The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mr Volker Turk today released the “UN Fact-Finding Report on Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh”, leading to the fall of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government. The UN inquiry report stated that as many as 1,400 people may have been killed between 1 July and 15 August, and thousands were injured, the vast majority of whom were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces and there are reasonable grounds to believe hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture, were carried out with the knowledge, coordination and direction of the political leadership and senior security officials as part of a strategy to suppress the protests. The report failed to identify any perpetrator.
“The report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights failed to identify individual officers responsible for these violations as it is not a criminal inquiry, thereby leaving the issue of prosecution to politics of revenge that is shaping Bangladesh currently. While accountability for human rights violations by Sheikh Hasina’s regime must be established, the UN Inquiry Report has failed because of the restrictions imposed by the Interim Government headed by Dr Mohammed Yunus to investigate human rights violations only from 5 July to 15 August 2024. The High Commissioner’s Office could not ignore the risks of their report being used for domestic political purposes by the Interim Government. The gross human rights violations committed after 15 August 2024 upon the Hindu minorities, indigenous peoples in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and those associated with the Awami League following the fall of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina simply could not be investigated by the UN because Dr Yunus had given himself out from the purview of the UN inquiry.” – stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Director of the Rights and Risks Analysis Group.
“These limitations of the UN inquiry report call for a proper resolution at the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council for establishing a proper inquiry commission along with country offices of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate human rights violations in Bangladesh beyond the period specified by the Interim Government for the current inquiry. Dr Yunus himself has not been interested in establishing genuine inquiry into the human rights violations committed by former Prime Minister Hasina and only sought to use the UN inquiry for domestic political purposes, which he failed miserably.” – further stated Mr Chakma.
The RRAG stated that if the Interim Government of Bangladesh is interested in establishing any accountability for human rights violations, it would sponsor a resolution at the forthcoming 58th Session of the UN Human Rights Council for establishing a commission of inquiry along with country offices of the OHCHR in Bangladesh.
