Bangladesh President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir should return the recently passed enforced disappearance bill to parliament for reconsideration, as provisions allowing police and other security agencies to investigate such cases risk undermining independent investigations and accountability, Fortify Rights and a Bangladeshi victims’ group said Thursday.

In a joint statement, Fortify Rights and the All Victims and Veterans Network in Bangladesh called for amendments to the Prevention and Remedy of Enforced Disappearance Bill, 2026, including removal of the death penalty, establishment of an independent investigative mechanism and stronger safeguards for victims, their families and people reporting suspected disappearances in good faith.

Parliament passed the bill on September 6 alongside the National Human Rights Commission Bill, 2026. Opposition lawmakers walked out during the vote.

Under Article 80(3) of the Constitution, the president can return a bill to parliament within 15 days of receiving it, asking lawmakers to reconsider the legislation or particular provisions and proposing amendments. If parliament passes the bill again, with or without amendments, the president is required to assent to it.

The rights groups said the legislation marked an important step because it would create Bangladesh's first dedicated statutory framework specifically criminalizing enforced disappearance, but warned that weaknesses in several provisions could compromise its stated purpose.

“Bangladesh is closer than ever to having a dedicated law against enforced disappearances, and that is significant progress,” John Quinley, director at Fortify Rights, said.

“The death penalty will not make this law stronger, and allowing security forces to investigate allegations against security forces will not deliver credible accountability,” he said, calling on the president to send the legislation back to parliament.

The bill recognizes enforced disappearance as a distinct criminal offense and contains provisions covering investigations and prosecutions, efforts to locate disappeared people, compensation, rehabilitation and other remedies.

It also distinguishes individual cases of enforced disappearance from disappearances committed as part of a widespread or systematic practice.

Under Article 4, disappearances forming part of such a practice — including those committed during former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government — may be prosecuted as crimes against humanity under the International Crimes Tribunal Act rather than through the bill's ordinary criminal provisions.

Fortify Rights and the victims’ network identified Section 14, which governs investigations, as one of the legislation's central weaknesses.

The provision assigns responsibility for investigating enforced disappearance allegations to the police or a “disciplinary force,” a category that may include security forces such as the Rapid Action Battalion, recently renamed the Special Response Battalion, and Border Guard Bangladesh.

Under the bill, a victim or another person seeking to report an enforced disappearance must appear before the officer-in-charge of a police station and lodge a complaint. Police would subsequently investigate the allegation.

Fortify Rights said the arrangement creates a potential conflict of interest because police and other security agencies have themselves repeatedly been accused of involvement in enforced disappearances in Bangladesh.

Although complainants may approach a magistrate when police refuse to receive a complaint, the legislation does not establish a separate independent body to investigate disappearance allegations, according to the rights group.

The problem is particularly significant in Bangladesh because allegations of enforced disappearance have historically involved police, intelligence agencies and specialized security units, meaning an agency could potentially be required to investigate allegations involving its own personnel or another part of the security establishment.

Barrister Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem, a Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker from Dhaka-14 and himself a survivor of enforced disappearance, told Fortify Rights that the bill “keeps the investigation of disappearances inside the security establishment and deters families from coming forward.”

Former International Crimes Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam had also questioned the investigative arrangement at an August roundtable in Dhaka, asking how justice could be achieved when an alleged offender was also responsible for the investigation, Fortify Rights said.

The rights groups contrasted the bill with an ordinance adopted under the previous interim government. That ordinance had assigned responsibility for investigating enforced disappearances to an independent National Human Rights Commission, but it later lapsed after the new parliament did not ratify it.

Fortify Rights also said Section 14 fails to explicitly provide investigators with some of the powers needed to investigate disappearances involving state agencies, including unrestricted access to places of detention and authority to obtain records, documents, information and cooperation from military, intelligence and other security bodies.

The organizations called for parliament to create an independent and adequately resourced investigative mechanism operating outside the chain of command of any police, military, intelligence or security organization potentially implicated in a case.

Another major concern raised by the groups is Section 6, which retains capital punishment.

