The Human Rights Forum (HRF) on Monday demanded implementation of recommendations made at the 16th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to ensure punishment in cases of extra-judicial killings, repression and forced disappearance and making them public at the earliest. The HRF president, Sultana Kamal, made the demand at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Monday.
HRF member and executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, chief executive of Nagorik Uddyok, Zakir Hossain, executive director of STEPS, Ranjan Karmakar, and others were present on the occasion.
Sultana said foreign minister Dipu Moni’s statement on extra-judicial killings, repression and forced disappearance is “very frustrating and unacceptable”. The government iterated its zero tolerance policy in incidents of human rights violation by law enforcers, but the minister claimed that no such incident has taken place, despite there being allegations of extra-judicial killings, disappearance and repression.
Sultana, also a former adviser to a caretaker government, said the HRF feels the minister was suppressing the truth. “There is no way allegations of human rights violation by law enforcers, particularly RAB, can be denied. We have long been demanding that fair investigations be carried out into such allegation,” she added.
The foreign minister, during her three-hour review meeting on the human rights situation at the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council, focused on progress and government measures in implementing the UPR’s recommendation.
Representatives from 97 countries placed 196 recommendations to improve the human rights situation in Bangladesh. They, however, appreciated the progress made in some sectors.
The major recommendations were stopping extra-judicial killings, ensuring workers’ rights and safe working condition, stopping violence against women and children, human trafficking and abolishing death sentence.
-With The Independent input
