Shakhawat Hossain
Bangladesh authorities have failed to respond to repeated and serious allegations of secret detentions, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings, denying the abuses instead of holding perpetrators accountable.
The country’s security forces, particularly the DB police, BGB, DGFI, and RAB, have a long history of enjoying impunity for serious violations, says the Human Rights Watch in its annual report released on January 18. In its 643-page World Report, its 28th edition, the Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 90 countries.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its World Report 2018 says the violations of arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings by the security forces did not abate in 2017. But the authorities failed to hold security forces responsible for serious human rights violations, put up on its website on January 18 observed.
“It is hard to find a bright spot in Bangladesh’s record on human rights in the past years,” said the report, “Particularly as the country heads into general elections in 2019, it is vital to restore the rule of law, and end all efforts to silence dissent,” says the report.
In domestic rights concerns, scores of Bangladeshis remained victims of enforced disappearances, even as law enforcement authorities continued to target both opposition supporters and militant suspects. Security forces, including members of the army, responsible for serious human rights violations continued, in the main, to be free and unaccountable. Despite evidence of flawed trials and coerced confessions, the High Court upheld the death penalty against nearly 140 members of the Bangladesh Rifles, as the border security force was formerly known, who are accused of participating in a deadly mutiny, killing officers and raping their female relatives.
Civil society groups, including the media, continued to face pressure from both state and non-state actors, while dozens of Bangladeshis were arrested for criticizing the government or the political leadership on Facebook. Law enforcement authorities continued to arrest opposition activists and militant suspects, holding them in secret detention for long periods before producing some in court.
Several others, according to security forces, were killed in “gunfights,” leading to concerns over extrajudicial killings. The report also says scores still remained victims of enforced disappearances.
Despite evidence of flawed trials and coerced confessions, the High Court upheld the death penalty against nearly 140 members of the Bangladesh Rifles, as the border security force was formerly known, who are accused of participating in a deadly mutiny, killing officers and raping their female relatives.
Freedom of expression was severely limited as authorities used overly broad laws to stifle dissent or perceived criticism. The government continued to use Section 57 of the Information and Communications Technology Act (ICT Act) to punish critics, the report goes on to say.
Civil society groups faced pressure from both state and non-state actors, including death threats and attacks from extremist groups, and escalating harassment and surveillance by security forces.
“In May, Bangladesh’s notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) raided a gathering in Dhaka, arrested 28 men, paraded them in front of the media while saying they were gay, and accused them of drug possession,” says the HRW report.
In 2017, there were at least 30 assaults on journalists, including the February murder of Abdul Hakim Shimul, a reporter for the daily Samakal newspaper, while he covered political unrest in Shahjadpur. In August, the journalist Abdul Latif Morol was arrested for satirical reporting of the death of a goat on Facebook.
Although the official government policy is to eliminate child marriage, in February 2017 the government passed a law permitting girls under 18 years of age to marry under special circumstances - effectively eliminating the minimum age for marriage in this exception.
The government failed to take steps to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the report notes. On the plight of minority community in the country the report says sporadic attacks and threats against religious minorities continued in 2017. The report mentions the incidents of Rangpur’s Thakugao village where a mob of nearly 20,000 looted and burned down over 30 homes in response to rumors that a villager had published a Facebook post defaming the Prophet Muhammad.
On labour rights it says Bangladeshi authorities failed to implement their commitments under the Sustainability Compact in 2017, including amendments to the labor laws governing Export Processing Zones to bring them in line with international standards. In response to protests in December 2016 by garment workers seeking higher wages, factory owners dismissed over 1,500 workers and authorities arrested 38 union leaders and workers on unsubstantiated criminal charges.
Although the government did not refuse Rohingya refugees seeking sanctuary from across the Burmese border, Bangladeshi citizens themselves saw no reprieve in their quest for justice.
Starting in late August, Bangladesh saw over 655,000 Rohingya refugees cross the border from Northern Rakhine State in Burma fleeing a campaign of rape, arson, and killings by the Burmese military that amounted to crimes against humanity. Bangladesh is already host to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, including about 80,000 who similarly fled to Bangladesh between late 2016 and early 2017. While Bangladesh does not officially recognize the majority of the Rohingya as refugees, the government has allowed those seeking shelter to enter the country.
“Bangladesh deserves credit for not forcibly returning Rohingya refugees, and for doing what it can with strained resources to provide safety for them for the time being,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
However, it raises concern over recurring plans to move the refugees to uninhabitable islands or to return them to Burma without key citizenship rights and protections remained a concern.
Impunity blamed for communal attacks
Human rights activist advocate Sultana Kamal on January 19 also blamed the culture of impunity and procrastination in law implementation as the key reasons behind the rising incidents of communal violence across the country.
“People have become so aggressive and inhuman that they do not hesitate to kill a person. We observe such thing happens when the culture of impunity spreads out in a society,” she said while speaking as the chief guest at the 2nd Triennial National Conference of Bangladesh Women University Council held at the Jatiya Press Club.
Sultana Kamal, also adviser of the last caretaker government noted that on average about 3 to 5 incidents of communal violence are happening in the country every day. Condemning such acts, she said that if there were proper justice, identification of the criminals and exemplary punishments handed out, such incidents would not have happened.
Talking about the roles of law enforcement agencies, she said the state has failed to play its expected role to ensure security of its people of different religions.
Stating that patriarchal society always tries to dominate women, she also urged women to be aware of their rights and speed up the movement against communal violence.
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