NHRC ‘retirement home for bureaucrats’

The National Human Rights Commission has become a retirement home for top government bureaucrats, said eminent jurist Dr Shahdeen Malik yesterday, criticising the process of appointment to top NHRC posts.

It is not possible that a man, who acted on every word of the directives given during his 30 to 35 years of service, will challenge the unlawful activities of the government and the state, he said at a discussion.

Moulik Odhikar Shurakkha Committee organised the discussion titled “United Nations’ Recommendation on Enforced Disappearance and Reality” at the Jatiya Press Club.

“In the government’s bureaucratic culture, an officer cannot express dissent to his senior officials. He remains silent if he has a dissenting opinion. So, they are constitutionally unfit to run and represent the National Human Rights Commission,” Shahdeen said.

He said their appointments to the NHRC only allows them to “stay well for three to six years longer with good transportation, a good number of foreign trips and other facilities”. 

“I have no expectation from the commission for the next three years [until the tenures of the newly appointed officials are over],” he said.

The criticism came following the government’s recent appointment of two high-level bureaucrats to the NHRC’s top positions, including its chairman.

On September 22, former senior secretary Nasima Begum was appointed as the commission’s chairman, while former secretary Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed was appointed as a full-time member of the NHRC.

Nasima succeeded Kazi Reazul Hoque, also a former secretary.

Reazul, before serving three years as NHRC chairman till July 1 this year, also served as a full-time member when Dhaka University Professor Mizanur Rahman was the commission’s chairman.

Another former secretary Nazrul Islam also served as a full-time member during Reazul’s tenure as chairman.

Rights organisations alleged that the commission had not been vocal enough against rights violations by law enforcers ever since Prof Mizanur, the only non-bureaucrat chairman, left the post.

There has been much discussion about the independence and effectiveness of the commission, they said. 

In yesterday’s programme, Shahdeen expressed his concerns over the incidents of enforced disappearance and extra-judicial killings and hoped that the perpetrators, including members of the law enforcers who were involved in those incidents, would be brought under trial someday.

All the institutions of a society that wants to curb crime rates through incidents of enforced disappearance or extra-judicial killings will certainly fail, he opined.

Asif Nazrul, professor of Dhaka University’s law department, alleged that the government and the law enforcers are behind most of the incidents of enforced disappearance in the country.

“If the government and law enforcers are not involved, why do the eyewitnesses, family members and neighbours name law enforcers?... Why don’t the law enforcers register cases after the incidents? Some missing people fortunately return, but why don’t they speak out?” he asked.

CR Abrar, professor of DU’s international relations department, demanded the formation of an independent commission to investigate the incidents of enforced disappearance and extra-judicial killings.