With the acceptance of three UN experts

Dhaka: After the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Bangladesh has questioned the statement made by three experts of the organization on the human rights situation.

This question was raised in a response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday (November 21).

It said the Bangladesh government expects the three UN Special Rapporteurs (SRs) to be ‘impartial and objective’ in carrying out their mandate as per the Code of Conduct. Sadly, this has not been the case with SRs. They have come up with such a negative observation that the sincere efforts of the Bangladesh government to improve the human rights situation have been completely negated.

Bangladesh’s response is also said that the UPR of 14 countries was observed in the recently concluded session of the UPR Working Group this November. It is noteworthy that the experts issued a statement only on Bangladesh, where they are silent on the numerous developments in Bangladesh. However, the majority of delegates participating in the UPR review praised Bangladesh. By doing so they have dishonored their UN credentials as experts. They misused the media center of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to promote their personal and biased views.

Note that on November 14, three UN experts, Irene Khan, Clement Wall and Mary Lawlor, issued a statement published by OHCHR. In this statement, they termed the human rights situation in Bangladesh as deteriorating and urged Bangladesh to take the review of the human rights situation in the United Nations Human Rights Council as an opportunity.

Three UN experts denounced mass arrests of activists demanding minimum wages and political activists demanding free and fair elections. He also expressed concern over the harassment of journalists, human rights activists, civil society leaders through the judiciary and the failure to reform laws that undermine freedom of expression.

Bangladesh Time: 1726 hours, November 21, 2023
TR/MJF