The United Nations Human Rights Office in its fact-finding report on rights abuses related to July-August protests in Bangladesh has called for suspending officials, including those at the command and leadership level, facing credible allegations of serious human rights violations.
The report published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights from Geneva on Wednesday also suggested holding the officials accountable to the law.
鈥楨nsure that perpetrators are held accountable according to law, and consistent with international standards, including where individuals in positions of command and leadership are suspected of criminal responsibility, and that victims have access to effective remedies and reparation,鈥� the report said.
It also called on the government to reveal and close all clandestine places of detention operated by intelligence, paramilitary, police or military forces, and investigate and prosecute the identified perpetrators of enforced disappearance, torture, and other crimes committed in such places.
The UN rights body also recommended ensuring effective, fair, impartial and comprehensive processes to investigate and prosecute extrajudicial killings, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearance and sexual and gender-based violence, including cases that predate the 2024 quota protests, and cases of revenge violence.
The OHCHR suggested the establishment of an effective and sufficiently independent human rights screening mechanism to ensure that no Bangladeshi personnel deployed to UN peace operations or other international missions is subject to credible allegations of international human rights, humanitarian or refugee law violations, or of any instance of sexual exploitation or abuse.
鈥楿ntil such a screening mechanism has been established, the government should agree with the United Nations Department of Peace Operations not to nominate for peacekeeping any military or police personnel who served with RAB, DGFI, or Dhaka Metropolitan Police Detective Branch at any previous point, or in any of the BGB Battalions deployed to the 2024 protests or previous instances of protests suppressed with use of force human rights violations,鈥� said the report.
About the implementation of the recommendations in the UN report, foreign ministry spokesperson Mohammad Rafiqul Alam said on Thursday that the government would decide in this regard after consulting with its stakeholders.聽
鈥楤ased on direct testimony from senior officials involved and other inside sources, OHCHR was able to establish that the integrated and systematic effort using the entire range of police, paramilitary, military and intelligence actors, as well as violent elements linked to the Awami League, to commit serious violations and abuses occurred with the full knowledge, coordination and direction of the political leadership,鈥� the report said.
It said that beyond the need to ensure justice and accountability, there was an urgent need for broader reform of the security and justice sectors, the abolition of a host of repressive laws and institutions designed to stifle civic and political dissent, and the institution of profound changes to Bangladesh鈥檚 political and economic governance systems.
The report suggested ensuring the independence and impartiality of the judiciary at the institutional and individual level, in law and in practice, by ensuring that a genuinely independent mechanism is responsible for the recruitment, suspension, removal and discipline of judges, protecting judges against intimidation and harassment, preventing inappropriate or unwarranted interference including politically motivated interference and corruption.
As an immediate priority, it underlined the need for compilation and preservation of relevant evidence, including official orders and other internal documents and forensic evidence, and take disciplinary and criminal justice measures against officials and others who seek to destroy or hide evidence.
It also called for issuing 鈥榖inding general directives 鈥� pending repeal of Art. 132 Code of Criminal Procedure Act and similar immunity-like provisions in other laws 鈥� authorising investigations and prosecutions of public officials鈥�.
鈥楻eform the legal framework to clarify and ensure that crimes involving serious human rights violations committed against civilians are prosecuted before the regular courts, even if alleged against members of the military or any other personnel subject to military jurisdiction,鈥� said the report.
It also suggested initiating an inclusive nationwide dialogue and consultation to develop a holistic and context-specific transitional justice model that embeds the fair and effective pursuit of criminal justice, especially for the most responsible perpetrators.
The report called for establishing an independent public prosecution service staffed with professional full-time personnel with integrity, appropriate training and qualifications, and ensuring safeguards against appointments based on partiality, including political party affiliation or prejudice.
Conducted at the invitation of the interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, the UN investigation into rights violations from July 1, 2024 to August 15, 2024 revealed that the ousted prime minister and Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, herself ordered security forces to kill protesters and hide their bodies to quell the student-led protests in July 2024 in Bangladesh.
It said that the Sheikh Hasina government and security and intelligence services, alongside violent elements associated with the Awami League, systematically engaged in a range of serious human rights violations during the student-led protests.
Professor Muhammad Yunus-led interim government has welcomed the report and thanked the OHCHR for undertaking an independent investigation into the rights violations and abuses during the July-August student-led mass uprising that ousted the authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina on August 5, 2024.
The UN report recommended disbanding the Rapid Action Battalion and returning personnel not involved in serious violations to their home units and confining the functions of the BGB to border control issues and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence to military intelligence and limiting and delineating their resources and legal powers accordingly.
