Bangladesh’s new rights laws weaken watchdog, rebrand RAB without reform: HRW

Three laws passed by Bangladesh’s parliament this month have weakened safeguards against enforced disappearances and security-force abuses while effectively preserving the Rapid Action Battalion under a new name, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday. 

The New York-based rights group said the legislation reversed protections introduced by the interim government between August 2024 and February 2026 and fell short of reform commitments made by the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

HRW focused its criticism on the new National Human Rights Commission legislation and the Special Response Battalion Act.

The interim government had introduced ordinances giving the National Human Rights Commission greater independence and authority to investigate alleged abuses by security agencies. It also created a National Preventive Mechanism to inspect and monitor detention facilities.

The government allowed those provisions to lapse. Under the NHRC legislation passed on September 6 following an opposition walkout, the commission cannot directly investigate alleged rights violations by security forces. Instead, it can initially request a report from the agency accused of the violation. 

A provision appears to allow the commission to conduct its own inquiry if the agency fails to respond or if its report is considered unsatisfactory, but HRW described the wording as vague.

The rights group said the new arrangement resembled the framework established under the 2009 NHRC law, when the commission lacked authority to directly investigate security agencies.

HRW also raised concerns about changes to the legal standard for command responsibility in enforced disappearance cases.

The previous framework was based on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and could hold commanders responsible for abuses they knew or should have known about and failed to prevent. The new legislation requires evidence of direct orders before a commanding officer can be held responsible for an enforced disappearance, according to HRW. 

“To prevent a return to the terrible abuses of the past, Bangladesh needs real security sector reform and an independent human rights body with the authority to investigate allegations of abuse,” said Elaine Pearson, HRW’s Asia director.

RAB becomes SRB

Parliament passed the Special Response Battalion Act on September 10, replacing the Rapid Action Battalion with the Special Response Battalion.

But HRW said the change amounted largely to a rebranding.

The new force inherited RAB’s personnel, powers, property and records and began operations on September 16. Its logo also remains essentially unchanged, with “RAB” replaced by “SRB,” according to the group. 

RAB has faced longstanding allegations of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture. The United States imposed sanctions on the force and several of its current and former officials in 2021 over alleged serious human rights abuses.

Several former RAB members are also facing proceedings before Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal over alleged crimes against humanity, including enforced disappearances.

The BNP had previously called for RAB to be abolished.

HRW said the SRB law did not provide sufficient new safeguards on training, external oversight, arrest and detention or accountability.

The group called for rules governing the new force to include independent oversight, rigorous human-rights vetting of personnel and safeguards for arrests and detention. It also urged the preservation of RAB records that could constitute evidence in investigations of past abuses.

HRW said international partners should press Dhaka on those safeguards and called on the United States to maintain its sanctions on the renamed force until measures ensuring accountability and respect for human rights were in place. 

The rights group acknowledged that killings and enforced disappearances had “sharply declined” since the end of the Awami League government in 2024. But it alleged that hundreds of perceived political opponents were currently being held in arbitrary detention.

Under former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, rights groups documented widespread allegations of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and excessive force by security agencies.

HRW said the September legislation risked weakening some of the institutional safeguards created after that period.

“The new government’s efforts to shield security forces from scrutiny and accountability offer no reason to trust that killings and disappearances will remain a thing of the past,” Pearson said.