Objections have been raised to the statement given by three UN experts on the human rights situation in Bangladesh. A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was released on Tuesday (November 21). It questioned the admissibility of the three UN experts.
The Bangladesh government expects the three UN Special Rapporteurs (SRs) to be ‘impartial and objective’ in carrying out their mandate in accordance with the Code of Conduct, the foreign ministry statement said. 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 also said that the UPR of 14 countries was observed in the recently concluded session of the United Nations UPR (Universal Periodic Review) working group in this November. It is noteworthy that the experts issued a statement on Bangladesh only, 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 the 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 complained of widespread arrests of workers demanding minimum wages and political activists demanding free and fair elections. In addition, he expressed concern over the harassment of journalists, human rights activists, civil society leaders by the judicial system and the failure to reform laws that undermine freedom of expression.
