Letter to Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus Regarding Rebuilding Respect for Human Rights in Bangladesh

August 19, 2024

Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus
Interim Government of Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Re: Rebuilding respect for human rights in Bangladesh

Dear Professor Muhammad Yunus,

I am writing to you and to the members of the interim government of Bangladesh on behalf of Human Rights Watch to offer our recommendations for a democratic and rights-respecting future. While you have undertaken leadership of the country at a time of great turmoil, divisiveness, and violence, it is also a historic opportunity to rebuild greater respect and protections for human rights.

Human Rights Watch is an international non-government organization that monitors and reports on human rights in over 100 countries worldwide. We have been following and reporting on Bangladesh for over two decades.

As you know, the violent crackdown on the protests leading to Sheikh Hasina’s resignation as prime minister was the deadliest in Bangladesh’s recent history. At least 440 people were killed and thousands were injured between July 15 and August 5. Law enforcement carried out a cordon-and-search operation, arresting nearly 10,000 people, and enforced a curfew with orders to shoot-on- sight. An 11-day internet blackout inhibited human rights monitors and journalists from documenting abuses precisely the time when people were most at risk.

When Sheikh Hasina fled the country, tens of thousands of Bangladeshis celebrated the end of her repressive rule. However, in some places, celebrations turned violent, with hundreds killed or injured as demonstrators engaged in reprisals against those perceived to have supported Hasina’s government. Thousands of minority Hindu people gathered at the border, seeking to enter India out of fear of further attacks.

In a short time, the interim government has publicly urged calm, acted to quell the violence, and committed to investigate and prosecute those responsible of excessive and indiscriminate use of force to crush the protests. We commend your immediate move to release all those arrested for participating in the protests and to drop all charges against them. We have also spoken with relatives of those forcibly disappeared during the previous government who were reunited with their loved ones and, in other cases, learned of their deaths.

We urge you to undertake the below actions to promote and protect human rights in the present, account for the grave abuses of the past, and build a rights-based foundation for the future, including by addressing the issues of impunity and economic inequality that protesters risked their lives to oppose.

The government should urgently:

• Present, or support the adoption of, a resolution at the upcoming session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) that:
  • Establishes a United Nations backed independent mechanism with a comprehensive mandate to investigate, collect, store, and analyse evidence and cooperate with credible and independent national and international bodies towards accountability in relation to the violent incidents of July and August 2024 and its root causes. The material scope of an investigation should encompass acts by all relevant actors, including but not limited to previous cases of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture.
  • Mandates the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to monitor the situation in Bangladesh through the transition period until there are free and fair elections, and report regularly to the HRC.
• Request technical support from OHCHR and facilitate visits by relevant special procedures of the HRC to establish an independent commission of inquiry on enforced disappearances in collaboration with victims and relatives of victims of enforced disappearances to investigate all existing allegations of enforced disappearances, regardless of whether the victim was arrested, returned alive, killed, or remains missing, with capacity for truth telling and reparations for violations prior to July 2024.
• Given the absence of accountable and effective law enforcement, request technical support from the UN Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions to ensure rights-based law enforcement, including attention to preventing and responding to attacks on minorities and acts of sexual and gender-based violence.
• Welcome the support of OHCHR to ensure the full independence of legal and judicial bodies, including an effective national human rights commission in line with the Paris Principles which can undertake robust vetting prior to deployment in UN peacekeeping.
• Disband the Rapid Action Battalion, which was instrumental in carrying out grave abuses under the previous government and operates with near impunity, and investigate allegations of human rights violations by the unit since it was established.
• Increase the representation of women in the cabinet of the interim government. As discussions move forward about next steps for democratic rule, it is important to ensure that women are full and meaningful participants in all these discussions, as set out in UN Security Council resolution 1325, including to guide the government’s approach to transitional justice, legal reform, and institution- building from a women’s and girls’ rights perspective.
• Protect Rohingya refugees seeking refuge in Bangladesh because of the escalating crisis due to ongoing fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
• Reform social protection to guarantee an adequate level of protection for all, and to ensure nobody is excluded from public benefits because of their inability to pay bribes or because they lack social or political connections.

We have attached an appendix further detailing Human Rights Watch’s main concerns and recommendations for the interim government.

Thank you for your attention to these important matters.

Sincerely,

Tirana Hassan
Executive Director
Human Rights Watch

Appendix
Human Rights Watch Concerns and Recommendations for the Interim Government of Bangladesh
August 2024

Accounting for Past Abuses
The groundswell of public support for the student protesters, and willingness of individuals to put their lives on the line to protest autocratic rule, was a response to the gravity of abuses committed by the previous government over the last 15 years.

Enforced Disappearances and Extrajudicial Killings
According to Bangladeshi human rights monitors, security forces carried out over 600 enforced disappearances since 2009. While some people were later released, produced in court, or said to have died during armed exchanges with security forces, nearly 100 people remain “disappeared.” While there has been immense relief over the last week for those whose relatives were returned after Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, for many families the whereabouts of their loved ones remain unknown. Leaked information from military intelligence records indicates that some individuals who were forcibly disappeared were killed in custody. For victims who were returned and for those who are still missing, justice and accountability remains elusive.

