HR Organizations Write UN to Ban RAB from Peacekeeping

12 human rights organizations have requested The United Nations Department of Peace Operations to ban the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from UN deployment. 12 organizations made the request in a letter to Under-Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix, which has been made public today.

The letter also mentioned UN human rights experts have voiced concerns about allegations that members of the unit engaged in torture, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations.

The Department of Peacekeeping Operations has yet to provide a formal response to the letter which was sent privately over two months ago on November 8, 2021.

On December 10, the United States government-designated RAB as a “foreign entity that is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse,” under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.

On December 5, the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances voiced concerns that “members of the RAB would be eligible to participate in UN peacekeeping operations, without any previous investigation into their alleged involvement in the commission of human rights abuses or a thorough vetting process.” The Working Group also said that officers involved in, or willing to tolerate, abuses “appear to be promoted and rewarded within the Bangladesh security and law enforcement forces.”

The UN Committee against Torture recommended that the Bangladesh government “establish an independent vetting procedure, with appropriate UN guidance, for all military and police personnel proposed for deployment in UN peace missions and ensure that no person or unit implicated in the commission of torture, extrajudicial killing, disappearances or other serious human rights violations is selected for service.”

The United States also sanctioned seven current or former officials of the Rapid Action Battalion, including the country’s police chief, Benazir Ahmed, who has a long history of employment with the UN. Ahmed served as director general of the RAB from 2015 to 2019.

In a television interview, IGP Benazir Ahmed said the US sanctions were based on “false and fabricated lies” adding that people calling for a ban on RAB from UN peacekeeping are “trying to embarrass our government and our country.” In response to the announcement of US sanctions, RAB deputy chief KM Azad said, “If bringing down a criminal under the law is a violation of human rights, then we have no objection to violating this human rights in the interest of the country.”

“The deployment of members of the RAB in peacekeeping operations reinforces a message that grave human rights abuses will not preclude one from service under the UN flag and increases the chances of human rights abuses being committed in UN missions,” said Louis Charbonneau, United Nations director at Human Rights Watch. “The UN should send a clear signal to host and troop-contributing countries that abusive units will not be part of the UN.”

The organizations that signed the letter are:

1. Amnesty International
2. Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)
3. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
4. Asian Human Rights Commission
5. Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)
6. Capital Punishment Justice Project
7. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
8. Human Rights Watch
9. International Federation for Human Rights
10. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
11. The Advocates for Human Rights
12. World Organization Against Torture (OMCT)