File photo.
The Daily Morning Sun Online //

The US-based human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that long-term reforms are needed to end human rights abuses in Bangladesh. This was stated in the organization’s World Report 2025 on Thursday (January 16). The 546-page report analyzes the human rights situation in more than 100 countries in HRW’s 35th annual report.

The organization’s executive director Tirana Hassan mentioned in her introductory article that governments in many countries around the world have repressed and arrested political opponents, activists and journalists. Armed groups and government forces have unlawfully killed, displaced civilians and obstructed humanitarian assistance.

It said that the interim government of Bangladesh, led by Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, has formed a commission to investigate cases of disappearances and has promised accountability and reform for human rights violations committed during the authoritarian rule of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. More than 1,000 people were killed and thousands more injured in three weeks of student protests in July and August 2024 when security forces used excessive force and indiscriminate firing.

Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director for the human rights group, said Bangladesh’s interim government had made significant progress towards a democratic and human rights-based future. However, this progress may not be sustainable without international support and deep institutional reforms.

She added that ensuring the safety of Rohingya refugees, ensuring impartial investigations and reparations for disappearances, and establishing civilian oversight of the security forces should be priorities for the interim government.

It raised concerns about a number of human rights issues in Bangladesh. These included allegations of arrests of activists and journalists and denial of their legal rights and due process, the failure of security forces to release those illegally detained or provide information to their families, and the millions of Rohingya who fled Myanmar and are facing violence in camps by armed groups and organized crime groups.

HRW has called on the interim government to reform institutions in line with human rights standards, including abolishing the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), ensuring independent oversight and accountability for security forces, ensuring unhindered access for human rights monitors in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and working with the UN refugee agency to ensure the registration of Rohingya.