Rights bills leave agencies policing themselves, TIB warns

Transparency International Bangladesh has warned that two key human rights bills before Parliament still leave security and law enforcement agencies effectively investigating allegations involving their own institutional circle, creating serious risks of conflicts of interest and impunity.

The watchdog said proposed amendments to the National Human Rights Commission Bill 2026 and the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Bill 2026 fail to address fundamental weaknesses in ensuring independent investigations into serious human rights violations.

While a parliamentary standing committee has proposed some positive changes, TIB said the central question of who investigates alleged abuses by law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies remains unresolved.

“A commission is being formed, but the hope that it will be independent remains an illusion,” TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said.

He said the proposed National Human Rights Commission would remain vulnerable to executive influence through its selection process, staffing and finances.

The selection committee would include the Speaker, two ministers, a ruling-party MP and the Cabinet Secretary, while serving government employees could become commissioners while on deputation, lien or unpaid leave.

Up to 30 percent of the commission’s staff could also come from government service on deputation.

TIB said the bill does not clearly establish that the commission will operate outside any government ministry or division or guarantee full financial independence.

The watchdog nevertheless welcomed several standing committee recommendations, including mandatory representation of indigenous or disadvantaged communities, barring loan defaulters from becoming commissioners and removing prior-approval requirements for visits to detention centres other than military facilities.

But TIB raised particular concern over Section 19, which would require the commission, when dealing with serious rights violations involving disciplinary forces, to seek reports from the institution concerned instead of conducting its own direct investigation.

Iftekharuzzaman said the provision would make the commission “weaker than even the 2009 law” and inconsistent with the Paris Principles governing national human rights institutions.

TIB raised similar objections to the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Bill.

Although Section 14(3) would prevent an accused force from investigating its own members, an investigation could still be assigned to another disciplinary force or an inter-force team.

“Is the investigating institution genuinely independent from that same justice-obstructing institutional circle, or is it being asked to investigate itself?” Iftekharuzzaman said.

TIB described the standing committee's proposed changes to the bill's accountability framework as largely “cosmetic.”

The organisation warned that compromised investigations could have consequences beyond criminal accountability, potentially preventing disappeared people from being formally recognised as victims and denying their families compensation and property or inheritance rights.

TIB also called for the definition of enforced disappearance to be broadened in line with the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, or ICPPED.

It said the law should explicitly cover potential involvement not only by government employees and disciplinary forces but also public representatives, MPs, ministers, advisers and other influential state actors.

TIB also criticised the removal of safeguards contained in the 2025 ordinance requiring authorities to continue searching until a disappeared person is found or their fate established and to regularly update their family.

It raised concern over a provision allowing up to five years' rigorous imprisonment for false or harassing accusations.

TIB warned that where investigations themselves are vulnerable to institutional influence, families making genuine allegations could face punishment simply because investigators fail to establish sufficient evidence.

“Such a provision risks creating a serious culture of fear among victims when it comes to lodging complaints and seeking justice,” Iftekharuzzaman said.

TIB said it had earlier submitted 25 recommendations on the Human Rights Commission bill and 17 on the enforced disappearance bill, but many of its central concerns remained unaddressed.

The organisation urged Parliament not to rush the legislation through by voice vote.

Instead, it called for detailed debate involving government and opposition MPs and amendments bringing the laws into line with the Paris Principles, ICPPED and other international human rights standards.

If Parliament fails to address the weaknesses, Iftekharuzzaman said, it would bear responsibility for failing to meet public expectations for protecting human rights after Bangladesh's experience of prolonged abuses.

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