3 new laws reverse rights protections, break govt’s commitments to reform: HRW

Three laws approved in September this year by the Bangladeshi parliament have reversed human rights protections and broken the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) commitments to reform, Human Rights Watch said today, Wednesday, in a media release. According to the global rights body, the legislation removes safeguards created by the interim government, which ruled Bangladesh between August 2024 and February 2026, reducing protections that could prevent a return to violations such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings which were widespread in the past. The interim government had introduced two ordinances to strengthen the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), including powers to prevent, investigate, and seek accountability for enforced disappearances.

After being elected earlier this year, the government of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has now legislated to remove the NHRC’s independence and weaken its investigative powers, the release said. The third law purports to abolish the paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a law enforcement agency responsible for extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture, but in effect only renames it while providing fewer safeguards than apply to the regular police, the HRW said. “To prevent a return to the terrible abuses of the past, Bangladesh needs real security sector reform and an independent human rights body with the authority to investigate allegations of abuse,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The new government’s efforts to shield security forces from scrutiny and accountability offer no reason to trust that killings and disappearances will remain a thing of the past. ” Under the Awami League government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which ruled…