On November 13, 2023, UN member states expressed serious concerns about grave abuses and the suppression of civil society in Bangladesh during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)*.

Human rights organizations have extensively documented severe abuses by Bangladeshi authorities, including mass arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings, and widespread repression. Rather than conducting independent investigations and holding accountable those responsible for these violations, the Bangladesh government rewards individuals complicit in such actions, including officers with command responsibility.

During the review, the Bangladesh delegation dismissed evidence of excessive force in recent electoral violence, claiming that law enforcement responses were “minimal, reasonable, and restrained.” The government also asserted that there were no arbitrary detentions and that arrests were made “without any political consideration,” despite the mass arbitrary arrests of nearly 10,000 opposition members and activists in the past few weeks.

On November 14, UN experts expressed deep concern about the escalating political violence, arrests of senior opposition leaders, mass arbitrary detentions of political activists, excessive use of force by authorities, internet shutdowns to disrupt protests, and allegations of harassment, intimidation, and unlawful detention of family members as a retaliatory measure. These issues have become more pronounced as Bangladesh approaches national elections in early 2024.

In the previous UPR review in 2018, the Bangladesh government claimed to have “responded favorably to the requests of meetings” from the Working Group on Enforced Disappearance. However, five years later, the government still refuses to invite the UN Working Group to visit Bangladesh, despite former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urging them to do so as a demonstration of commitment to decisively address the issue.

The Bangladesh government is called upon to grant immediate unfettered access for human rights monitors and invite the UN special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples to the area.

“The Bangladesh government has repeatedly ignored the clear and tangible pathways laid out by UN experts for the Bangladesh government to remedy a pattern of grave abuses,” said Julia Bleckner, senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The UPR should underscore for Bangladesh the reputational cost of its failure to comply with human rights obligations.”

* The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique mechanism of the Human Rights Council that calls for each UN Member State to undergo a peer review of its human rights records every 4.5 years. The UPR provides each State the opportunity to regularly report on the actions it has taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to receive recommendations from UN Member States for continuous improvement. Established in March 2006 by the UN General Assembly in resolution 60/251, the UPR is designed to prompt, support, and expand the promotion and protection of human rights in every country. Since the first periodic review in 2008, all 193 UN Member States have been reviewed three times. The fourth cycle of review began in November 2022, at the 41st session of the UPR Working Group.