Amnesty International issued a strong statement on September 18, 2023, asking the Bangladesh government to “Stop weaponizing labor law to harass Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus,” who faces criminal charges of employment-related violations.
Please see their statement:
Amnesty International issued a strong statement on September 18, 2023, asking the Bangladesh government to “Stop weaponizing labor law to harass Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus,” who faces criminal charges of employment-related violations.
Please see their statement:
Earlier, on August 28, 2023, more than 180 world leaders which included 104 Nobel laureates, wrote an Open Letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh to desist political harassment of Professor Yunus.
Please see the CHRD Bangladesh Statement of August 29, 2023, expressing its total solidarity with the global call:
Professor Yunus faces more than 150 additional vindictive cases, which the Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard says is “emblematic of the beleaguered state of human rights in Bangladesh, where the authorities bulldozed critics into submission.”
Amnesty International pointed out that while Yunus’s case was moving on a fast track, far more important work-related cases, in which nearly 5, 000 workers died between 2013 and 2022 largely due to employers’ neglect, were either shelved or were moving at a snail’s pace.
Observers suspect two factors which prompted Sheikh Hasina to be vengeful against Professor Yunus strategically before the all-important election in January of 2024.
1. Muhammad Yunus’ global clout has been obliterating the image of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina’s father and former oppressive dictator, whom she has been relentlessly trying to establish as the sole and supreme leader of Bangladesh.
2. The world leaders are trying to promote Yunus as a replacement to Hasina.
The Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) strongly supports Amnesty International and hundreds of other international rights organizations, which continue to condemn the Sheikh Hasina administration for its wrathful victimization of Professor Muhammad Yunus in particular, and hundreds of thousands political opponents in general.
CHRD Bangladesh also condemns the Hasina regime for its oppressive, authoritarian, corruptive, and above all, India-dependent rule for the past 15 years, devoid of democracy, human rights, freedom of expression and election integrity and demands that the regime must come to an immediate end.
The next election must be held under a non-partisan, neutral caretaker administration so the people can exercise their free choice to elect patriotic leaders and a democratic government.