Human Rights in Bangladesh: An Update

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Announcement

Please join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a briefing on the human rights situation in Bangladesh as elections approach in January 2024.

Bangladesh, a long-standing U.S. partner and host to nearly one million Rohingya refugees, is a parliamentary democracy that faces an array of serious human rights and governance challenges. In December 2021 the U.S. imposed Global Magnitsky sanctions against the Rapid Action Battalion and six of its current and former high-level officers, and Section 7031(c) visa sanctions against a seventh official, in response to well-documented reports of serious human rights abuses by that entity. Concerns about democratic backsliding in the aftermath of the December 2018 parliamentary election, widely considered not to have been free and fair, and in light of an ongoing crackdown on journalists and government critics through harassment, surveillance, physical attacks and arrests, are understood to have contributed to the State Department’s decision not to invite Bangladesh to the 2023 Summit for Democracy. The State Department subsequently announced in May 2023 that it will restrict visa issuance for any Bangladeshis it finds to be undermining Bangladesh’s democratic election process ahead of scheduled 2024 voting.

Panelists will examine the state of human rights leading up to the election and offer recommendations for Congress.

The briefing will be virtual. To attend, please register here. After the briefing concludes, a recording will be made available on the Commission website. For any questions, please contact Kimberly Stanton (for Co-Chair McGovern) or Mark Milosch for (Co-Chair Smith).

Hosted by:

James P. McGovern
Member of Congress
Co-Chair, TLHRC

Christopher H. Smith
Member of Congress
Co-Chair, TLHRC

Participants

Panelists

• Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, Liaison Officer, Asian Human Rights Commission & Asian Legal Resource Centre
  Written statement
• Kristi Ueda, Donald M. and Susan N. Wilson Fellow, International Advocacy & Litigation, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
  Written statement
• Julia Bleckner, Senior Asia Researcher, Human Rights Watch
• Geoffrey Macdonald, Ph.D., Visiting Expert, South Asia Programs, U.S. Institute of Peace, and Senior Advisor, Asia-Pacific Division, International Republican Institute
  Written statement

Moderator

• Tariq Ahmad, Foreign Law Specialist, Law Library of Congress

Bios

Resources

• U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2022, Bangladesh, March 20, 2023
• Congressional Research Service, Bangladesh, IF10214, June 20, 2023
• International Republican Institute, National Survey of Bangladesh March-April 2023
• UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bangladesh Protests, August 4, 2023
• Amnesty International, Bangladesh – Briefing to Political Parties for a Human Rights Agenda, October 2006