The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism of the United Nations Human Rights Council to assess and improve the human rights situation in each of the 193 UN member states.
As the Council prepares to conduct its third UPR of Bangladesh, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and our partners have published the following report, documenting how the human rights situation has only grown worse despite Bangladesh’s promise of “zero tolerance” for such violations.
Between January 2009 and February 2018, 120 people have died as a result of systematic custodial torture in Bangladesh, and dozens have become permanently disabled as a result of kneecappings while in police custody. Over the same period, law enforcement agencies have allegedly been involved in 422 cases of enforced disappearances and 1,480 cases of extrajudicial killings.
The Solidarity Group for Bangladesh calls on the Bangladeshi government to uphold its international human rights obligations, fully investigate the death in custody of Zakir Hossain Milon, and all other allegations of torture or ill-treatment in detention, and take appropriate measures to ensure it does not occur in the future.