Rights violation still rampant
Report expresses concern over custodial death, torture, mysterious disappearances
Incidents of extra-judicial killing and torture of innocent people by law enforcers are rampant in the country although Bangladesh has committed to the United Nations to stop such violation of human rights, a report says.
"Concern over continued disappearance and torture in custody, especially of young innocent victims, has been compounded by a new type of human rights violation in the form of police-instigated mob beating and 'mistaken identity'," said the report of Human Rights Forum on Universal Periodic Review (HRF-UPR) Bangladesh.
Withdrawal of thousands of graft cases on political consideration has seriously undermined the prospect of strengthening institutional capacity of the Anti-Corruption Commission to fight corruption, it added.
HRF-UPR, a forum of 17 local rights and development organisations, at a press conference yesterday published the report on the overall human rights conditions in the country between July 2009 and July 2011. The UPR system was introduced to review human rights condition of all the UN-member countries in 2007. Bangladesh accepted 40 recommendations on improving human rights conditions and made commitment during the universal periodic review in 2009.
There has been some progress made, but many of the commitments Bangladesh made are yet to be fulfilled, Sultana Kamal, executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra, told the press conference at Dhaka Reporter's Unity.
Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), said the recent constructional amendment denying the indigenous identity of the hills people, was tantamount to human rights violation. There has been some progress in strengthening democratic institutions but the proposed Anti-Corruption Commission law, if passed, will curb the commission's power, he added.
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