Security forces have killed hundreds of people, including opposition members and activists, in “crossfire” incidents or “gunfights,” euphemisms for extrajudicial killings in which the authorities falsely claim that the suspect was shot during an armed exchange. In May 2018—six months before the general election—Sheikh Hasina announced a “war on drugs” to be led by the Rapid Action Battalion after a reported rise in methamphetamine sales and use. Under the guise of the war on drugs, law enforcement officers reportedly killed more than 450 people that year. Many of them targeted alleged drug traders and users, while activists allege that some killings also targeted and served to intimidate members of the opposition and to silence critics.

The previous government did not take up the offer from the UN to help establish a specialized mechanism to investigate allegations of enforced disappearances in line with international standards and ignored repeated requests from the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances to visit the country. Instead, Bangladesh authorities harassed and intimidated victims’ families and denied that enforced disappearances occurred at all.

We commend the government for already meeting with representatives of Maayer Daak, the platform of families representing the families of the forcibly disappeared. The interim government should:

• Locate and release those held illegally by security forces, including in secret detention sites.
• Identify and demolish all secret prisons, including the infamous Aynaghar.
• Establish an independent commission of inquiry on enforced disappearances in collaboration with the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances to investigate all existing allegations of enforced disappearances, regardless of whether the victim was arrested, returned alive, killed, or remains missing. Ensure that this commission can recommend cases for prosecution to the attorney general’s office and create a credible special civilian court to hold accountable those found to have command responsibility in cases of disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture, and abuses against family members of disappeared people, including members of the military.
• Facilitate a visit by the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances and the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions and seek their recommendations and advice for the creation of the above-described special UN-supported independent mechanism.
• Work with Maayer Daak and other relatives of victims of enforced disappearance to establish a museum or other memorial to commemorate victims of enforced disappearances and the suffering of their families, and advocate against the commission of disappearances in the future.
• Ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Torture and Other Ill-treatment
Despite serious allegations of torture by security forces under the previous government, these allegations were rarely investigated or prosecuted. Following a review in July 2019, the UN Committee against Torture described the Bangladesh police as a “state within a state,” asserting that “in general, one got the impression that the police, as well as other law enforcement agencies, were able to operate with impunity and zero accountability.” Only one case of torture resulted in convictions under Bangladesh’s Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act since its passage a decade ago, according to media reports.

Bangladesh has ignored repeated requests from the UN Committee against Torture to follow up on its recommendations, as required, and repeated requests from the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to conduct a country visit.

We urge the interim government to:

• Facilitate a visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to allow them to investigate and make appropriate recommendations to ensure justice and accountability.
• Establish an independent investigation mechanism to handle complaints regarding torture and ill-treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, by law enforcement officials that is independent of law enforcement agencies and to monitor all detention sites.
• Enact legislation and dedicate resources to an effective victim and witness protection system.

Building Independent Institutions
The grave abuses committed by the previous government were enabled by the slow destruction of the judiciary’s independence, the weakening of human rights institutions, and the passage of draconian legislation used to silence critics and provide immunity for abusive security forces.

We urge the interim government to:

• Reform the National Human Rights Commission with technical support from the OHCHR. In line with the recommendation from the UN Committee against Torture, amend the National Human Rights Commission Act of 2009 to broaden and strengthen the institution’s mandate so that it can directly investigate all alleged acts of torture and ill-treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, reported to have been committed by state military, police, and security forces, and ensure unfettered and unannounced access to all places of detention, as well as sufficient powers of investigation. Establish a clear, transparent, participatory, and merit-based selection and appointment process, in accordance with the Paris Principles on national human rights institutions.
• Reinforce an independent justice system to prevent the arbitrary exercise of power which resulted in past due process violations in which the police, prosecution, and judiciary often followed instructions from the government, instead of upholding domestic and international legal standards. It is evident from the attacks on the police and protests against the judiciary, that many Bangladeshis do not trust government institutions to adhere to the rule of law, which further provoked the reprisals against perceived Awami League supporters. The justice system should ensure that security forces do not engage in arbitrary arrests while investigating allegations of corruption and rights abuses by members of the previous government.
• Create an independent Election Commission since the past three elections in Bangladesh were not considered free or fair.
• Carry out security sector reform. In addition to disbanding the Rapid Action Battalion, implement robust human rights training protocols across all security forces, establish independent civilian oversight of security forces, including through the National Human Rights Commission, and remove laws that enable impunity for security force abuse, including:
  • Repeal sections 54 and 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which empower the police to detain people for 15 days without a lawyer, known as remand, which has long been criticized as a loophole for torture.
  • Repeal section 197(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which requires government approval to bring criminal charges against public officials— including police officers—if the offense is committed while the officer is acting or purporting to act in their official capacity.
  • Repeal section 132 of the Criminal Procedure Code requiring prosecutors to obtain a prior government “sanction” before lodging any criminal complaint against a state official, permission that is seldom granted.
  • Revise the Army Act, 1952, Air Force Act, 1953, and Navy Ordinance, 1961, to bring them in line with international human rights standards that provide that military tribunals should only have jurisdiction over offenses that are strictly military in nature, and that gross human rights violations by members of the armed force cannot be considered military offenses.
  • Repeal the “good faith” clause in section 13 of the Armed Police Battalion (Amendment) Act 2003, which provides blanket immunity for security force abuses.
• Revise abusive laws
  • Abolish the death penalty.
  • Repeal section 377 of the Penal Code of Bangladesh that criminalizes “unnatural behaviour,” which is used to prohibit consensual same-sex sexual conduct with penalties from 10 years to life in prison.
  • Reform the Child Marriage Restraint Act to prohibit all marriage before age 18, without exceptions.
  • Change the definition of rape under section 375 of the Penal Code to include all victims, regardless of gender identity or marital status.
  • Revise the Cyber Security Act to bring it in line with international standards. The law currently grants wide authority to officials to prosecute critics of the government for peaceful expression.

