Justice delayed, trauma endures

"I was too scared to tell them I was pregnant."

Those words, spoken by a survivor during a recent victims' consultation in Barisal, capture a painful truth about Bangladesh's recent past. Arrested on false charges, tortured in custody and forced to give birth in prison after concealing her pregnancy out of fear, her story is not simply an individual tragedy. 

It is a reminder that authoritarian rule leaves wounds that outlast political transitions and electoral victories.

Ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule was marked by gross human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, mass arrests and fabricated cases.

The fall of the Awami League government in a mass uprising raised hopes that Bangladesh would finally confront decades of state-sponsored repression through a credible transitional justice process. 

Victim-centred consultations have documented the scale of harm, violence and injustice inflicted by the former government. Before the elections, political parties and stakeholders agreed that justice for victims was not a procedural formality or a conventional legal matter. 

It was a prerequisite for preventing future abuses, rebuilding public trust in state institutions, and restoring the rule of law. Justice was never expected to be symbolic.

Yet only months after the February 2026 national elections, many stakeholders are questioning whether those promises will translate into action.

On May 8, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), together with the International Institute of Law and Diplomacy (IILD) and the Human Rights Development Centre (HRDC), convened a consultation in Barisal with victims of state repression, their families and affected communities. 

The objective was straightforward: document victims' experiences, understand their needs and ensure their voices shape Bangladesh's transitional justice framework. What emerged, however, was a devastating account of systematic abuse.

Participants described enforced disappearances, custodial torture, fabricated criminal cases, extrajudicial killings, politically motivated "kneecapping," medical negligence during the July Uprising, and years of psychological trauma, economic deprivation and social exclusion. 

Their testimony showed these violations were not isolated acts by rogue officials. They reflected the systematic politicisation of state institutions and the use of law enforcement agencies to suppress political dissent through crimes such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Several families described how multiple relatives disappeared. One elderly mother spoke of living in poverty after losing two sons to enforced disappearance more than 14 years ago. Their absence created not only an emotional void but also destroyed the family's economic security. 

Another woman recounted being falsely accused of murdering her husband, tortured in detention and eventually giving birth inside prison. Such accounts expose forms of state violence rarely reflected in official records but permanently etched into survivors' lives.

These testimonies also reveal a broader reality often overlooked in discussions of transitional justice: authoritarian violence affects entire families and communities, not only individual victims. 

Women become widows, mothers continue searching for disappeared children, children grow up without parents, and survivors carry lifelong physical and psychological injuries. The consequences span generations.

Equally concerning is the growing anxiety that the current political transition could become another missed opportunity.

Many participants expressed frustration that key commitments under the July Charter remain unimplemented, while the government has repealed important legal measures, including the National Human Rights Commission Ordinance, 2025, and the Enforced Disappearances Prevention and Redress Ordinance, 2025. 

These developments have fuelled fears that the structures of impunity behind past abuses may gradually be restored under a different political order.

Such concerns cannot be dismissed as political scepticism. They are rooted in lived experience. Many members of the current government endured political persecution under previous administrations. 

For that reason, survivors expected the new leadership to understand the human cost of impunity and place victims at the centre of national reform.

The consultation in Barisal reflects a growing nationwide demand: the transitional justice process must be genuinely victim-centred. Survivors and victims' families are not seeking revenge.

They are demanding truth, official acknowledgment, accountability, institutional reform and guarantees that future generations will never endure similar abuses. Dismantling state-sponsored violence through justice and reform is a fundamental obligation of the state.

The long-standing deprivation and unmet needs of victims underscore the need for an independent and credible Truth and Healing Commission grounded in verified facts, corroborated testimony and admissible evidence. 

Such a process should complement judicial accountability while addressing the broader social and psychological harm left by years of authoritarian rule.

Justice must also include comprehensive rehabilitation. Survivors continue to need medical treatment, psychological support, legal assistance, livelihood opportunities and social reintegration. Without these measures, many will remain trapped by the consequences of abuses long after the political transition ends.

History offers many examples of countries that chose silence over accountability, only to see repression return. Bangladesh now stands at a similar crossroads. Whether it succeeds in building a democratic future will depend not only on constitutional reform or electoral outcomes, but on its willingness to confront the truths of its recent past.

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Muhammad Asadullah is a Visiting Professor & Director, Daffodil Legal Research Centre (DLRC), Daffodil International University, & Associate Professor of Criminology, University of Regina, Canada

Nousheen Sharmila Ritu is a PhD Candidate, University of Warwick

Tahamid Toki Chowdhury, LLB, is from Bangladesh University of Professionals 

Md Mahbul Haque is the Executive Director of Human Rights Development Centre (HRDC)