NHRC lacks institutional integrity

EDITORIAL

NATIONAL Human Rights Commission was first initiated during the military backed government in 2007 with the aim to tackle the culture of impunity enjoyed by the influential quarters, as well as law enforcement agencies. Since its emergence, the Commission however failed to perform its mandated role. The most recent fact finding report of the Commission on the gang rape of a woman in Noakhali makes such failure glaringly evident. On December 30, a housewife in Noakhali’s Subarnachar was gang raped for casting vote for ‘sheaf of paddy’, the electoral symbol of the opposition political party allegedly by members of local Awami League. 

The fact that she was raped for exercising her constitutional right to franchise left the nation outraged. Many human rights organisations and opposition party organisers have formed fact finding committee and visited Subarnachar for firsthand account of the heinous crime. It is in this context the Commission also sent an investigation team and released its report refuting any link between the general election and the gang rape of the woman in Noakhali. It has also denounced any tie between the accused rapists and the ruling party. The report of the Commission, therefore, contradicts the statement of the victim and is sharply different from the accounts of human rights activists who visited her. Contrasting account and its failure to see the correlation between the act of rape and the victim’s voting behaviour raises serious question about its institutional integrity. 

The fact finding report of the Commission is named as brutal denial of truth by Left Democratic Alliance as the victim of gang rape in Noakhali has consistently and explicitly told in presence of police, various media and local people that the rapists had threatened her with dire consequences had she voted for Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Locals have identified the man, Ruhul Amin who ordered the rape as the publicity affairs secretary of Subarnachar AL. Later, police have arrested the accused and AL expelled him from the party for his alleged involvement in the gang-rape. The Commission must have strayed from facts that it found no involvement of the ruling party organisers. 

A week before the national election, according to media, a former woman union member of Rajbari was gang raped for support to BNP. Therefore, the victimisation of women for their political affiliation or support was undeniable reality during the election that the Commission failed to recognise. In what follows, the human rights activists’ allegation that the Commission in its report instead of speaking for the victim has acted as the mouth piece of the ruling party, rather subscribed to partisan narrative, appears more than true. 

The very purpose of a human rights commission was to ensure that rights are not abused in the hands of influential quarters and law enforcement agencies. The role it played in investigating the Noakhali gang rape case illustrates anything but its institutional integrity to protect human rights. The government, under the circumstances, must allow the Commission certain institutional autonomy for it to perform its mandated duty.

• Courtesy: New Age/ Jan 15, 2019