The latest Amnesty International annual report has termed 2014 ‘a devastating year for those seeking to stand up for human rights and for those caught up in the suffering of war zones.’

The report says worldwide ‘governments pay lip service to the importance of protecting civilians. And yet the world’s politicians have miserably failed to protect those in greatest need.’

About the human rights status-quo in Bangladesh in 2014, the report says ‘dozens of people were forcibly disappeared. Journalists and human rights defenders continued to be attacked and harassed. Violence against women was a major human rights concern. Police and other security forces committed torture with impunity. Factory workers continued to be at risk owing to hazardous safety standards in the workplace. At least one person was executed with no right to appeal against his death sentence.’

The report says more than 100 people were killed during opposition protests against elections in 5 January 2012, some after police opened fire on demonstrators who were often violent. This is to note that the elections were boycotted by the opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and its allies. However, the report says none of these deaths were investigated.

The report also said supporters of opposition parties ‘reportedly attacked bus commuters with petrol bombs, killing at least nine people and injuring many others.’

About the verdicts by the International Crimes Tribunal, which was set up in 2009 to try crimes committed during the 1971 Bangladesh independence war, the report says verdicts were delivered amid a highly polarised political atmosphere.

The report further states that supporters of these trials demanded death sentences for those on trial regardless of the strength of the evidence presented against them.

Enforced disappearances

The Amnesty annual report says over 80 people were forcibly disappeared.

‘Of the documented cases of 20 people subjected to enforced disappearance between 2012 and 2014, nine people were subsequently found dead. Six had returned to their families after periods of captivity lasting from weeks to months, with no news of their whereabouts until their release. There was no news about the circumstances of the other five.’

Amnesty International appreciated that three officers of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were detained and investigated for their alleged involvement in abductions and killings following the enforced disappearance and subsequent killing of seven people in Narayanganj in April.

However, the report expressed concerns that the government might drop the cases if public pressure to bring them to justice lessened. Apart from this case, the report says ‘there were no clear indications of a thorough investigation into other incidents such as the unexplained abduction and killing of Abraham Linkon in February.’

Freedom of expression

The report criticised government’s use of Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, which ‘severely restricted the right to freedom of expression’.

‘Under this section, those convicted of violating the Act could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison if the charges were brought against them before 6 October 2013; at that time, an amendment not only increased the maximum punishment to 14 years in prison but also imposed a minimum punishment of seven years.’

The report further states that Section 57 of the ICT Act ‘criminalised a wide array of peaceful actions such as criticising Islamic religious views in a newspaper article or reporting on human rights violations.’ According to the report at least four bloggers, two Facebook users and two officials of a human rights organisation were charged under Section 57 of the ICT Act during 2013-2014.

The report claimed ‘more than a dozen media workers, including journalists, said that they had been threatened by security agencies for criticising the authorities. Many journalists and talk show participants said they exercised self-censorship as a result.’

The report also said that in at least 10 instances, religious groups were reported to have spread rumours that a certain individual had used social media to insult Islam, or had engaged in allegedly anti-Islamic activity in the workplace.

‘At least five people were subsequently attacked; two were killed and others sustained serious injuries. The two killed were Ahmed Rajib2 and a Rajshahi University teacher, AKM Shafiul Islam, who died of stab wounds in November 2014, allegedly perpetrated by members of a group who denounced his opposition to female students wearing burqa in his class as ‘un-Islamic’’, says the report.

Violence against women and girls

The report quoting Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, said its analysis of media reports showed that at least 423 women and girls were subjected to various forms of violence in October 2014 alone. Women and girls were also subjected to domestic violence, acid attacks and trafficking, the report added.

Besides, the report says ‘torture and other ill-treatment were widespread and committed with impunity. Police routinely tortured detainees in their custody. Methods included beating, suspension from the ceiling, electric shocks to the genitals and, in some cases, shooting detainees’ legs. At least nine people died in police custody between January and July 2014, allegedly as a result of torture.’

Workers’ rights

The report expressed concerns over the safety standards in factories and other workplaces in Bangladesh.

‘At least 1,130 garment workers were killed and at least 2,000 more injured when Rana Plaza, a nine-storey building that housed five garment factories, collapsed on 24 April 2013. It later emerged that managers had ordered workers to go into the building that day despite it having been closed on the previous day after cracks had appeared in the walls. A similar incident had occurred in 2012, when at least 112 workers died in a fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory in Dhaka after managers stopped them from escaping, saying it was a false alarm. Initiatives to provide compensation to the victims of workplace disasters involving the government, global brands and the ILO proved insufficient, and survivors continued to struggle to support themselves and their families’, says the report.

Death penalty

The Amnesty International has been expressing its concern over the capital punishments given by Bangladesh courts. The annual report was also no exception regarding the view.

‘Courts continued to impose death sentences. Eleven were imposed by the International Crimes Tribunal. One death sentence was imposed directly by the Supreme Court after the government appealed against the defendant’s acquittal by the Tribunal. He was executed in December 2013. Prisoners whose death sentences were upheld on appeal were at imminent risk of execution.’

The annual report by the Amnesty International had seen the year 2014 as a nadir – an ultimate low point, from which the organisation hopes to rise up and create a better future.