Govt failed to bring culprits to justice
The Bangladesh government failed to take steps to ensure accountability for any election-related violence or for other violations by its security forces in spite of well-documented evidence, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2015.
“Government forces committed serious abuses both leading up to and after the January 2014 general election, while members of opposition parties engaged in violent and indiscriminate attacks to impose economic blockades and to enforce a boycott of the January polls,” it said.
However, the sole exception was the arrest in May of several members of the Rapid Action Battalion who were implicated in a high-profile contract killing of a local politician, HRW said.
The 656-page world report, its 25th edition, was released yesterday. The HRW reviewed human rights practices in more than 90 countries in the report.
“The arrest of a few members of RAB is a positive move, but the government must ensure that justice is not dealt out selectively, depending on family or political connections,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
In the Bangladesh chapter of the report, the HRW said supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami threw petrol bombs to enforce strikes and economic blockades. Before and after the election, attackers also vandalised homes and shops owned by members of Bangladesh's Hindu and Christian community.
“Child marriage persists as a serious problem. Conditions for the Rohingya refugee population from Burma remained critical with the government making dire threats about forcibly returning them,” said the rights group.
The report also criticised government's move to introduce a new media policy that “imposed unacceptable limits on free expression and speech”.
Although the government had amended its labour laws after the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza, workers continued to report intimidation and violence when attempting to form or join unions, HRW said.
The HRW also praised the government and the international community for their “will to improve the terrible conditions of the workers in Bangladesh's garment industry”.
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