US State Department.
|
Photo: Reuters
The United States has been expressing concern about the human rights situation in Bangladesh, but Washington does not see any ‘big changes’ there even in 2023.
The United States’ annual report on country-based human rights practices said in reference to Bangladesh, “Last year, serious human rights violations included extrajudicial killings, including extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the government, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrests- There are credible reports of detention, serious problems with the independence of the judiciary, repression of persons in other countries.”
The United States Department of State released the report titled ‘2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bangladesh’ on Monday.
“Arbitrary and unlawful interference with the privacy of individuals, impunity for crimes against someone and their relatives, severe restrictions on freedom of expression and the media, violence or threats of violence against journalists, arbitrary arrests or trials, censorship and serious restrictions on freedom of the Internet, peaceful assembly and There are significant interferences with freedom of association, restrictions on freedom of movement. Moreover, citizens do not have the opportunity to change the government through free and fair elections.”
In most of these cases of human rights violations, the government has ‘taken no credible action’, the report said.
Observing that there were “serious restrictions” on people’s participation in political activities last year, the Foreign Office said, “serious government corruption, severe government restrictions and suppression of domestic and international human rights organizations, widespread gender-based violence, violence against ethnic minorities or indigenous peoples, adult homosexual sex”. Criminalization of the behavior and hard child labor existed.
“The government has not taken any credible action in most cases of human rights violations. The officials or security forces involved in these incidents have not been identified and punished.”
International observers commented that the 2018 elections in Bangladesh were ‘not free and fair’ in the ‘Freedom to participate in the political process’ section of the report.
The report also highlighted the attack on independent candidate Ashraful Alam alias Hero Alam in the by-election of Dhaka-17 seat on July 17, 2023. The report revealed the involvement of Awami League related people in the attack on Hero Alam during the election campaign.
“The local police refused to take up his case against the attackers. He was assaulted and hospitalized after police pulled him out of a polling station on election day.”
The report, quoting media persons present there, said that the police had ‘refused’ to protect him from the attack by ‘riotous persons’ belonging to the government party.
The government has ‘used’ law enforcement agencies to file civil and criminal charges against opposition leaders and activists, the report said.
“The BNP and other parties have alleged that the police have arrested thousands of BNP activists during political protests throughout the year with criminal charges, supported by media reports.”
In the report of the United States, the topic of corruption in Bangladesh has also come up in 2023.
It states, “The law provides for the sentencing of officials accused of corruption; But the government has not implemented the law effectively.
“There were many cases of corruption in the government that year and the officials involved in the corruption often got impunity.”
