In late 2004, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bangladesh, in cooperation with the Australian High Commission in Dhaka, organised a conference in Dhaka titled ‘Institutional Protection of Human Rights: Role of National Human Rights Institutions’. The purpose of the conference was to “explore the possibilities of creating a functional network within South Asia and other Asia-based Human Rights Commissions and Institutions” and more specifically, to serve as a “starting point for laying down the foundation for an independent human rights commission for Bangladesh and a wider platform for South Asia.” 

To activists and experts working on issues related to National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) - and on Bangladesh - it was incomprehensible as to how the Government of Bangladesh and UNDP Bangladesh chose to refer to the conference as a “starting point for laying down the foundation an independent human rights commission”, and still keep a straight face. 

Successive governments in Bangladesh have been hinting at the imminent establishment of a national human rights commission - for the past nine years, no less. And if that was not adequate, Mr. Reaz Rehman, Adviser (State Minister) Foreign Affairs, Government of Bangladesh, stated in a speech during the 61^st annual session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in March 2005 that a Law Reform Commission set up to review existing [legal] instruments and institutions would also make “recommendations for setting up a National Human Rights Commission.” 

This is far from reassuring. The Bangladesh Government and its officials have had innumerable occasions to consider the setting up of a human rights commission, to review and revise those considerations, to request recommendations from a number of bodies, both domestic and international, and to make numerous trips abroad to see for themselves how a national institution may be established and how it may function. 

The “attempts” began in 1995, under the initiative of the then Bangladesh Nationalist Party Government which set up an ‘Action Research Study on the Institutional Development of Human Rights in Bangladesh’ (IDHRB). Since then, there has been no substantive development beyond “further research”. 

Though official pronouncements over the past decade claiming progress towards the creation of a National Human Rights Commission have been frequent, there has been no substantive development toward this end beyond announcements of “further research”. Such statements were first made in 1995, under the initiative of the ‘Action Research Study’. Yet, the work of the National Consultative Committee, formed to monitor and evaluate the IDHRB, has stalled. According to its website, it has only published two working papers, the last one in 1997, and neither of which refer explicitly to the establishment of a national human rights commission. 

Meanwhile, representatives of various ministries, as concurrent members of the IDHRB, have undertaken study tours of India, the Philippines, Canada, and the United States, amongst other countries, presumably in order to further “appreciate” how national institutions function. 

Whilst the IDHRB has been successful in organizing seminars much on the lines of the aforesaid UNDP conference of 2004 - such as “Composition, Powers and Functions of the National Human Rights Commission in Bangladesh” on 28 May 1997 and "The Relation Between the National Human Rights Commission and the Judiciary on 30 August 1997 - it has in no way advanced the creation of a national human rights commission. The IDHRB's only substantive contribution, namely the draft bill of the Bangladesh National Human Rights Act 1999, has been shelved for five years.  

Despite the fact that this bill is unsatisfactory and would effectively reduce any future institution to a mere recommendatory body, these prolonged deliberations in Parliament only serve to suggest that the authorities have no intention of establishing a national institution. Meanwhile, seminars and conferences such as the one recently organised by UNDP, help keep up the pretence that the establishment of a national institution is of genuine interest to the Bangladesh Government.  

It is true that substantive efforts must be undertaken to establish a national human rights institution in Bangladesh. These must include the application of focused and sustained pressure on the Bangladesh Government to implement its pronouncements of the past nine years. However, ill-considered and futile initiatives such as the one attempted by UNDP, as with all other conferences of the past several years on the same topic, have only served to legitimise the procrastination of the Bangladesh Government, despite the best intentions of the conference organisers. 

The Bangladesh Government has all the knowledge it needs to establish an institution, and should do so without delay. Conferences such as the one organized by UNDP are a misuse of valuable UN funding which could be allocated to technical advisory services from the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), designated to assist in the creation of independent national human rights institutions.          

Also, since Bangladesh does not have a national institution of its own, discussions on regional arrangements or improving upon the Paris Principles in Bangladesh would be premature - a clear cart-before-the-horse scenario. 

Furthermore, the Asia Pacific Forum on National Human Rights Institutions (APF) already adequately serves as a functional network within the entire Asia- Pacific region. No observer from Bangladesh appeared to be present at the last APF annual meeting, which may only further raise suspicions as to the Government of Bangladesh's genuine commitment to such arrangements.

 Human Rights Features