10 Human Rights Organizations Call on UN to Take Measures Against Bangladesh to End Torture in Security Custody

Ten international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have called on the United Nations and relevant countries to take final action, noting that Bangladesh's government has failed to address widespread allegations of torture and ill-treatment in custody against the country's security forces.

A coalition of ten international human rights organizations sent a joint statement on Saturday, saying Bangladeshi law enforcement and intelligence agencies have arrested and tortured detainees and suspects.

However, the government of Bangladesh has described such allegations as baseless and untruthful.

The methods of torture mentioned by the organizations are:

The statement noted the brutal treatment of detainees by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including beatings with iron rods, belts and sticks, Electrical shocks to the ears and genitals, waterboarding, hanging from the roof, shooting in the legs, making loud noises or singing near the ears, placing sharp objects under the soles of the feet, arranging death dramas and stripping events etc.

Hundreds of people have been abducted or extra-judicially killed, the statement said.

UN calls for resolution:

Brad Adams, the executive director of the Asian division of Human Rights Watch, said: "Concerns have been raised by Bangladeshi human rights activists, international groups, and UN experts about torture in detention, however, in response, only denials and false statements being made."

"For decades, Bangladesh's leaders have been talking about reform, but each government has exacerbated this authoritarianism, created a culture of abuse and acquitted the security forces."

The statement said the UN Human Rights Council should adopt a resolution to stop disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh.

The statement from the 10 joint organizations said that the government of Bangladesh had failed to follow up on the recommendations made in the 2019 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Among those recommendations is a formal statement from the highest levels of the government stating that torture will not be tolerated and that law enforcement will not keep it secret after detaining someone.

The statement said that cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore has filed a case alleging that he was tortured. He also described the kind of torture he suffered during his detention. Kabir also gave a description of how another writer, Mushtaq Ahmed, was tortured to human rights organizations.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan's response:

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has described the statement as baseless and untruthful. "The allegations they are talking about do not happen here," he told the BBC.

"When someone is detained in Bangladesh, they are often interrogated. There, according to the rules of law, they are interrogated following his rights, human rights.''

The Home Minister said that there is a law in Bangladesh to prevent torture. If someone is tortured, action is taken according to that law. As a result, there is no scope for such torture in Bangladesh.

Organizations that have made this statement:

1. Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)

2. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development

3. Asian Human Rights Commission

4. Asian Network for Free Elections

5. Civicus: World Alliance for Citizen Participation

6. Eloise Justice-Monash University

7. Human Rights Watch

8. International Federation for Human Rights

9. World Organization Against Torture

10. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.

Source: Collected and translated from BBC Bangla