The overall human rights situation in Bangladesh worsened in 2012, said Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report released yesterday.
The New York-based rights group, in its “2013 World Report", said the government had sought to narrow political and civil society space, continued to shield security forces from prosecution for abuses, failed to investigate disappearances and killings, and announced stringent rules to monitor non-governmental organisations.
In the 665-page report, the HRW assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including an analysis of aftermath of the Arab spring.
The report raised questions about the trial process of International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) and the BDR mutiny.
"Serious flaws in the laws and rules of procedure governing the trials of ICT have gone unaddressed, despite proposals from the US government and many international experts while flawed trials against the members of Bangladesh Rifles accused of mutiny in 2009 continued,” said the report.
"The trials against the alleged mutineers and the alleged war criminals are deeply problematic, riddled with questions about the independence and impartiality of the judges and fairness of the process," said HRW Aisa Director Brad Adams in a statement.
He termed the situation tragic saying that those responsible for serious crimes could end up appearing to be victims of a miscarriage of justice. "By dismissing all criticism out of hand without any real inquiry into them, the government shows it is more concerned about winning votes than following the rule of law,” Adams added.
The HRW, however, welcomed the decline in extra-judicial killing by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), but said the number of killing remained very high.
“This government came to power promising the end of extrajudicial killings, a liberal environment for activists and critics, and an independent judiciary," Adams continued, “But the government no longer
seems to be even trying to achieve these goals."
The report also said the practice of disguising extra-judicial killing as “crossfire” had continued in Bangladesh, as had disappearances of opposition members and political activists. A prominent labour activist had been kidnapped and killed while other labour activists threatened.
“While the government and Rab officials claimed that they held abusers accountable, it is still a fact that no Rab or senior official has ever been held criminally accountable for any of the well-documented abductions, torture, or killings carried out by Rab," Adams said.
“Even in the highly publicised case of shooting of a schoolboy, Limon, no one has been charged, yet the authorities continue to proceed with a flawed prosecution against him.”
The HRW also mentioned increased pressure and monitoring on civil society as one of the most disturbing trends in 2012. "Non-governmental organisations, including human rights groups, reported increased threats, harassment and intimidation," said the report.
"Several human rights groups, particularly those openly critical of the government, reported problems with registration and government blocking funds for their projects. Several leading labour rights activists continue to face criminal charges, some of which
carry a possible death sentence.”
It said the government had drafted a bill regulating foreign donations which had the potential to legalise the already arbitrary and non-transparent process, by which the government regulated the receipt of foreign funding.
Although not yet passed, NGOs reported that many of the cumbersome mechanism in the bill had already been put into practice, added the report.
In August 2012, the government had announced plans to establish a new commission charged solely with regulating NGO activities, in addition to the already existing NGO Affairs Bureau, which continues to be accused of routine corruption by NGOs, the report continued.
The HRW said although Bangladesh had a strong set of laws to tackle violence against women, their implementation remained poor.
"Violence against women including rape, dowry-related assaults, and other forms of domestic violence such as acid attacks, sexual harassment, and illegal punishments in the name of “fatwas” continue."
Workers in the lucrative tannery industry continued to suffer physically from terrible work environment, causing both acute and long-term hazardous health situations, while regulations to ameliorate these conditions had gone unheeded, said the report.