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Bangladesh in the UN Human Rights Council Published on February 13, 2007
On Tuesday, May 9, Bangladesh was
elected to the newly formed Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United
Nations. Along with the other 46 member states, Bangladesh has been elected
from the Asian group that comprised 13 members. Out of the thirteen, four
elected for one-year term, four were for two-year and the other five for
three-year term. The terms were distributed simply by drawing the lot and
Bangladesh was fortunate to secure a berth in the three-year term.
Resolution 50/252 of March 15, 2006 of the General Assembly created the HRC.
Along with all other candidates, Bangladesh also made some pledges, which
were made available in UN website. Attributing the victory of Bangladesh as
a milestone in the achievements of Bangladesh's foreign policy the Foreign
Minister M Morshed Khan told a hurriedly called press briefing on May 10
that "the victory of Bangladesh in the Human Rights Council elections
signifies strong international endorsement for the government's commitment
to upholding and promoting human rights in Bangladesh which is recognised by
the global community as well as by the regional and other interna-tional
communities. When a conspiratorial campaign is launched at home and abroad
trying to brand Bangladesh as a country of human rights violations,
Bangladesh's victory is an apt reply to the critics and campaigners." In concurrence with the assertions
of two top most officials of the UN, every country who aspired to be a
member, was invited to ink her pledges and like all other candidates,
Bangladesh drafted a document highlighting a few points in support of her
candidacy. Those points reflected the universal aspirations of the people of
Bangladesh, irrespective of the government of the day. Two of them are as
follows: 1. Bangladesh's deep commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights of all of its citizens emanates from its constitutional obligation. 2. At the national level, Bangladesh, a democratic and pluralistic polity, is fully committed to the principles of good gover-nance, democracy, rule of law and promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedom of all her citizens, with particular attention to the rights of women, children and minorities. As voluntary pledges, Bangla-desh (here the govern-ment's commitments came into play) would, in addition to other things, (i) establish the National Human Rights Commission as soon as possible; (ii) separate the judiciary and executive as soon as possible. As an achievement, the document highlighted the govern-ment's commitment to fight against corruption and the formation of an Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), albeit the real independence of which and any blip of success are yet to be felt by the people. The body, in complete devoid of direction, has been in feud within its own rank and file since its inception and the country, in the mean time, proceeds uninterruptedly towards creating a few more world records, only breaking the ones of its own. Citizens of the Republic have very little knowledge of the formation of the promised National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) while they have seen the dillydallying tactics of the government in separating the judiciary from the executive branch of the government. However, if the NHRC is at all formed during the rest of the tenure of the government, its 'neutrality' may not be any better than that of current Election Commission and its activities may not be any more pronounced than the ACC. The question is how far the current government has been successful to live up to the universal aspirations of the people as outlined above. Is the govern-ment of the day adhering to its constitutional obligations? Is the law-enforcing agency uphold-ing the rule of law? Day after day, the government is telling the same fictitious story of killing innocent (According to UDHR Article 11.(1) "everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence") people in the name of so-called 'crossfire' knowing very well that the people of the country do not believe it. The constitution is very explicit when it declares in its article 35 (3) that, "every person accused of a criminal offence shall have the right to a speedy and public trial by an independent and impartial court or tribunal established by law". As regards the 'fundamental freedom of her citizens', the brutal crimes of the members of law enforcing agency committed to the people of Kansat reflected the atrocities of a barbaric society and only on the other day, there would have been a repetition of the same barbarism if the law enforcing personnel would only comply with the order of the local lawmaker of the ruling alliance in Shanir Akhra. Obviously, no legal action has been initiated against the said lawmaker although the story of his unautho-rised order to shoot people was published in all the major news dailies of the country. Many of the members of the current government, including the PM, have the perpetual obsession of inventing conspiracy in every action of the citizens that are critical of the government's misdeeds, which very well and in most cases, include the denial of the fundamental constitutional rights of the citizens. It was, as usual, reflected in the comments of the foreign minister while expressing his satisfaction over the election of Bangladesh to HRC, undermining the fact that, in this electronic age, the brutal acts at Kansat or the police atrocities at Chittagong were beamed from Cape Town to Canada within minutes. The government leaders ignore the fact that the universal aspirations of the citizens of the Republic as reflected in the constitution (and as highlighted in her campaign for an HRC seat) is a national commitment and that makes it obligatory for every citizen concerned to raise concerns in any forums, national or international, to mitigate the situation. It would be a good avenue to reassure our current government leaders that when they would be out of the helm and if their political adversaries inflict on them the similar torture and harassment as they themselves have been subjected to over the last four and a half years, these 'conspirators' would be in the fore front to raise their voices to alleviate their sufferings, exactly the way they are doing today. In fact, Bangladesh's election to HRC is nothing new since Bangladesh has been an uninterrupted member of CHR from 1983 to 2000, Vice-Chair of the Bureau of Human Rights Commission in 1998 and is a current member (2006-2008) of CHR as well. The new dimensions come from the rejuvenated mandate of HRC that would replace CHR on June 19, 2006 and that includes the resolves such as, "members of the Council will undergo the Council's new universal review mechanism during their term of membership. The General Assembly would have the right to suspend the rights and privileges of any Council Member that it decides has persistently committed gross and systematic violations of human rights during its term of membership." This resoluteness was reverberated by the words of the General Assembly President Jan Eliasson, while declaring the election results, "I find it very important that all Member States have made pledges and commitments to human rights which they are expected to live up to, and also that they have accepted, by their membership in the Human Rights Council, to be reviewed, that their human rights record is to be reviewed." This mandate puts the council member states in direct human rights radar screen of the UN vis-�-vis their pledges and commitments. From this perspective, Bangladesh's election to HRC is indeed a reassuring news for those who are genuinely concerned with the violations of human rights in Bangladesh. Dr. Mozammel H. Khan is the Convenor of the Canadian Committee for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh. He writes from Toronto, Canada.
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