Under the provision, if a disappeared person dies or is killed in custody, or remains unlocated for more than five years after disappearing, those responsible could face death, life imprisonment or imprisonment for at least five years, as well as a fine of up to 10 million taka.

Fortify Rights said the death penalty should be removed while retaining penalties severe enough to reflect the gravity of enforced disappearance.

The organization argued that effective accountability would depend primarily on credible investigations, preservation of evidence, prosecution of perpetrators and reparations for victims rather than capital punishment.

Bangladesh acceded to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in August 2024. The convention requires states to criminalize enforced disappearance and impose penalties reflecting the extreme seriousness of the crime, but does not require the death penalty.

Fortify Rights also cited a June 2026 communication from several UN Special Procedures mandate holders who raised concerns about the death-penalty provision in Bangladesh's proposed disappearance legislation.

The UN experts argued that accountability depended on prompt, impartial and fair proceedings and raised concerns about imposing an irreversible sentence in cases where evidence may have been destroyed or official records falsified.

The rights groups also raised concerns about Section 21, which allows up to five years' imprisonment with hard labor for filing what a court determines after trial to have been a “false and harassing” complaint.

While deliberately fabricated allegations can legitimately be punished, Fortify Rights said the provision as drafted could discourage families from reporting suspected disappearances, particularly because the inability to prove an allegation does not necessarily mean it was knowingly false.

Such cases can be especially difficult to establish when officials allegedly responsible for a disappearance control detention records, facilities or other potential evidence.

The organizations urged lawmakers to explicitly protect victims, relatives, witnesses and others who report suspected disappearances in good faith, even when an investigation ultimately fails to establish that an enforced disappearance occurred.

Prompt reporting can also be critical in disappearance cases because intervention in the first hours or days may help locate a detainee and prevent torture, abuse or death, the groups said.

Fortify Rights welcomed provisions dealing with compensation and rehabilitation but said they should go further.

Section 23 provides compensation for victims and requires the state to pay when compensation cannot be recovered from a convicted perpetrator. Section 30 requires the government to establish a fund covering medical treatment, rehabilitation, compensation and legal assistance for victims of enforced disappearance.

However, the groups said access to reparations should not depend on identifying, prosecuting or convicting an individual perpetrator. Survivors and families, they argued, may require immediate financial, medical, psychological or legal assistance long before criminal proceedings are completed.

They called for interim assistance for families while the fate or whereabouts of a disappeared person remains unknown and a clearly defined procedure for accessing the proposed victims' fund.

The debate over the legislation comes against the backdrop of Bangladesh's extensive record of enforced disappearances.

A commission established by the post-Hasina interim government documented about 1,800 cases of enforced disappearance during Hasina's rule, according to Fortify Rights. Secret detention facilities were also uncovered after her government was ousted following the 2024 uprising.

The issue has not disappeared entirely under the BNP government.

The All Victims and Veterans Network said it continues to document allegations arising since the change of government, including the disappearance of fisherman Miraj Sheikh.

Miraj disappeared on April 10, 2026 after allegedly being taken into Bangladesh Coast Guard custody. His whereabouts remain unknown, according to Fortify Rights, which said the victims’ network is providing legal assistance to his family.

The case has intensified concerns over whether Bangladesh's new legal framework will be capable not only of addressing disappearances committed under previous governments but also of independently investigating allegations involving security forces under the current administration.

Mosfiqur Rahman Johan, founder of the All Victims and Veterans Network in Bangladesh, said families had spent years in an environment in which accusing a security institution of taking a relative could itself expose them to retaliation.

“This bill represents an important opportunity for victims and survivors, but Bangladesh should get it right,” Johan said.

He called on President Fakhrul to return the bill so parliament could strengthen protections, remove capital punishment and establish an accountability mechanism capable of protecting victims and survivors.

Fortify Rights said the proposed law could still become a significant break from Bangladesh's history of impunity for enforced disappearances, but argued that its effectiveness would ultimately depend on whether the institutions accused of committing such violations can be investigated independently.

The organization urged parliament to amend the legislation before it becomes law, saying a credible disappearance framework should ensure independent investigations, protect good-faith complainants from retaliation and guarantee victims and families access to truth, justice and effective reparation.

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