This is the fourth of five open letters that the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) feels compelled to write to the UN Human Rights Council on the horrible human rights situation in Bangladesh, and its causes. As noted, we are doing this as we are deeply concerned for the integrity and credibility of the Council if Bangladesh is permitted to sit as a member for the coming three years as intended.
In our first, second and third letters we wrote about the failures of the Government of Bangladesh to address torture and extrajudicial killings, and to make the country’s judiciary independent.
In our fourth letter we draw attention to the rampant corruption for which Bangladesh is infamous and its consequences for human rights and the rule of law there.
In its 13 April 2006 statement to the UN in advance of getting a seat on the Human Rights Council, the Government of Bangladesh said that it “is committed to its fight against corruption”. It pointed out that an ostensibly independent Anti-Corruption Commission has been established under a new law, which can initiate investigations and legal action at will. It pledged to “continue to ensure [its] independence”.
As in virtually every other remark made by the Government of Bangladesh with the purpose of seeing itself elected to the Council, these self-congratulatory words fall far from reality. In fact, the anti-corruption commission has been hamstrung by the government due to problems in its establishment and a lack of working arrangements and resources. Previously there was a failed anti-corruption bureau under the home affairs ministry. Although this bureau was abolished under the new law, its staff were to be absorbed into the new commission; additionally, the secretary of the commission is a bureaucrat transferred from another part of government, raising questions about its “independence” and the integrity of its personnel. Although it is reported that the bureau staff were not later hired by the commission, the decision to take them on deeply damaged its credibility. And from the start also there have been arguments over the size and structure of the commission which remain unresolved. Furthermore, as yet there are no rules of business for the commission–a responsibility of the law ministry–without which it is unable to function properly. As a result, to date the commission is not known to have completed a single investigation, and no one has been charged or punished for corruption as a result of its work.
The anti-corruption commission has so far proven unable to diminish corruption in Bangladesh despite the country being among the most corrupt in the world. Corruption is a part of nearly every government or official transaction in Bangladesh, especially where policing agencies are involved. Transparency International has for some five consecutive years named Bangladesh the most corrupt country in the world. A minister who was identified as presiding over the most corrupt part of civil administration reportedly responded by calling for the researchers and abusing them.
In our previous letter, the AHRC described how two men arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion were killed after their families allegedly failed to produce enough money in exchange for their lives. By way of another example, on 27 June 2005 Abdur Razzak died in Bogra jail after allegedly after being denied medical treatment because his mother could not raise sufficient money for the prison doctor. When she learnt that he had not treated her son despite getting a bribe, Razzak’s mother complained to the authorities, who allegedly responded by ordering a group of prisoners to beat Razzak to within an inch of his life. He subsequently died.
Corruption in Bangladesh is sometimes a matter of life and death, as in these instances, but more often than not is part of a daily struggle for the ordinary person, steadily grinding down public confidence in the role of the state and its institutions. There is a widespread loss of faith in any kind of decent or rational behaviour by officials. When money-motivated police officers and petty bureaucrats constantly interfere in the day-to-day activities of people throughout the country, the making of a successful venture for social improvement is impossible. Corruption kills initiative. All strategies are warped by its presence. Qualified people with hopes for the future find no prospects in Bangladesh and move abroad. Those who are determined to be successful at home must learn to accommodate and manipulate corrupt police, prosecutors, politicians and officials. Ordinary persons with fewer choices go about their lives in an effort to attract minimum attention and avoid the possible negative consequences.
The AHRC seriously doubts that the Government of Bangladesh has any serious intentions to address corruption. Had it any intention to do so, by now the Independent Anti-corruption Commission would be a fully-functioning agency showing the necessary resolve to take hard steps and secure convictions: without which talk of anti-corruption efforts is all but meaningless. When the government of Hong Kong set up its own Independent Commission Against Corruption it provided it with the resources and guarantees that allowed it to launch intense investigations, arrests and prosecutions that within a few years completely transformed the bureaucratic and civic life in the territory. There is no evidence that Bangladesh’s new commission will be capable of doing anything of the same, or that it has any serious backing from the country’s political masters. As a result, the people of Bangladesh will continue to suffer from onerous and incessant demands that undermine both any prospects for enjoyment of human rights or the likelihood of national development any time soon.
The Asian Human Rights Commission has recalled that the Government of Bangladesh has pledged to “remain prepared to be reviewed under the universal periodic review mechanism during its tenure in the Council”. The AHRC for a fourth time urges the Council to call on that pledge, and review the status of Bangladesh as a member of the Council as soon as the means is established to do so. The failure of the government to address the corruption that is suffocating its people is intolerable. It is daily demoralising the people of Bangladesh to the point of no return. It is the characteristic not of a country that is moving forward into the 21st century with legitimate aspirations for its people but one that is being dragged backwards and downwards by the unbearable demands from layer upon layer of insatiable police, paramilitaries, prosecutors and administrators.
I request that your office transmit this letter to all members of the Council for their consideration.
Yours sincerely
Basil Fernando
Executive Director
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
