UN Human Rights investigation may support accountability for Bangladeshi student protests repression

A new report by UN Human Rights found that the security and intelligence services of Bangladesh’s former Government killed as many as 1,400 people – as many as 12-13 per cent of whom were children – and arbitrarily arrested or detained more than 11,700 others during student-led protests that took place between 1 July and 15 August 2024. Bangladesh Police reported that 44 of its officers were killed.

“The brutal response was a calculated and well-coordinated strategy by the former Government to hold onto power in the face of mass opposition,” UN Human Rights, Chief Volker Türk, said. “There are reasonable grounds to believe hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture, were carried out with the knowledge, coordination and direction of the political leadership and senior security officials as part of a strategy to suppress the protests."

These findings were made by a team of experts deployed following a request by Bangladesh’s Interim Government for UN Human Rights to impartially investigate human rights violations and abuses alleged to have occurred during the protests. A team of human rights investigators, a forensics physician and a weapons expert were dispatched in September 2024.

The student protests were triggered by a decision of the country’s High Court in June to reinstate a quota reserving 30 per cent of public service jobs to the descendants of independence war fighters. However, the report points out that these protests were rooted in broader grievances about governance and corruption, deepening economic inequalities and lack of access to enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights.

Using state of the art forensic technology

The protests galvanised thousands of Bangladeshis, including women and children, from across diverse socioeconomic, professional and religious backgrounds who joined the protests, calling for meaningful social, economic and political reform. As the former Government was increasingly losing control, it used its security and intelligence apparatus, as well as violent elements linked to the Awami League and a continuously expanding circle of other armed actors, to try to systematically suppress protests with gradually more violent and militarised means to remain in power.

The fact-finding team based its conclusions on 230 confidential in-depth interviews with victims, witnesses, students and other protest leaders, civil society actors, medical professionals, and various other people. A further 36 interviews were conducted with senior government, security sector and political officials. UN Human Rights’ forensic physician examined 29 victims and reviewed 153 medical case files, while the weapons expert corroborated information on the use of different types of firearms, less-lethal weapons and ammunition by analysing thousands of audiovisual materials.

“We used the latest technology available in terms of digital verification to verify information received and ensure that any finding we make is in line with our methodology, which requires that there are reasonable grounds to believe and that the Office is on solid ground when it reaches its findings on what occurred,” said Alex El-Jundi, Chief of UN Human Rights’ investigation support section.

The ’reasonable grounds’ standard of proof, the report stressed, is lower than the standard required to establish individual guilt in criminal proceeding but warrants further criminal investigations by the competent authorities.

“It is not the first time the High-Commissioner launches an inquiry under his own mandate. However, it is the first time that we deploy with all added expertise and the use of high-grade digital technology to analyse the information,” he added.

Serious human rights violations and abuses

Women, including protest leaders, having been at the forefront of the early protests, were subjected to arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment and attacks by security forces and Awami League supporters. The violence they endured was often gender-based, including physical assaults and threats of rape, aimed at deterring women from participating in protests.

Further, the report found patterns of security forces deliberately and impermissibly killing or maiming protesters, including incidents where people were shot at point-blank range.

Among others, the report examined in detail the emblematic case of 23-year-old student, Abu Sayed, who was shot and killed by shotgun pellets at a protest at Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur on 16 July 2024, despite not posing an imminent threat.

“Right at the beginning of the process, the team interviewed victims and witnesses who were present that day, as well as looking at digital information received, which included images from various angles of Abu Sayed, who was unarmed and with his arms up when he was killed,” El-Jundi said.

“Information received was also analysed by the weapons expert in terms of the injuries sustained by the site that day, as well as images of the weapons used, with the conclusion that he was extrajudicially killed by police forces,” he added.

The report also found police and other security forces killed and maimed child protesters with indiscriminate shooting of rifles and shot guns loaded with lethal ammunition, as well as subjected children to arbitrary arrest and detention in inhumane conditions and torture.

Security personnel were found to have obstructed lifesaving medical care, frequently interrogating patients in hospitals, arresting injured persons and intimidating medical staff.

“Neither prosecutorial authorities nor the judiciary took any meaningful action to curb acts and practices of arbitrary detention and torture, or to ensure that any officials perpetrating such acts were held accountable,” the report stated.

The report further found that, in the aftermath of the protests, violent mobs retaliated with serious acts of violence, including killings, targeting police and Awami League officials. Some Hindus, Ahmadiyya Muslims and indigenous people from the Chittagong Hill Tracts were also the victims of human rights abuses, including the burning of their homes and attacks on places of worship, with different underlying motivations.

Supporting future accountability efforts

Following the fall of the previous government, the current Interim Government started efforts to ensure accountability for serious human rights violations and abuses, including bringing cases against senior officials before the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh and regular courts. However, the report highlighted that these efforts were hampered by preexisting structural deficiencies of the law enforcement and justice sectors.

For El-Jundi, the fact-finding team’s main objective was to establish the facts by looking at emblematic cases.

“Unfortunately, [the report] does not recognise every victim, but the effort there is to give everyone a voice and recognise the wrongs that were suffered by all the people during these events,” he said. “This could not have been done without the courage of people coming forward, talking to us and sharing their information, and being willing for this information to be made public to you in a report.”

El-Jundi also pointed out that all the information the team collected and analysed was done with a view to supporting future accountability processes. “And to do this, all the information collected and preserved was done in line with international standards. We maintain the chain of custody with the preservation of the digital information received,” he said.

The report provides a detailed set of recommendations to reform the security and justice sectors, abolish a host of repressive laws and institutions designed to stifle civic and political dissent, and implement broader changes to the political system and economic governance. 

“The testimonies and evidence we gathered paint a disturbing picture of rampant State violence and targeted killings that are amongst the most serious violations of human rights, and which may also constitute international crimes. Accountability and justice are essential for national healing and for the future of Bangladesh,” Turk said.

According to Türk, the best way forward for Bangladesh is to face the horrific wrongs committed during this period through a comprehensive process of truth-telling, healing and accountability, and to redress the legacies of serious human rights violations and ensure they can never happen again. “My Office stands ready to assist in this vital national accountability and reform process,” he added.