State Recognition, At Last, But By Whom?
The government is planning to create a directorate to ensure the welfare of victims of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture and other abuses as well as their families. This comes weeks after the Cabinet approved the draft Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Remedy Act which criminalises enforced disappearances.
In a Nutshell
- The proposed directorate would provide medical care, legal support and rehabilitation to victims, while supporting and recompensating their families.
- Discussions also focused on the necessity of a new law to ensure victims' rights and compensation following the UN's Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation and Bangladesh's Constitution.
- The government will also consider an amendment to Rules of Business 1996 to place these responsibilities under the Liberation War Affairs Ministry.
- Minister of Liberation War Affairs Ahmed Azam Khan said that the July Uprising victims have received state recognition and have a July Mass Uprising Directorate dedicated to them. He noted that people who were forcibly disappeared, tortured, extrajudicially executed and harassed through false cases should also receive state recognition.
- State Minister of Liberation War Affairs Ishraque Hossain also said the spirit of the Liberation war to safeguard people’s fundamental rights have been violated since the Awami government first took power in 2009 by denying voting rights and other state-sponsored crimes.
Context
The directorate would cover people affected by killings, torture, extrajudicial killings and false cases, including those who became disabled or financially destitute after years in prison. It would sit under the Liberation War Affairs Ministry, while a separate law would define victims' rights and compensation. This comes after the Cabinet approved the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Remedy Act on August 3, creating a criminal framework for disappearance cases.
Why It Matters
The BNP government's recent focus on preventing enforced disappearances and rehabilitating existing victims is therefore a welcome initiative, particularly after the human rights situation deteriorated so severely over the past 15 years. But recognition alone will not be enough.
The government is now proposing an institution to support victims, while its August 3 draft law also provides for compensation and rehabilitation, so the next question is this: who gets recognised as a victim, and how will this new body interact with the law already approved by Cabinet?
What We Think
State recognition of enforced disappearance victims marks a departure from years of institutional denial, but the proposed directorate's broad mandate and undefined verification process raise questions about how fairly victims will be identified.
There is also the fact that the responsibilities of this body are going to be under the Liberation War Affairs Ministry, not an independent commission. So, how impartial will the directorate be in deciding who qualifies as an enforced disappearance victim? Is there a system to ensure political bias does not exclude affected victims from a different side of the political spectrum, including Jamaat e Islami?
Without such safeguards in place, state recognition might become reduced to a purely symbolic gesture instead of becoming the institutional support system that affected families desperately need.