Human rights in Bangladesh, 2010
The US State Department's annual report on human rights says this about the state of rights in Bangladesh in 2010:
Security forces committed extrajudicial killings and were responsible for custodial deaths, torture, and arbitrary arrest and detention. The failure to investigate fully extrajudicial killings by security forces, including several deaths in custody of alleged criminals detained by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), remained a matter of serious concern. Some members of the security forces acted with impunity. Prison conditions at times were life-threatening, lengthy pretrial detention continued to be a problem, and authorities infringed on citizens' privacy rights. An increasingly politicized judiciary exacerbated problems in an already overwhelmed judicial system and constrained access to justice for members of opposition parties. The government limited freedom of speech and of the press, self-censorship continued, and security forces harassed journalists. The government curbed freedom of assembly, and politically motivated violence remained a problem. Official corruption and related impunity continued. Discrimination against women, and violence against women and children remained serious problems, as did discrimination against persons with disabilities and against persons based on their sexual orientation. Trafficking in persons remained a serious problem. Violence against religious and ethnic minorities still occurred, although many government and civil society leaders stated that these acts often had political or economic motivations and could not be attributed only to religious belief or affiliation. Limits on worker rights and child labor remained problems.
The full report is here: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/sca/154478.htm
The government dismissed the report — apparently it wasn't researched properly. The Foreign Minister said: Bangladesh is a democratic non-communal state and has been elected twice to the UN Human Rights Council for its positive track records of human rights. Somebody should tell her that Qaddafi's Libya was also a member of UN Human Rights Council.
I anticipate some people asking 'who is the US to lecture about human rights given their own actions'. My response is that it is the wrong question to ask. If you are sincere about human rights, then instead of going on an anti-American tirade, you should be analysing the content of the report, and hold the people running the country to account.
US State Dept annual report on HRhttp://unheardvoice.net/blog/2011/04/23/human-rights-in-bangladesh-2010/
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