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The United Nations fact-finding mission investigating rights abuses and atrocities committed during the July-August mass uprising is likely to finalise its report by the first week of December. 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk while sharing the information in a meeting with chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at his Tejgaon office on Wednesday also expressed his willingness to strengthen their presence in Bangladesh, according to a press release from the chief adviser’s press wing.

Türk told the chief adviser that the UN fact-finding mission would hopefully finalise its report by the first week of December, the release mentioned.

The UN rights chief, who concluded his two-day visit to Bangladesh on the day, briefed the chief adviser about the work of the UN mission and his meetings with advisers, the chief of army staff, heads of Reform Commissions, students, and officials here in Dhaka.

‘There are so many that need to be fixed,’  Volker Türk  said, adding that he has also spoken to the members of the Inquiry Commission investigating hundreds of cases of enforced disappearances that occurred during the authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India for safety in the face of the uprising on August 5.

In a media statement on concluding his official visit, he said that it was a priority for his Office to support this dynamic, diverse country and its people through this period of transition, to do everything they could to help ensure the promotion and protection of human rights for all in Bangladesh.

‘The invitation for my office to deploy a fact-finding mission on human rights violations in the context of protests which took place in July and August this year was an important initiative by the interim authorities,’ he said in the statement, adding that a stronger presence in Bangladesh would enable his office to accompany and support the transition process in other areas, including by offering advice on legal, institutional, economic and social reforms, transitional justice, reconciliation, and healing.

Türk said that his office was extending support to the Inquiry Commission on enforced disappearances while Professor Yunus said that his government was committed to upholding human rights of every citizen and also to making sure that development and human rights go hand in hand, according to the release.

The UN rights chief said that the UN rights agency would like to strengthen its presence in Dhaka and urged the chief adviser to strengthen the National Human Rights Commission by making it ‘independent’ and ‘fully functional’.

Foreign affairs adviser Md Touhid Hossain said that the government was examining whether the establishment of the UN human rights office would be allowed in Bangladesh.

‘We are still discussing it and also examining as there is a question whether we agree on the opening of an office of the UN human rights in Bangladesh,’ said Touhid, also a retired diplomat, while briefing reporters after a meeting with the UN rights chief at the foreign ministry earlier on the day.

Responding to a question, he said that the issue was discussed, but there was no formal proposal from the UN rights office.

After a similar meeting with Volker Turk on Tuesday, social welfare adviser Sharmeen S Murshid, however, said that an office of the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner would be established in Dhaka soon, adding that the interim government agreed on the establishment of the UN Human Rights office in Dhaka. 

About the UN fact-finding mission to investigate rights abuses during the July-August student-led mass uprising, he said that the UN body was working independently and had informed them that they would require another month to come up with its report covering incidents from July 1 to August 15. 

In the meeting with the chief adviser, the UN rights chief also discussed the work of the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh that is now investigating crimes against humanity committed during the mass uprising and the reform commissions set up by the interim government to conduct reforms of the country’s institutions.

Professor Yunus said that his government would not ‘repeat’ the mistakes and the crimes committed by the previous government.

The UN rights chief and the chief adviser also discussed the Rohingya crisis, especially the influx of tens of thousands of new Rohingya taking refuge in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in Myanmar.

The chief adviser sought UN support to create a safe zone in Myanmar’s Rakhine state so that the internally displaced people in the region could stay close to their homes.

Addressing a press conference, Volker Türk emphasised that the reforms envisioned by Bangladesh’s interim government must be sustainable to prevent abuses of power reprised in the past decades.

‘This time, there must be justice. This time, reforms must be sustainable and durable, so that abusive practices of the past decades are not repeated,’ Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha reported quoting the UN rights chief as saying.