TON Bangladesh

Lately, the global human rights protectors heavily condemned the Bangladesh government’s move to deregister top NGO Odhikar. As the Odhikar human rights group had registered alleged rights abuses by Bangladesh's notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

The Bangladesh government has canceled the operating license of one of its top human rights Odhikar groups in a move intended to send a “frightening message” to the rights defenders in the country. Bangladesh refused to renew the licence of Odhikar human rights group, and accused the group of “tarnishing the image of the Bangladesh state to the world”.

The Odhikar had been raising human rights issues in the South Asian country since its foundation in 1994. It worked closely with the United Nations in recording thousands of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances purportedly committed by the Bangladeshi security forces.

The group had registered alleged rights abuses by Bangladesh’s notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite police unit sanctioned by the United States in December last year. The RAB is accused of participation in hundreds of disappearances and closely 600 extrajudicial killings since 2018.

Since the US sanctions, Dhaka on numerous occasions queried Washington to reassess its decision. In April this year, Bangladesh’s foreign minister even said he had required New Delhi’s help to get the sanction on RAB and some of its officials withdrew.

This move by Dhaka sends an alarming message that the government doesn’t care about mending its rights record and that it wants to control the story about rights issues in Bangladesh a narrative that always comes across as more reliable when it’s articulated by an NGO like Odhikar as opposed to the government.

Such steps of Bangladesh against Odhikar is inviting further US sanctions. It’s certainly making Washington more suspicious regarding the worse genuinely committed human record Bangladesh. .

In April this year, Odhikar said in a statement the government was retaliating against the NGOs that accused the RAB of rights abuses. Among the measures taken by the government was the watching of foreign funding received by the rights groups?

The circular stated that “foreign aids of some NGOs including Human Rights Watch, Odhikar, Ain o Salish Kendra and BLAST could be checked sternly”. The fact-based information about various extrajudicial killings, including alleged disappearances and murders, has been published on the organization’s own website, creating various issues for Bangladesh.

There is no opportunity to consider the application for renewal of the registration submitted by Odhikar as the activities of the organization are not satisfactory due to inconsistencies in the application for renewal of registration and the organization has been operating in “a regulatory limbo” since it sought to renew its 10-year license in 2014.

The Adhikari's went to the court to challenge that inaction interestingly, we had a hearing scheduled hearing. The Bangladeshi authorities cancelled the license of human rights origination even though the issue is under trial which is unethical and unacceptable. The act of the Bangladesh government seems resolute to show that all concerns over its human rights record are justified.

When the US has issued sanctions against the Rapid Action Battalion and several of its serving and former officers, the Bangladeshi government blamed human rights groups, not the security personnel and other officials that are blamed to over hundreds of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Above all, the authorities blamed Odhikar, a human rights group that has previously been beleaguered repeatedly, their funds held up, offices raided, and surveillance.

The authorities in Bangladesh “must immediately cancel the decision to capriciously ban” Odhikar and allow the rights group “to work without fear of punishments”. Odhikar’s documentation of human right violations has been critical in holding perpetrators to account in Bangladesh.

It is ridiculous that the authorities withheld the registration of the rights group for eight years and then annulled it because of the global rage they faced for a poor human rights record. The annulment of the rights group’s registration is “additional blow to the already awful human rights record of Bangladesh. It has sent a bad message to the outside world that civil society groups and human rights defenders who speak up on human rights issues will be frightened and hushed.

The government of Bangladesh should must reverse this appalling decision which has tarnished the its image international due to such acts and instead take steps to create a friendly and conducive environment for civil society to carry on their work without retaliations. However, Hunan Right organization must also think thousands times before involving any government institution on weak evidences.