Stop the violence, illegal arrests and abductions and extrajudicial killings of the students and citizens of Bangladesh

Stop the violence, illegal arrests and abductions and extrajudicial killings of the students and citizens of Bangladesh

Chiang Mai, Thailand
02 August 2024 

Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) condemns the continuous violence, extrajudicial killings, illegal abductions, detentions and arrests of the students and unarmed citizens all over Bangladesh. 

On 1 July 2024, university students launched protests to demand reforms in the existing quota system which reserves 30 percent of government jobs for descendants of independence war veterans, claiming that it unjustly favours supporters of the ruling party. Following this, a peaceful protest on 15 July 2024 was met with severe crackdown by the government, police forces, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and military forces, killing more than 200 people since, with more than 75 deaths reported in a single day. Thousands more people were injured. 

The government of Bangladesh imposed a total shutdown of the internet across the country on the 18th of July cutting the country off from the rest of the world. Five days later, on the 23rd of July, the internet shutdown was partially lifted in some parts of the country. However, the nationwide surveillance continues to date. 

The police forces are conducting arbitrary arrests and detentions of protesters, activists and members of the public nationwide. The police have also subjected journalists to violence and disrupted their efforts to report freely and safely. The government also issued a blanket ban on protests further restricting the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

Recent media reports state that security forces have conducted raids and mass arrests targeting students and opposition activists across many neighbourhoods. Tallies by Bangladeshi newspapers have put the number of arrested at more than 11,000 and the number of accused of various crimes around the country at more than 200,000. More than 3,000 people had been arrested in the past two weeks in Dhaka alone as of 29 July 2024.

A lot of minors have also been illegally arrested and charged with false accusations. They have been brought to adult courts for trial and their remand applications were accepted by the Metropolitan Court, which is a direct violation of The Children Act 2013. The act explicitly mandates that minors should be tried in juvenile courts, which are designed to consider their best interests and focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment.

Bangladesh is a party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), where Article 37 states that detention or imprisonment of children can be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest amount of time that is appropriate. This Convention also forbids torture and other cruel treatment. 

The government of Bangladesh is also obligated to uphold the UN General Assembly Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which clearly states that, for ‘the purpose of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, at the national and international levels’. 

It is also a direct violation of the constitutional right of the people of Bangladesh as Article 39 of the Constitution of Bangladesh guarantees the right of every citizen to freedom of speech and expression and the freedom of press, where the government is the very perpetrator that goes against its own law. 

APWLD calls on the government of Bangladesh:

• To immediately stop any act of violence and harassment against the students, unarmed citizens and political activists;

• To immediately end their repressive measures which are a deliberate attempt to crush protests and any future dissent; and
• To bring the actual perpetrators to account and ensure access to justice and remedies to those who have been targeted and brutally attacked for their activism.

The Judiciary of Bangladesh:

• To defend human rights and fundamental freedoms of the students and human rights defenders, and immediately drop all false charges against them. They deserve honour and justice, not judicial harassment; and
• To immediately implement the protective writ of prohibition and habeas corpus to stop harassments, police brutality and illegal abductions of the students and human rights defenders.