UN must hold Bangladesh accountable for gross violations of human rights: Amnesty

UN member states must demand accountability from Bangladesh for gross violations of human rights in upcoming UPR, said Amnesty International on Saturday. 

It said UN Member states must use the UN's upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Bangladesh to hold the authorities to account for the gross human rights violations and rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in the country ahead of its general elections.

"Bangladesh's fourth UPR is taking place at a time when human rights and critical institutions, opposition leaders, independent media houses and civil society are facing systematic attacks ahead of national elections. This assessment presents an important opportunity for UN Member States to scrutinize Bangladesh's human rights records and to hold the authorities accountable for violations of their international human rights obligations and commitments," said Livia Saccardi, Amnesty International's deputy regional director for campaigns for South Asia.

The UN Human Rights Council's UPR offers an opportunity to review the human rights record of all UN Member States once every four years.

Amnesty International's submission of information for Bangladesh's UPR evaluates the implementation of recommendations made to Bangladesh in its previous UPR and raises concerns about the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and other human rights issues such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, minority rights, death penalty, and rights of refugees.

In the last UPR in May 2018, the government accepted recommendations to safeguard the right to freedom of expression; however, in the past five years it has persistently undermined the right including through perfunctory reform and weaponisation of various laws. The new Cyber Security Act 2023 retains the draconian features of the former Digital Security Act.

The Government of Bangladesh must bring the Cyber Security Act 2023 in line with international human rights law and ensure it is not used to target human rights defenders, activists, critics and crackdown on peaceful dissent, says Amnesty International.

Further, the Bangladeshi authorities must immediately and unconditionally release those detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights including the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly ahead of the next general elections scheduled to be held in January 2024, said the human rights organisation.

Amnesty International said in the statement that extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances have persisted in the last five years with alarming frequency, even though the Government of Bangladesh supported recommendations to enhance efforts to prevent, investigate and bring those suspected to be responsible for these human rights crimes to justice in the last UPR.

Since then, Amnesty International has investigated and documented a clear pattern of enforced disappearance followed by extrajudicial executions by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) who reportedly killed at least 466 people under the guise of an anti-drug campaign in 2018, reads the statement. 

The Amnesty International urged the Bangladeshi government to immediately ratify the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and accept the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances' request to conduct an official visit to Bangladesh.

The government must also promptly, thoroughly, impartially, independently, effectively and transparently investigate allegations of enforced disappearances made against members of law enforcement agencies, particularly the RAB, before the general elections in January 2024, reads the statement.

The police have continued to suppress peaceful protests on a range of civic issues, including those organised by university students, schoolchildren, workers, and political activists, said the human rights body. 

The authorities have been using tear gas, rubber bullets, batons, stun grenades and water cannon, and in some instances, lethal force, reads the statement.

The Amnesty International says, the Government of Bangladesh must promptly, thoroughly, impartially, effectively and transparently investigate the excessive use of force against protestors and take appropriate disciplinary action against relevant law enforcement officials, including those with command responsibility, and immediately release all those arbitrarily arrested and detained.