Bangladesh likely to sign international convention on enforced disappearances before Aug 30
Bangladesh plans to sign the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance soon, a top official of the interim government said here on Wednesday.
Dhaka: Bangladesh plans to sign the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance soon, a top official of the interim government said here on Wednesday.
The interim government is considering forming a commission to investigate the incidents of forced disappearances as many people disappeared during the reign of the ousted Sheikh Hasina government, Chief Adviser’s press secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters at the Foreign Service Academy.
The issue of signing the international convention was discussed in the meeting of the Advisory Council of the interim government, he said.
The signing may take place before August 30, Alam said.
He added that the council wants to ratify it before August 30 as well.
Alam said it is still being investigated how many people have disappeared in Bangladesh, but citing human rights organisation Odhikar, he said the number is “about 700”.
Many have returned, many were found dead, but “more than 150 people still remain missing,” he said.
Asked which period these cases refer to, the top official said, “We know, we had some disappearances…In mid-1990s, but the bulk of the cases happened during Sheikh Hasina’s time from 2009-2024.”
Alam said the interim government is committed to investigating “each case of enforced disappearances”.
There is a discussion to form a commission to look into the cases of disappearances, he said, adding that there is a similar Commission in Sri Lanka which they will look into.
The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances falls on August 30.
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance came into force on December 23, 2010, according to the UN Human Rights website.
Currently, the State Party count stands at 75; the number of signatories at 40, and 82 are in the ‘No Action’ category.
According to Article 1 of the Convention, “no one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance”.
“No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance,” it says.
Article 2 reads — “For the purposes of this Convention, ‘enforced disappearance’ is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.”
Hasina fled to India on August 5 after resigning from her post amidst unprecedented anti-government student-led protests.
The Hasina-led government was replaced by an interim government, and 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was named its Chief Adviser.
Bangladesh’s interim government has said it will try those involved in the killings during the recent mass movement of the students against the Hasina-led government in the International Crimes Tribunal.
Over 230 people were killed in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government, taking the death toll to more than 600 since the massive protest by students against a controversial quota system in government jobs first started in mid-July.
