Bangladesh

Constitutional Provisions

Under Bangladesh's 1986 Constitution (as amended): "The Republic shall be a democracy in which fundamental human rights and freedoms and respect for the dignity and worth of the human person shall be guaranteed...." It is stipulated that:  

To enjoy the protection of the law, and to be treated in accordance with law, and only in accordance with law, is the inalienable right of every citizen, wherever he may be, and of every other person for the time being within Bangladesh, and in particular no action detrimental to the life, liberty, body, reputation or property of any person shall be taken except in accordance with law.Art. 31, 1986 Constitution of Bangladesh (as amended).

It is also provided that: "No person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty save in accordance with law."Art. 32, 1986 Constitution of Bangladesh (as amended).Furthermore, "No person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment."Art. 35(5), 1986 Constitution of Bangladesh (as amended).With respect to the right of peaceful assembly:

Every citizen shall have the right to assemble and to participate in public meetings and processions peacefully and without arms, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interests of public order or health.Art. 37, 1986 Constitution of Bangladesh (as amended).

Treaty Adherence

Global Treaties

Regional Treaties

There is no regional Asian human rights treaty to which Bangladesh could become party.

National Legislation

Police Use of Force

Under the 1898 Code of Criminal Procedure, if a person "forcibly resists the endeavour to arrest him, or attempts to evade the arrest, such police officer or other person may use all means necessary to effect the arrest." It is also provided, however, that this does not grant "a right to cause the death of a person who is not accused of an offence punishable with death or with [imprisonment for life]."S. 46, 1898 Code of Criminal Procedure.Section 50 of the 1898 Code prohibits an arrested person from being subjected "to more restraint than is necessary to prevent his escape." The 2013 Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act criminalises torture in a detention facility.

With respect to assemblies, an officer in charge of a police station may disperse an unlawful assembly by force, and, if necessary for "public security" that it be dispersed, the Police Commissioner in a Metropolitan Area "may cause it to be dispersed by military force".Ss. 128 and 129, 1898 Code of Criminal Procedure.

The 1943 Police Regulation of Bengal stipulate the primary responsibilities of a police officer to protect and respect the individual's fundamental rights and freedoms. These regulations govern the interaction of the police with the public and while they are either investigating or detaining people. 

The use of firearms is governed by outdated regulations that do not conform to international law and standards. According to Regulation 153(a):

The use of firearms is permitted for the following purposes only:

In exercise of the right of private defence of person or property. (Sections 96—I06, Indian Penal Code)
For the dispersal of unlawful assemblies. (Sections 127-128. Criminal Procedure Code)
To effect an arrest in certain circumstances. (Section 46, Criminal Procedure Code).

Police use of firearms to protect property is not permissible, nor is the use of firearms to disperse unlawful assemblies.

Police Oversight

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which was established under the 2009 Human Rights Commission Act, has oversight over police use of force but its powers are limited to requesting reports from the Ministry of Home Affairs on alleged violations.

Caselaw

Global

Views and Concluding Observations of United Nations Treaty Bodies

In its 2017 Concluding Observations on Bangladesh, the Human Rights Committee identified the functioning and fulfillment of the mandate of the National Human Rights Commission as a particular concern on the basis that the Commission "may not have a broad enough mandate to investigate all alleged human rights violations, including those involving State actors such as the police, military and security forces". The Human Rights Committee called on Bangladesh to

broaden the mandate of the Commission and allow it to investigate all alleged human rights violations, including those committed by State military and security actors. The State party should also provide the Commission with sufficient financial and human resources to allow it to impartially and independently fulfil its mandate in line with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles).” 

On extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, the Committee expressed its concern 

at the reported high rate of extrajudicial killings by police officers, soldiers and Rapid Action Battalion force members and at reports of enforced disappearances, as well as the excessive use of force by State actors. The Committee is also concerned that the lack of investigations and accountability of perpetrators leave families of victims without information and redress. It is further concerned that domestic law does not effectively criminalize enforced disappearances, and that the State party does not accept that enforced disappearances occur....

The Committee recommended that Bangladesh should:

(a) Take immediate measures to protect the right to life of all persons;

(b) Revise its legislation to limit the use of force by law enforcement officials, the military and special forces, incorporating international standards, including the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, and ensure accountability for violations;

(c) Effectively criminalize enforced disappearance;

(d) Investigate all cases of arbitrary killings, enforced disappearances and excessive use of force, prosecute and punish convicted perpetrators with appropriate sanctions and provide full reparation to the victims. In cases of disappearances, the State party should establish the truth about the fate and whereabouts of victims and ensure that victims of enforced disappearance and their relatives are informed about the outcome of investigations;

(e) Provide in its next periodic report information on: (i) The number of investigations conducted; (ii) Convictions secured; (iii) Disaggregated information on penalties that have been imposed on perpetrators.

Regional

There is no regional human rights court with jurisdiction to review police use of force in Bangladesh.

National

Alleged Crimes against Humanity in Policing Protests in Bangladesh

In July 2024, thousands of university students took to the streets peacefully to protest a Supreme Court ruling restoring quotas in government jobs for various categories of people. On 15 July, members of a student group affiliated with the then ruling party and backed by police attacked the protesters, killing six people. Protests spread to several cities and universities across the country following the attack, leading to deadly clashes between protesters and the pro-government supporters and security forces. The security forces used live ammunition, tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets, and shotgun pellets to disperse protesters. More than 160 people were killed in the protests in the first weeks of the assemblies with the government deploying the army against the students, introducing shoot-on-sight curfew orders, and shutting down the internet. 

On 4 August 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said that the ‘shocking violence in Bangladesh must stop’. The events, and the violent attack on civilian protesters, was, in the words of the International Crisis Group, ‘the largest political mobilisation in Bangladesh in at least a decade and probably the most serious challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her party, the Awami League, since they took office in 2009’. In October 2024, prosecutors in Bangladesh indicted for alleged crimes against humanity the former prime minister; forty-six former government ministers and other senior Awami League officials; and seventeen law enforcement officials. A detailed report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which was requested by Bangladesh’s interim government, found reasonable grounds to believe that the former Government and its security and intelligence apparatus ‘systematically engaged in serious human rights violations, including hundreds of extrajudicial killings, other use of force violations involving serious injuries to thousands of protesters, extensive arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture and other forms of ill-treatment’.  

In some cases, security forces shot and killed defenceless protesters from point blank range, with the clear intent of killing their victims. In many other cases, the security forces aimed and fired lethal ammunition from military rifles and automatic pistols at crowds, targeting the head and torso level, or they fired shotguns loaded with lethal metal pellets from close range aimed at these vital areas, usually multiple rounds by multiple shooters. Persons discharging such weapons and their commanders would have been aware that this conduct would result in the death of some members of targeted crowds in the ordinary course of events. In most cases, such killings could find no justification as self-defence or defence of others since the victims were either peaceful protesters, vandals of property or rioting persons who posed no imminent threat of death or serious injury. 

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