Human Rights Watch calls on Bangladesh interim government to establish council and investigate abuses

The NGO said the Council should ensure continued monitoring of Bangladesh's human rights situation by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and regular reporting to the Council. The 57th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council begins on September 9.

The interim government should work with OHCHR and relevant UN experts to establish independent domestic investigations into enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings during the 15-year administration of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Human Rights Watch said.

The letter said this domestic mechanism should operate under the support and monitoring of the United Nations to ensure its independence and compliance with international human rights standards.

“Following Sheikh Hasina’s resignation amid massive protests, Bangladesh’s interim government bears a heavy responsibility to account for the past and lead the country toward a rights-respecting future,” said Lucy McKernan, deputy UN Geneva director at Human Rights Watch.

“The government should support a Human Rights Council-backed investigation into recent abuses, while also seeking UN support for an independent domestic investigation into the previous government's 15 years of human rights violations,” the letter said.

According to the letter, the interim government should immediately implement measures to introduce civilian oversight over security forces, disband the notorious Rapid Action Battalions, reform institutions in line with international human rights standards, and amend abusive laws.

The crackdown on protests sparked by 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 caused by excessive use of force by law enforcement agencies and violence perpetrated by student and youth groups affiliated with Sheikh Hasina’s political party, the Awami League. An estimated 250 additional people were killed after August 5, the letter said, most of them in violent reprisals against Sheikh Hasina’s supporters.

Since taking office, the interim government has removed officials allegedly involved in political bias. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court resigned from his post after the protests. The letter said law enforcement has collapsed after the fall of the Hasina government, leaving Hindus and other minority communities at risk of violence, but the interim government has said most police stations are now functioning.

However, according to the letter, activists fear that authorities are repeating the abuses of the previous government, arbitrarily arresting Awami League officials and supporters, including journalists, and denying them due process and proper access to legal advice.

The Yunus administration has publicly appealed for calm, taken action to prevent violence, and committed to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the use of unnecessary and excessive force to suppress protests. The interim government also immediately released political prisoners detained during the protests, dropped charges against activists, committed to sign the International Convention to Protect All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and pledged to investigate more than 700 cases of enforced disappearances committed during Sheikh Hasina’s rule.

To effectively fulfill its commitments to justice and accountability amid a highly divisive political environment, the interim government should urge the Human Rights Council to establish an independent mechanism with a broad mandate to investigate, collect, store, and analyze evidence, and collaborate with credible and independent national and international judicial bodies to establish accountability for the July and August violence and its root causes.

An investigation mandated by the Human Rights Council would provide the greatest independence and credibility to Bangladeshis, as they do not trust domestic institutions, and would avoid political interference that could undermine purely domestic measures.

According to the letter, the Council resolution should also mandate OHCHR to regularly monitor and report on the human rights situation during the transition period until free and fair elections are held in Bangladesh.

The letter says recent protests reflect frustration that Bangladesh's economic progress has been unequally distributed. Social protection must be improved to guarantee an adequate level of protection for all, and ensure that no one is denied public benefits due to an inability to pay bribes or a lack of social or political connections.

The interim government needs to reform institutions, the security sector, and the justice and legal systems, all of which have been deeply eroded under the previous government and preceding administrations, to bring about lasting, human rights change, Human Rights Watch said. The interim government should welcome OHCHR’s technical assistance to ensure the full independence of legal and judicial bodies.

In addition to disbanding the Rapid Action Battalions, the interim government should implement stronger human rights training protocols in all security forces and repeal laws that provide impunity for security force abuses, Human Rights Watch said.

“Without deep institutional reform to ensure independence and transparency, and the support of the United Nations, hard-won progress in Bangladesh could easily be lost,” McKernan said.

“The UN and Member States should show their support for all Bangladeshis by supporting fact-finding and accountability measures, and investing in rights-based institutional and security sector reform,” he said.