Dear Ms. Arbour,
Re: Bangladesh should criminalize torture and appoint independent investigation bodies to conduct prompt inquiries into torture, extra-judicial killings and other serious violations of human rights.
The simple fact is that there is no redress of any sort regarding gross violations of human rights in Bangladesh. There is no law recognising torture as a crime, despite of the fact that the country acceded to the Convention Against Torture (CAT) in 1998. Accession without implementation does not serve any purpose in protecting the rights of people. The government should be urged to make torture a crime, in line with the terms of the CAT, and thereby take the most important initial step towards the protection and promotion of human rights.
The rule of law in Bangladesh is greatly flawed, and extreme corruption within the police force is a symbol of the denial of rights of the people. Human rights groups are of the view that over 50% of the people who are arrested and tortured are innocent persons belonging to the poorer sections of Bangladesh. The monetary gains that the police can make by way of arrest and detention, threats of torture and actual torture, are often the grounds for arrest. Often, persons actually implicated in crimes can buy their freedom, and innocents are arrested in their place, and tortured to force confessions of guilt.
The spread of crime and political violence have caused the establishment of new units such as the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). From the inception of the RAB, the number of ‘crossfire killings’ – otherwise known as ‘encounter killings’ has increased. The overwhelming perception is that many such deaths are in fact due to extra-judicial killings after arrest. However, within the judicial system there are few possibilities to contest these issues, so such killings are not investigated and go unpunished.
While there is a long list of human rights abuses that can be mentioned – as for example the gross abuse of the rights of women and children, the rights of minorities such as the Ahmadiyyas, Hindus, Christians and indigenous people – the main cause of such violations are the defects in the justice system, which deny the possibility of having effective rule of law in the country.
AHRC has highlighted its concerns relating to Bangladesh in a special report produced for the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2005.
The AHRC kindly requests that you intervene with the authorities in Bangladesh, in order to urge them to make torture a crime, in line with the Convention Against Torture. AHRC also requests that you intervene with UN and other international agencies to push for a policy of improvement of the rule of law, through the strengthening of basic institutions of justice, as the key way to improve the protection and promotion of human rights.
Thank you for the kind consideration you will give these matters.
Yours sincerely,
Basil Fernando
Executive Director
Link to the Bangladesh report: http://www.ahrchk.net/hrday2005/pdf/HRDay-Bangladesh.pdf
Link to AHRC’s 2005 International Human Rights Day page: http://www.ahrchk.net/hrday2005/
Link to AHRC’s Human Rights Day Message: http://www.ahrchk.net/hrday2005/05message.htm
