H.E. Prof. Muhammad Yunus
Chief Adviser, Interim Government of Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Re: Follow-up on Human Rights CSO Meeting during UNGA 2025

Dear Chief Adviser Yunus:

We write to express our deep appreciation to you for meeting with our group of international human rights organizations during the U.N. General Assembly to discuss the human rights situation in Bangladesh. More than one year after the July Revolution and the end of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League Government, the Interim Government has taken some critical steps to restore basic freedoms, initiate legal reforms, and investigate enforced disappearances and other abuses.

In the narrow window prior to the 2026 elections, we urge you to expand human rights protections and ensure Bangladesh has the strong institutions needed to guarantee free and fair elections and guard against future backsliding. We are deeply concerned that the security sector remains largely unreformed and that members of security forces have not been fully cooperative with accountability and reform efforts. While the Interim Government must take further steps to pursue justice for serious abuses under the previous government, it should immediately end ongoing arbitrary arrests and detentions, including cases against members of the Awami League that appear politically motivated and lack credible evidence.

At the U.N. High-level Conference on the Rohingya, you stated that Rohingya refugees’ repatriation is the only solution to the crisis, and as an “immediate step,” newly arrived refugees “must be allowed to repatriate.” Rohingya refugees have long emphasized their ultimate goal is to return home to Myanmar. But for all Rohingya, including the 150,000 refugees who arrived since late 2023, no part of Myanmar is currently safe for voluntary, dignified, and sustainable returns.

We urge you to swiftly pursue the steps below to protect the rights and freedoms of all those who live in Bangladesh:

• Ensure perpetrators are held accountable for serious abuses during the July Revolution and over the past fifteen years, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture. Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) took the critical step of bringing charges and issuing arrest warrants against active and former military officers–including from the Rapid Action Battalion and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence–for enforced disappearances and torture as crimes against humanity. The military should provide its full support for these accountability efforts, including by respecting the jurisdiction of the ICT, a civilian court, over members of the military. We urge the Interim Government to ensure the ICT has the legal framework, resources, and independence to conduct fair prosecutions that adhere to international standards for all alleged perpetrators, regardless of their institutional or political affiliation. The Interim Government should declare a moratorium on the death penalty, including for cases under the jurisdiction of the ICT.

• Implement security sector reform, including by disbanding the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and limiting the powers of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), to break with the past and develop rights-respecting security institutions. The RAB’s track record of perpetrating serious abuses with impunity has put the institution well beyond reform, and all military personnel should be removed from civilian law enforcement. The DGFI’s perpetration of enforced disappearances and other serious abuses underscores the need for its role and authority to be strictly delineated to military intelligence with operational limits and a clear legal mandate.

• Criminalize enforced disappearances in line with international standards and support the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances to fulfill its mandate. The Interim Government should adopt the draft Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Ordinance after ensuring its compliance with international human rights standards, including the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and removing the death penalty as a criminal sentence. The Interim Government should ensure the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances has adequate time and resources to complete its mandate, and security forces should fully cooperate with investigations, including by guaranteeing unfettered access to detention sites and sharing all relevant records.

• Reform the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in line with the Paris Principles to ensure its effectiveness and independence from political influence over its functions, member selection, and finances. The NHRC must have the authority to autonomously investigate alleged abuses by security forces and other state actors in accordance with international human rights standards and without its mandate restricted to rights standards under domestic law.

• Repeal or amend in line with international standards the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025 and abusive laws that have been used to restrict freedom of expression and other fundamental rights including the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Special Powers Act, the Official Secrets Act, and criminal defamation under the Penal Code. While the Interim Government repealed the Cyber Security Act 2023, its replacement, the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025, fails to meet international standards and contains overbroad and ambiguous terms that pose serious risks of state overreach.

• Amend in line with international standards the draft Personal Data Protection Ordinance and draft National Data Management Ordinance, which would create sweeping exemptions for state authorities, to ensure the drafts adequately protect data privacy and guard against state abuse and unchecked surveillance. Meaningful stakeholder consultations are essential to ensure the ordinances are rights-based and reflect global best practices. 

• Ensure press freedom and protect journalists from arbitrary arrests and detention, regardless of perceived political affiliation, particularly where charges lack credible evidence or violate freedom of expression or other rights. We urge the Interim Government to protect journalists from harassment and violence from both state and non-state actors and pursue prompt, independent investigations into any attacks, while implementing the recommendations outlined by the Media Reform Commission that align with international standards for press freedom.

• Prevent arbitrary arrests and detentions and facilitate the dismissal or withdrawal of all cases that are politically motivated or infringe on freedom of expression or other fundamental rights. The Interim Government should review and dismiss such cases lodged both before and after August 2024 regardless of political affiliation, including for members and supporters of the Awami League who have been charged or detained without credible evidence linking them to a crime.

• End the broad ban on Awami League activities under the Anti-Terrorism Act which excessively restricts freedom of association, assembly, and expression and has been used to arrest Awami League members and perceived supporters engaged in peaceful activities. As the U.N. recommended in its February 2025 fact-finding report–which found evidence that top Awami League leaders were involved in serious human rights abuses–the Interim Government should “[r]efrain from political party bans that would undermine a return to a genuine multi-party democracy and effectively disenfranchise a large part of the Bangladeshi electorate.” 

• Lift restrictions on civil society funding and operations and reform the NGO Affairs Bureau. The NGO Affairs Bureau has operated in the past as a political tool to harass and monitor civil society organizations, including by delaying and denying approval of projects and international funding. The Interim Government should urgently review and reform the NGO Affairs Bureau and the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act to ensure civil society can operate freely without being subject to restrictions on international funding or to other forms of burdensome oversight. 

• Protect Rohingya refugees from forced repatriation and reduce restrictions on freedom of movement, livelihoods, and education. For the more than one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, including more than 150,000 who fled since late 2023, no part of Myanmar including Rakhine State is currently safe. We urge the Interim Government to prevent forced repatriation to Myanmar while the situation does not allow for voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable returns. The Interim Government should also reduce camp restrictions impeding freedom of movement and access to livelihood opportunities and formal education. In the face of aid cuts, such opportunities are even more crucial to improving camp conditions, reducing aid dependency, and empowering refugees.

• Fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the situation in Bangladesh/Myanmar, including through the arrest and transfer to the court of any individuals wanted by the ICC who are on Bangladeshi territory. 

Sincerely,

CIVICUS
Committee to Protect Journalists
Fortify Rights
Human Rights Watch
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Tech Global Institute