United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has said Bangladesh now has an opportunity to chart a new future, with the interim government making publicly clear its commitment to a peaceful and inclusive process grounded in human rights and the rule of law.
“My office is supporting the authorities, including by conducting an independent fact-finding mission into recent alleged human rights violations, and on accountability, processes of reconciliation and healing, and other essential, long-delayed reforms,” he said in a statement on Monday.
Recently in Bangladesh, the student movement carried human rights as its torch, Turk added.
While giving a global update to the UN Human Rights Council, he said his office will continue to work tirelessly in support of victims everywhere.
“I urge you all to make use of this institution to the fullest, because a strong UN Human Rights Office and a healthy, well-resourced human rights ecosystem are of global interest and benefit. And represent an extraordinary return on investment at a tiny fraction of the resources so readily devoted elsewhere,” said the UN rights chief.
Collectively, he said, they should make the choice of rejecting the ‘new normal’ and the dystopian future it would present.
“Let us embrace and trust the full power of human rights as the path to the world we want — more peaceful, just, fair, and sustainable,” Turk said.
Earlier, Turk received an official invitation from Bangladesh interim government Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus to conduct an impartial and independent fact-finding mission into human rights violations committed from July 1 to August 15.
The office will deploy a fact-finding team to Bangladesh in the coming weeks, with a view to reporting on violations and abuses perpetrated during the protests, analysing root causes and, and making recommendations to advance justice and accountability and for longer-term reforms, Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani said.
The team received commitments from the Interim Government and security forces for full cooperation in this work.
An advance team visited Bangladesh from August 22-29 and met with student leaders of the recent protests, many of whom have been detained or injured in recent weeks.
The team also had meetings with a wide range of advisors in the Interim Government, the Chief Justice, senior officers of the police and armed forces, lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders, representatives of political parties, and minority and indigenous communities.
In its meetings, the team discussed the modalities for an investigation into human rights violations and abuses in the context of the recent violence and unrest, as requested by the Interim Government.
It also discussed wider areas – including civic space, the need for truth, justice, healing, reparation and reconciliation, and other human rights approaches to the reform process – in which their office could provide sustained support, Shamdasani said.