Tendency to impose values of some countries, like LGBT rights, regrettable: Dhaka on US human rights report

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam today said the government will ask for explanation from the US side on the recently published human rights report, noting that there are fundamental flaws in it.

While briefing reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he said the government will also remain engaged with the US government as there are issues of discussion in a number of areas.

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen was also present at the briefing.

Bangladesh, a country of 170 million, follows rule of law, human rights and good governance and therefore, its economic achievements are significant, said the state minister.

The report appears to encourage creating a "society of lawlessness to destabilize" the government, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a separate press statement.

Despite all challenges, the government, for the sake of its own commitment made to the people, will continue its endeavours to improve the wellbeing and ensure the rights and dignity of its people, the ministry said.

The report titled ''Bangladesh 2021 Human Rights Report'' was released on April 13, 2022 by the Bureau of Human Rights, Democracy and Labour of the US Department of State.

The government took note of all the observations therein collected mainly from the NGO/INGO sources of reporting.

Information/data has also been collected from newspapers that surely suggest that the media is able to exercise their way of reporting things, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the statement after the briefing.

While a number of unsubstantiated figures vis-a-vis human rights situation posed the purpose of the source questionable, there are also a few factual errors in the report.

For example, MoFA said though "We do not endorse their information, the Ain of Salish Kendra (ASK) mentioned 275 extrajudicial killings in January-May 2018 period, while the US report wrongly cited ASK in mentioning that there were 606 extrajudicial killings in May-June 2018."

The US report was critical about the status of prohibition of forced labour, but didn't highlight how Bangladesh is progressively realizing the labour rights, Shahriar Alam also said.

The report came from a side that ratified only 2 out of 8 fundamental conventions of ILO, whereas Bangladesh ratified all the 8 conventions.

The Government of Bangladesh is of the view that the tendency to impose values of a select few countries, like LGBT rights, same sex marriage etc., in the name of human rights violations are regrettable and uncalled for, MoFA said.

No act of arrest by the law enforcement agencies goes unaccountable bypassing the magistrate of the court. In each case, the magistrate decides whether an arrest is lawful or not.

Therefore, MoFA said, the law enforcers don't enjoy the immunity of commissioning "arbitrary arrest".