Respond to the Rohingya Crisis
To confront the escalating crisis resulting from ongoing fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine State—including forced recruitment of Rohingya by the Myanmar military, abuses by the opposition Arakan Army including sexual and gender-based violence, arson, and forced displacement, and armed groups’ forced recruitment of Rohingya men and boys in the Bangladesh camps—the government should protect Rohingya refugees and address the specific protection needs of women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities. The government should also press donors and influential governments, including China, ASEAN, India, the United States, and the United Kingdom, to help create conditions in Myanmar that will enable safe and voluntary return of the refugees. In the interim, ensure that the Armed Police Battalion and other security forces deployed in the refugee camps do not commit human rights violations, including through extortion, and that camps have trained non-Armed Police Battalion personnel to receive and investigate complaints against police officers filed by refugees.

Protect the rights of human rights activists, journalists, and civil society organizations to carry out their work without harassment, intimidation, or censorship.
We urge the interim government to release from prison and drop all existing charges against human rights activists, journalists, and critics detained for exercising their rights protected under international human rights law.

Address Poverty and Inequality
While Bangladesh has made economic progress, the recent protests reflect the frustration of that progress being unevenly shared. Inequality in both income and wealth has grown over the past decade. Youth unemployment remains the highest in the region at 15 percent, while among young women, it is at 42 percent, the biggest gender gap in youth unemployment globally. At the same time, this year inflation, including for food, reached

its highest point in a decade in the context of an ongoing International Monetary Fund program with little reprieve for those with low incomes.

While it is important to reverse previous economic policies and practices that favored members of the ruling party, much more should be done to ensure that Bangladesh’s development model puts human rights at its center. Social protection should be reformed to guarantee an adequate level of protection for all, and to ensure nobody is excluded from public benefits because of their inability to pay bribes or because they lack social or political connections.

We urge the interim government to:

• Increase tax revenues through progressive measures to adequately fund health, education, and social security programs, particularly by increasing contributions from wealthy corporations and individuals.
• Strengthen mechanisms to end corruption, including extortion by security personnel and public officials.
• Work towards a universal social security system that provides adequate benefits at all stages of a person’s life course, including childhood, unemployment, disability, and pensions.
• Enhance budget allocation for public services required to realize rights, including meeting internationally recommended benchmarks for health and education. Work to ensure that education, from early childhood to the end of secondary education, is universally accessible, free, and compulsory, including specific steps to make education accessible for children who are married or parenting.
• Increase public spending to ensure affordable and accessible health care. In 2021, Bangladesh spent only 0.4 percent of its GDP on public health, the second lowest rate in the world, and far below the threshold of 5 percent of GDP encouraged by the World Health Organization.
• Develop strong labor rights policies including to ensure safety and protect workers’ right to association, including for garment workers, domestic workers, and workers in the informal sector. Target specific reforms toward ending abusive child labor for both girls and boys.
• Revise or sign bilateral labor agreements that include strong provisions on responsible recruitment of migrant workers from Bangladesh, including wage protection, access to health care, occupational health and safety, and access to justice, with an emphasis on better monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.

Protect Rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
The situation of the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region remains of deep concern. The authorities have repeatedly ignored commitments under the CHT Accord of 1997, including to recognize the importance of the 1900 Regulation which provides for limited self-rule, and upholds customary laws, usages, and practices relating to lands and resources to preserve the unique traditions of the indigenous peoples in the area. Instead, the authorities have questioned the validity of the regulation and sought to marginalise local communities while upholding the rights of settlers. Security forces deployed in the region have committed serious violations. In April 2024, the courts exonerated soldiers and others identified by witnesses as responsible for the “disappearance” of activist Kalpana Chakma in 1996.