Odhikar, a reputed rights organization in Bangladesh, documented serious violations of human rights in the country under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, illegally in power since 2009. Largely based on its reports and the reports of other human rights organizations, the United States imposed sanctions on the perpetrators, the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and some of its top officials, in December 2021. In vengeance, the regime cancelled Odhikar’s operating license and continued persecution of its top officials who faced confinement and torture under various security acts, with little or no defense. International rights organizations continued to condemn such arbitrary acts of the Sheikh Hasina regime against Odhikar.
On August 10, 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and 18 other leading global rights organizations issued a strong statement urging Bangladesh authorities to “cease their continued criminalization and harassment” of Odhikar and “drop politically motivated charges” against its leaders.
(https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/10/bangladesh-end-political-prosecution-rights-leaders)
The Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) expresses its complete solidarity with the above rights groups and demands that the Sheikh Hasina administration stop such persecution of the rights groups and their leaders. These nonprofit, non-government rights organizations must be allowed to function freely without any fear of persecution with a view of ensuring the establishment of human rights, freedom and democracy in the country.
Signatories in the HRW statements are:
Amnesty International
Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network
Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Asian Human Rights Commission
Banglar Manabadhikar Surakha Mancha (MASUM)
Capital Punishment Justice Project, Australia
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Eleos Justice, Monash University, Australia
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Japan Innocence and Death Penalty Information Center
Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (MADPET)
Programme Against Custodial Torture and Impunity (PACTI)
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
CrimeInfo, Japan