Johannesburg based rights monitoring body CIVICUS Monitor said that criminalisation of activists and crackdown on protests continued following one-sided elections in Bangladesh.
The rights group came up with the remark at its report on Bangladesh that published on its website on Monday.
According to the report, in December 2023, the CIVICUS Monitor downgraded Bangladesh鈥檚 civic space to 鈥榗losed鈥�, its worst rating.
The downgrade was the result of a massive government crackdown on opposition politicians and independent critics in the run-up to national elections, it said, adding that over the year, the authorities targeted human rights defenders, protesters and other critics, using intimidation, violence, arrest and torture.
Authorities also targeted journalists exposing state abuses and shut down critical media outlets. A new Cyber Security Act, rather than freeing online expression, retained most of the repressive language of the previous draconian Digital Security Act, used to criminalise thousands of online critics, it said.
As documented by Human Rights Watch, the authorities tightened repression ahead of national elections, it said, adding that the security forces carried out mass arrests of opposition members and in some cases responded to protests with excessive force.
The arrests were to ensure convictions of opposition members so that they would be disqualified from contesting the elections, it added.
Referring Awami League鈥檚 win of the 12th parliamentary polls, the CIVICUS Monitor report said that almost all the winning independent contenders were people who had been rejected by the ruling party but were asked by the party leadership to stand as 鈥榙ummy candidates鈥� to give the election a competitive veneer in the eyes of the world.
Official figures suggested a low voter turnout of about 40 per cent, though critics said that even those numbers might be inflated, it said.
It said that following the elections, UN experts urged the government to carry out major human rights reforms to reverse repressive trends in the country and restore political dialogue and participation.
The UN experts were alarmed at reports of widespread attacks, harassment and intimidation of civil society, human rights defenders, journalists and political activists, and said that in the lead up to the elections, reportedly some 25,000 opposition leaders and supporters were arrested.
There was a crackdown on the opposition around the elections, including cases of arbitrary arrests, torture and unlawful killings, it said.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was convicted and sentenced on frivolous grounds and facing more charges, while activist Shamim Ashraf was charged under the new Cyber Security Act for some posters, critical for the local government, the report said.
There were restrictions on the media and attacks on journalists around the elections, it said, adding that the police also cracked down on protests by garment workers and the opposition.
