Guwahati: The United Nations Human Rights Office on Wednesday released a comprehensive, in-depth report titled “Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh”.
A UN inquiry reported that as many as 1,400 people may have been killed and thousands injured in Bangladesh between July 1st and August 15th.
The report states that the vast majority of these casualties were shot by Bangladeshi security forces.
It states that there are reasonable grounds to believe that hundreds of extrajudicial killings, widespread arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture were carried out as part of a strategy to suppress protests.
These actions, the report alleges, were undertaken with the knowledge, coordination, and direction of political leaders and senior security officials.
“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,” Suhas Chakma, Director of the Rights and Risks Analysis Group, said.
He said, “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 gross human rights violations committed after 15 August 2024 upon the Hindu minorities, indigenous peoples and those associated with the Awami League following the fall of Sheikh Hasina simply could be investigated by the UN because Dr Yunus had given himself impunity from the UN inquiry,” Chakma stated.
He said that 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.
“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,” Chakma further stated.
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The Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) stated that if Bangladesh’s interim government is serious about accountability for human rights violations, it should sponsor a resolution at the upcoming 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council to establish a commission of inquiry, along with OHCHR country offices in Bangladesh.
