UNHRC worries over crackdown on political opposition ahead of polls
Staff Reporter :
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has expressed concern about the deteriorating human rights situation in Bangladesh, including crackdown on workers, political activists, journalists and civil society leaders.
Reviewing the human rights situation in the country, the UN Human Rights Council came up with the statement published on its website on Tuesday.
The UN experts said that the severe crackdown against workers demanding fair wages and political activists calling for free and fair elections, judicial harassment of journalists, human rights defenders and civil society leaders, and failure to reform laws suppressing freedom of expression in Bangladesh are grave concerns.
“As Bangladesh heads towards national elections in early 2024, we are deeply disturbed by the sharp rise in political violence, arrests of senior opposition leaders, mass arbitrary detention of thousands of political activists, use of excessive force by the authorities and internet shutdowns to disrupt protests, and allegations of harassment, intimidation and unlawful detention of family members as a retaliatory measure,” the experts said.
They expressed alarm at the threats to media freedom, noting that attacks, surveillance, intimidation and judicial harassment of the press over the past several years have led to widespread self-censorship in the media, the Council said.
“The weaponisation of the judicial system to attack journalists, human rights defenders and civil society leaders diminishes the independence of the judiciary and erodes fundamental human rights,” the experts said.
Citing an example of judicial harassment, the UN said that the experts highlighted the case of investigative journalist, Rozina Islam, in which the prosecution has failed to produce material evidence after two years of investigation, repeated hearings and a travel ban that is affecting her work.
In September, the secretary and director of the leading the human rights organisation, Odhikar, were convicted and imprisoned on charges of publishing “fake information” when in fact they had documented extrajudicial killings and excessive use of force by security forces in 2013 which the Bangladeshi government has never investigated. Odhikar was denied renewal of its registration last year.
“When prominent civil society leaders like Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus or human rights defenders like Adilur Rahman Khan or Nasiruddin Elan are charged or convicted in retaliation for human rights work, it sends a chilling message to all journalists and human rights defenders that any dissent or critical opinion may lead to the most severe sanctions, no matter how outrageous the accusations or how prominent the person,” the experts said.
