to 17 August is considered a very significant event and wake-up call for the government to be mindful on human rights promotion and protection. The visit of such high caliber human rights boss is for the first time in the 50 years history of Bangladesh independence. Her visit sparked hope and solace among the living victims, relatives of victims and human rights defenders. But for the government there was anguish sensing its future implications.
In a press briefing after the end of official visit, Michelle expressed concern for violative human rights records of Bangladesh and urged the government to form an independent and credible international standard commission to enquiry into the reported incidents of enforced disappearance, extrajudicial deaths and other forms of human rights violations.
To bring the perpetrators to accountability and to ensure justice for the victims under national and international legal mechanisms, she emphatically advised the government and assured the cooperation of the United Nations. She also called for revamps of anti-discriminatory laws including the Digital Security Act 2018 and training of law enforcement agencies on human rights issues.
Michelle also uttered that she cannot resolve any problem instantly with magical touch but she would raise the issues before the UN meeting together with her report. She also reminded the government on the upcoming visits of some UN special rapporteurs to the country to observe human rights. Before the visit of Michelle, nine international human rights bodies including Human Rights Watch urged her to raise serious concerns and condemn Bangladesh’s trajectory of human rights violations under state patronization.
After series of meeting with stakeholders on overall human rights issues, Michelle also urged the government for national dialogue with political parties before the national election in 2023. Michelle’s message is akin to opposition voices, socio-political activists, journalists, representatives of CSOs and others human rights defenders. She also visited Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar and assured repatriation of the Rohingyas to Myanmar.
However, prime minister and other ministers after meeting with Michelle, denied the allegations of human rights abuses rather they slammed the US sanction and anti-government role of some human rights watch-dogs. Denying enforced disappearances, home minister raised counter allegations of sabotage against some of them and pointed the rest are absconding to escape law suits, family dispute and loss in business. Prime minister categorically urged Michelle for the repatriation of 1.4 million Rohingyas to Myanmar referring them a threat to regional stability.
In fact, the commitment of the successive governments as to protection of human rights has ended in dashed hope. The establishment of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in 2009 is a positive step but in reality, the NHRC is inactive. It is also under the control of the government regarding appointment of chairman with other high ups and also for legal loopholes with budgetary issues.
Moreover, corruption and money laundering have plunged the economy into a ditch. Ongoing trends of development at the costs of democracy, good governance and rule of law may have awful lot in future. Amartya Sen argues that democracy enhances development and protects human rights. It seems government prefers antithesis.
Article 25 of Bangladesh constitution 1972 endorses global peace, security and solidarity. The preamble, part II and part III of the constitution are the epitome of human rights engulfing three core elements namely freedom, equality and justice. The country is a state party to eight out of core nine international human rights instruments. It is away from the only convention relating to enforced disappearance.
So, it cannot deny its obligation to protect human rights for all citizens. The history of the country is aligned with the British and Pakistani oppression and struggle for independence in 1971 through a sea of blood. But the world cannot deny the contribution of Bangladesh in the global peace keeping mission in various conflict-ridden countries with the largest number of troops while its huge migrant workers have been serving in most countries.
No doubt, Bangladesh is developing economically. But effective, accountable, participatory and inclusive institutions in consonance with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) 16 are urgent to indulge human rights for all citizens. The public avowal of the successive governments for human rights protection and appalling reality are in opposite direction. Lack of democratic practice accelerates human rights crisis. Such democratic crisis is now prevailing in around 80 countries including Bangladesh. Arguably, the fascism after two disputed elections in 2014 and 2018 is a serious impediment for the democratic growth with a holistic approach of human rights.
The upcoming challenges for the promotion and protection of human rights are massive but there are prospects to sensitize people through awareness measures by the state and non-state actors. Effective measures to control human rights abuses and bringing law enforcing agencies to justice are the demand of time. Human rights literacy is on the rise but its application is in shambles requiring overhaul.
Though the UN has a strong mechanism for human rights protection, it cannot bind any country other than suggestions for improvement of human rights governance. As Bangladesh accepted 178 recommendations from the universal periodic review (UPR) under the UN in 2018, the country is under obligation for progressive implementation of them. The country should bear in in mind that it will have to submit a report to the UN in 2023 as a part of UPR and to face questions from UN member-states.
So, tangible initiatives are to be adopted and implemented by the government to promote and protect human rights bringing perpetrators to justice in consonance with national and international human rights laws shunning the culture of state-sponsored impunity and indemnity to escape potential sanction from international community.
Emdadul Haque is Independent Human Rights Researcher and Freelance Contributor based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is a DTP Alumnus of UNSW, Australia and can be reached via email: ehaqlaw@gmail.com and on Twitter: @emdadlaw