The report covers the period from July 01, 2008 to September 30, 2012 that includes two governments; the caretaker government in power from July 1, 2008 to January 5, 2009, and the current 14-party Grand Alliance government, led by the Awami League that assumed power on January 6, 2009. During the first UPR session, 42 recommendations were made of which the Bangladesh government accepted 34. In this report the ALRC and Odhikar highlight the state of implementation of key recommendations as well as human rights developments since the first cycle review took place.
In this report, the ALRC and Odhikar show that since January 6, 2009, the current elected government has failed to improve the human rights situation a culture of impunity prevails; despite the promise of ‘zero tolerance’ by Foreign
Minister of Bangladesh in the first UPR session on matters such as extra-judicial killings, torture and custodial deaths. Furthermore, Bangladesh made voluntary pledges to cooperate with Human Rights Council and Treaty Bodies, but, as will be seen in the following report, such cooperation is poor and should be taken into consideration next time Bangladesh seeks membership in the Human Rights Council.
A significant development in the way in which the authorities carry out grave human rights violations can be seen in the fact that while extrajudicial killings are declining in number, the number of enforced disappearance has increased in the
period in question here.
The report describes developments to the normative and institutional framework since the first UPR review and the implementation of recommendations from the 1st cycle. It concludes with 15 recommendations to the Working Group on the UPR and the Human Rights Council.
report-UPR report ALRC and Odhikar-2012-eng (full text in English, PDF)
