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“National security cannot be ensured without guaranteeing people’s rights,” Iftekharuzzaman said, suggesting that the NHRC be empowered to visit and inspect institutions such as the army and intelligence agencies whenever rights violations are reported.

“The NHRC and similar other commissions have turned into a ‘rehabilitation centre’ for retired bureaucrats,” he added, stressing the need for clear eligibility criteria for appointing the chairperson and members.

Iftekharuzzaman, who also heads the Anti-Corruption Commission Reform Commission, said aspirations for reform will not succeed without institutional change.

He said the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, National Security Intelligence, Detective Branch of police, and National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre were instrumental in creating “a surveillance-based society through consistent human rights violations”.

“People once kept their phones away at public events, fearing surveillance, but now they have developed ‘a fake confidence’ that they are no longer being watched.

“But I can guarantee you these are all being recorded and will be made public when necessary. They [these institutions] have that capacity.”

He said several recommendations, both national and international -- including from the United Nations -- have clearly called for reforms to these institutions and the abolition of the Rapid Action Battalion. “Why is the interim government not announcing its position on the matter or taking any action?”

Noted economist Debapriya Bhattacharya, convener of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs and moderator of the dialogue, said past experience shows the NHRC chair must not only be honest and virtuous but also courageous enough to stand up to the powerful.

“The commission in the past had neither claws nor teeth. As a result, it could not bite. We don’t want such a commission again,” he said, adding that the public does not want “a good individual but without backbone” to lead the NHRC.

Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua said appointing former bureaucrats to the NHRC had created a “conflict of interest” in the past and urged that the new ordinance include a clause disqualifying them.

Barrister Sara Hossain, honorary executive director of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, said previous commissions had some achievements but ignored serious issues such as enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings.

She said a new commission has become necessary amid rising rights violations, with “mob violence” now frequent.

Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation, said hundreds of people have been jailed without bail while extortion remains rampant. “Yet there is silence on these issues in the absence of the commission.”

She added that the NHRC cannot function effectively if the government itself gets involved in serious rights violations.

Eminent jurist Shahdeen Malik called for lowering public expectations of the NHRC, saying such commissions worldwide are rarely empowered to investigate serious rights violations and mostly function as an “advisory body” to the government.

Justice Moinul Islam Chowdhury, head of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, said the NHRC will administer the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Ordinance-2025, a draft of which was approved by the interim government in August.

Meanwhile, Shireen Huq, head of the Women’s Affairs Reform Commission, said activating the long-dormant office of the ombudsperson -- absent for 54 years since independence -- would help address many rights complaints and free up the NHRC to focus on violations committed by the state.