Forced Disappearance
State violating HR by neglecting probe
Say rights activists
The state is violating human rights by not properly investigating repeated incidents of “forced disappearances” allegedly involving law enforcement agencies, said rights activists at a press conference yesterday.
The press conference was organised following a two-day meeting, “Accession to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance”, in the capital's Spectra Convention Centre.
Odhikar, a human rights organisation, and Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances organised the meeting.
The activists demanded credible and neutral investigations into the incidents to uphold human rights and urged the government to immediately become a party to the convention, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
“There are many abductions and kidnappings in Bangladesh. But we count forced disappearance as only those with which we find involvement of law enforcement agencies after talking to relatives of victims and observing circumstantial evidence,” said Odhikar President Dr CR Abrar.
“The state is continuously denying the right bodies' accusations that law enforcement agencies are involved with forced disappearances in many cases,” he said.
Reading out a paper, the federation Secretary General Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso said, “The convention is an international instrument that asks for a series of measures that can, if duly implemented by the state parties, effectively contribute to eradicate the crime of enforced disappearance.
“In Asia, the rate of enforced disappearance is the highest yet mechanisms for protection are absent.”
UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances Member Dr Rainer Huhle and Asian Human Rights Commission Executive Director Wong Kai Shing attended the press conference.
Addressing a previous session, Workers Party of Bangladesh President Rashed Khan Menon said, “Most forced disappearance incidents turn into extra judicial killings…The issue should not be kept in political debates, but rather discussed from the ground of human rights.”
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