Last Updated on March 16, 2026 11:10 pm by INDIAN AWAAZ
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Zakir Hossain from Dhaka
Nine international rights organisations have urged Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to place human rights at the centre of his government’s agenda. In a letter published Monday, the groups said Tarique’s new government faces many urgent challenges but also has the opportunity to ensure lasting protections for rights.
Tarique and his Bangladesh Nationalist Party government came to power after a landslide victory in February in an election conducted by an interim administration that replaced the 15-year rule of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was toppled during mass protests in 2024.
According to Human Rights Watch, widespread abuses such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings under Hasina’s rule have ended, but the interim government continued arbitrary detentions of political opponents and failed to stop mob violence against journalists, minorities and cultural centres.
“Tarique Rahman has been given a wide mandate to bring change, including by many Bangladeshis who risked their lives to overthrow an autocratic government,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“Success will require meaningful reform to ensure that independent institutions are capable of delivering accountability and upholding the rule of law, and a real commitment to upholding rights such as freedom of religion and expression.”
The groups urged the government to end arbitrary detention, ensure accountability for past abuses, abolish the Rapid Action Battalion, protect ethnic and religious minorities, safeguard more than one million Rohingya refugees, and establish a strong independent National Human Rights Commission.
The letter was signed by Amnesty International, Article 19, Committee to Protect Journalists, CIVICUS, International Federation for Human Rights, Fortify Rights, Human Rights Watch, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and TechGlobal Institute.