NHRC being in lower category not ‘honourable’

One of the limitations is the founding law of the NHRC, the National Human Rights Commission Act, 2009, which restricts the commission from investigating any law enforcement agency, including the police and Rab.

— Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed NHRC Chairperson

Being a category "B" human-rights institution is not "honourable" for the National Human Rights Commission, said Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed, the new chairperson of NHRC, at a webinar yesterday.

All the national human rights institutions of the world are categorised in a global ranking by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), from which the commissions must get accreditation.

The GANHRI indexes the institutions in "A" and "B" categories according to how compliant they are to the Paris Principles -- a set of minimum standards that all national human-rights institutions must operate by. The principles are decreed by the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Category A institutions are fully compliant with the principles, and category B institutions are partially compliant. The national institutions of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are category B, while those of India and Nepal are category A.

Kamal said they are trying to alleviate the limitations that prevent them from being promoted to category A. One of the limitations is the founding law of the NHRC, the National Human Rights Commission Act, 2009, which restricts the commission from investigating any law enforcement agency, including the police and Rab.

He said they are trying to change the law.

Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) organised the webinar to exchange dialogue with the new chairperson.

Speakers from different human-rights organisations commented that the NHRC must devise methods to work around the legal restrictions that prevent it from exercising its role fully.

They added that the commission must take steps to make sure that they are exercising whatever power they have been given.

ASK Executive Director Nur Khan Liton pointed out that the nature of enforced disappearance has changed; victims are no longer being permanently disappeared. Rather, law enforcers are temporarily disappearing victims by picking them up and keeping them in illegal detention for over 24 hours before showing them as arrested.

ASK Programme Director Nina Goswami moderated the event.