Secretary of State John Kerry released the 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices yesterday
The US State Department has released a Human Rights Report which revealed that the most significant human rights problems in Bangladesh last year were arbitrary arrests, regulation of online speech, and poor working conditions and labour rights.
Secretary of State John Kerry released the 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices yesterday. The country reports cover the status of human rights in countries around the world.
The country report on Bangladesh also said extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, weak judicial capacity, and lengthy pre-trial detentions were other human rights problems.
Politically motivated violence and pervasive official corruption remained serious issues while some nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) faced legal and informal restrictions on their activities, the report said.
“Women suffered from unequal treatment. Many children were compelled to work, particularly in the informal sector, because of economic necessity or in some instances trafficking.”
Official corruption and related impunity also remained as problems, it added.
“Weak regard for the rule of law not only enabled individuals, including government officials, to commit human rights violations with impunity but also prevented citizens from claiming their rights.”
In recent years, the government did not take comprehensive measures to investigate and prosecute cases of security force abuse and killing, it found out.
Instances of societal violence against religious and ethnic minorities persisted, although many government and civil society leaders claimed that these acts had political or economic motivations and should not be attributed wholly to religious beliefs or affiliations, the report said.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
