ALRC-CWS-36-006-2017
18 August 2017
18 August 2017
A Written Submission to the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal
Resource Centre
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to update the United
Nations Human Rights Council about the situation of Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances in Bangladesh. Enforced disappearances are
increasing alarmingly in Bangladesh since Mrs. Sheikh Hasina has
become the Prime Minister in January 2009. The victims’ families and
the eye-witnesses have consistently accused the law-enforcement
agencies including the national police and the Rapid Action Battalion
(RAB) for being responsible for enforced disappearances.
Bangladesh continues to disregard the calls of the UN Working Group on
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) and the Human Rights
Committee to end enforced disappearances. Instead, the government has
defended its actions by denials, and guaranteeing impunity to the
perpetrators. The country’s law-enforcement agencies are engaged in
this crime consistently for last eight years. Justice institutions are
incapable of providing any protection of redress to the victims.
At least, 388 people have been victims of enforced disappearances from
January 2009 to July 2017. In 2016, the law-enforcement agencies
allegedly disappeared 91 people. Within July 2017, at least 60 people
have disappeared. These statistics represent only a partial reality.
This is because many families do not dare to speak against the crime
due to intimidation, threats, and surveillance by the law-enforcement
agencies. At least, 113 of the victims of disappearances belong to the
opposition political parties.
Human rights defenders associated with the ALRC have documented that
the RAB, the police and the Detective Branch (DB) of the police are
the main agencies that abduct and disappear people. Statements by
families of the victims and eyewitnesses confirm this. Unidentified
civilians claiming to be officials from the government have also been
found involved in abduction and disappearances.
The victims’ families struggle to survive, having to face
intimidation and threats by the law-enforcement agencies. Complaining
against disappearances is impossible since the complaint has to be
filed with the police. The police, the RAB, and the DB consistently
deny their involvement in each of the individual cases of
disappearances. Such denials are made directly to the relatives of the
victims, journalists, and human rights defenders.
The acts of enforced disappearances get direct support from the
Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Law, and personally the
Prime Minister. All of them deny allegations of enforced
disappearances .
The ministers and the Prime Minister do not limit their act to mere
denials. By making fun over the alleged disappearance of the
opposition leader, Mr. Salahuddin Ahmed, the Prime Minister has
reiterated that the government does not have any intention of
investigating disappearances as long as Mrs. Hasina is in office. It
indicates that the incumbent government has adopted a policy of
disappearing citizens, and this policy is being systematically
implemented with impunity.
The government pose immense challenges on any attempt to seek redress
for enforced disappearances. The case of Mr. Sheikh Mokhlesur Rahman
a.k.a. Johny, a homeopathic doctor from Satkhira district town
reflects the struggles of the families of the disappeared in
Bangladesh. The Satkhira Sadar police, led by Sub Inspector Mr. Himel
Hossain, picked up Mokhlesur at around 9:00 pm on 4 August 2016 from
the New Market in Satkhira district town. The police raided
Mokhlesur’s house after that at midnight without any warrant. His
wife Jesmine Nahar and father Sheikh Abdur Rashid found Mokhlesur
detained in the police cell at the Satkhira Sadar Police Station on
the following day, 5 August.
The police arbitrarily detained Mokhlesur without producing him before
a Magistrate. The police even did not record the arrest and detention.
From August 5 to 7 the family served food to Mokhlesur by bribing the
police, who otherwise do not provide food to a detainee.
On 8 August, the family found Mokhlesur missing from the police cell.
The police did not produce him before any court or sent to any prison.
The police officers denied disclosing the whereabouts of Mokhlesur
when the family enquired about him. The police officers insisted that
the family must not reveal any information to the media regarding the
arbitrary detention and disappearance. The police also refused to
register any complaint or General Diary (GD) entry regarding the
arrest, detention and subsequent disappearance. The victim’s wife
repeatedly attempted to register a GD entry for months and got refused
by the police officers.
When all the efforts went in vain, in March 2017, Jesmine Nahar held a
press conference and exposed the matter in public. She also filed a
Habeas Corpus Writ before the High Court Division of the Supreme Court
of Bangladesh. In May 2017, a Division Bench heard the writ and
ordered a judicial probe into the matter. Upon the High Court’s
order, the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Satkhira district assigned Mr.
Habibullah Mahmud, a Senior Judicial Magistrate, to probe the case.
The police officers lied to the magistrate during the investigation
while the eyewitnesses and former co-detainees who stayed in the same
police cell with Mokhlesur confirmed that Mokhlesur was detained for
days in the Satkhira Sadar Police Station. The judicial probe report
is submitted to the High Court Bench, which has not yet taken any
action against the police officers. The judicial probe on
Mokhlesur’s disappearance is the first ever publicly known
investigation in any case of alleged disappearances in last eight
years in Bangladesh.
The ALRC and its partners have documented several cases where the
families had approached to the judiciary to seek legal redress.
Regrettably, there has been no effective remedy provided to the
petitioners before the High Court Division. Extreme forms of
politicised recruitments to the higher judiciary has been one of the
reasons why the judiciary is failing to take any action in the cases
of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and other gross
violation of human rights.
The UN WGEID and the UN HRC need to understand that Bangladesh’s
human rights problems are directly related to political power grabbing
or retaining strategies. The incumbent Prime Minister and the
collapsed justice framework are behind the systemic enforced
disappearances and other severe forms of human rights abuses. The
Special Procedures, including the WGEID, needs to send further
reminders to Bangladesh regarding their requests to visit the country.
The international community need to accept that restoration of
democracy in Bangladesh can only open the opportunity to stop enforced
disappearances and other gross violation of human rights. It must be
coupled with rebuilding the justice institutions for the purpose of
upholding the rule of law, which is not in existence at the moment.
Read this Statement online
# # #
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) works towards the radical
rethinking & fundamental redesigning of justice institutions in Asia,
to ensure relief and redress for victims of human rights violations,
as per Common Article 2 of the International Conventions. Sister
organisation to the Asian Human Rights Commission, the ALRC is based
in Hong Kong & holds general consultative status with the Economic &
Social Council of the United Nations.
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