A report released Saturday on the remedy of human rights activists in Bangladesh discovered that no less than 65 p.c of surveyed human rights defenders stated that the ruling Awami League social gathering, regulation enforcement and intelligence providers have obstructed their work.
The report entitled “Who Defends the Defenders?” was produced in collaboration between the Centre for Governance Studies and 50 human rights defenders within the area.
It finally discovered that the overwhelming majority (86 p.c) of human rights activists face a myriad of challenges, with 62 p.c claiming the general setting of their work is “very unsafe” or “unsafe.” Moreover, 42.3 p.c famous that threats, intimidation and persecution got here from sources linked to the state, together with regulation enforcement, state intelligence businesses and authorities officers.
This intimidation resulted in 28.6 p.c of respondents cutting down their work in consequence, whereas 10.7 p.c felt compelled to go away their areas. Additional, many of those threats went unreported by victims (36 p.c) as a consequence of a scarcity of belief within the authorized system (20.5 p.c), worry of retribution (20.5 p.c) or the absence of correct investigations (17.8 p.c).
The report additionally highlighted that the state of affairs in Bangladesh has been criticized by worldwide human rights organizations for years. For instance, in 2021 Frontline Defenders, a Dublin-based worldwide group reported, “Human rights defenders in Bangladesh face judicial harassment, arbitrary arrest, fabricated prices, abduction, bodily assaults, torture, and extrajudicial killings.”
Equally, in June 2022 the Asian Human Rights Commission claimed, “Human rights defenders, dissidents, and political opposition survive in a profoundly harmful situation of civic area in Bangladesh.”
These feedback align with the Reporters Without Borders 2023 Press Freedom Index, which ranked Bangladesh 163 out of 180 international locations. They famous that, “Uncovered to police violence, assaults by political activists and murders orchestrated by Jihadist or felony organisations, Bangladeshi journalists are all of the extra susceptible as a result of this violence goes unpunished.”
In the end, the report highlighted a way of anguish felt by human rights defenders within the area “relating to the system that has failed to guard human rights in addition to human rights defenders,” a state of affairs which, from their perspective, is worsening.
