Rights records can’t improve under the present authoritarian govt
Bangladesh’s human rights records are very dismal, to say the least.
Yet the incumbent government which is in power illegally through using force rather than the electoral mandate consistently denied human rights violations.
Against this backdrop, the latest report from Asian NGO Network on National Human Rights Institutions institutionally establishes, through systematic study, human rights’ worsening scenarios in Bangladesh.
It is shattering for Bangladesh’s National Human Right Commission which the report finds far behind the actual mandate.
The ANNI Report 2023, a biennial report on the performance of the national human rights institutions in Asia, found that NHRC has scored only 3.5 out of 10 points in achieving its mandate.
Still, the commission has scored only four out of 10 points in maintaining independence.
The United Nations as well as rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International consistently pointed out cases of rights violations as they occurred in Bangladesh.
For more than a decade now, Bangladesh has been widely known as a place of torture, enforced disappearances and secret killings.
This has created an atmosphere of intimidation for the people who criticize the government.
The government continuously ignored the criticisms from these international bodies.
The court, whose independence has been seriously compromised, sent to jail local human rights activist Adilur Rahman Khan of Odhikar for being vocal against the government.
This politically motivated verdict was also criticised by the UN, HRW and AI.
The ANNI report stated human rights in Bangladesh remain suppressed as the authoritarian government has systematically politicised important state institutions, including the Election Commission, the Anti-Corruption Commission, and the National Human Rights Commission.
The judiciary’s independence has eroded as the Awami League government has heavily interfered in the judiciary through controlling the promotions, postings, and transfers of the subordinate court judges, the ANNI report pertinently pointed out.
As the government is not elected in a free and fair election and is now again heading for holding a stage-managed parliamentary election of rigging vote, we are scared that more rights violations will take place in the forthcoming days.
The country’s jails have already been overcrowded with opposition activists in politically motivated cases.
However, the ANNI urged the Bangladesh authorities to take immediate measures to amend the National Human Rights Commission Act in consultation with the civil society organisations and relevant stakeholders to broaden its mandate.
Maybe it is needed. But the fact that remains to be pointed out here is that unless people in Bangladesh are able to choose their own government through a free and fair election, nothing significant will happen regarding Bangladesh’s dismal and upsetting rights records.
One must not expect improvement of rights records under an authoritarian regime.
