The current human rights situation in Bangladesh reflects an increasing global erosion of the gains achieved by the socio-political struggles of the people against repression at various levels – family, community and the state. Violations of human rights in Bangladesh are challenges faced by the country routinely every year. Unfortunately, old issues remain largely unresolved and new ones crop up to add to the existing list of violations, due to political and partisan considerations.
The report includes a comparative scenario of reported human rights violations in 2005 and 2006. The following topics are covered:
- Bomb blasts
- Impunity of law enforcement officers
- Bangladesh-India border
- National security laws
- The death penalty
- Freedom of the press
- Economic rights
- Access to water
- Women’s rights
- Child rights
- Rights of minority groups
Conclusion
The history of the human rights movement has strong roots in Bangladesh and is grounded in the liberation struggle. The human rights movement in Bangladesh has entered a critical and mature stage and engaged in dialogue in the spheres of political, civil, socio-economic and cultural issues and at the same time is engaged in interrogating the implicit and explicit biases and prejudices in the discourse of ‘human rights’ and it genealogies. There is no independent human rights institution in Bangladesh. In a press conference in October, the Law Minister said the Law Ministry forwarded a bill to constitute an ‘Independent Human Rights Commission’ but the long awaited and pending bill was not passed in the Parliament by the last government.
Annual Human Rights Report (full text in English, PDF)
