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Legislation to establish the body, the National Human Rights Commission Ordinance, 2007, had already been issued on Dec. 23 last year. While the commission does not meet the full criteria of a human rights body under U.N. guidelines, at least it does not violate the provisions of the national Constitution.
The government announced on Sept. 1 that the Commission was to be established; on Nov. 20 its three top officials were appointed, and it began work on Dec. 1.
The newly appointed officials of the Human Rights Commission are Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury, who retired from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in 2007, Niru Kumar Chakma, a professor of the Department of Philosophy of Dhaka University, and Munira Khan, former chairperson of the Fair Election Monitoring Alliance, an NGO.
Human rights defenders and victims of human rights abuses have been demanding such a commission for decades. While the competence of this body is still a matter of debate, its establishment is a welcome sign for the people of Bangladesh.
The irony is that the Commission has been established by a regime that has been accused of excessive abuse of military and civilian power against the citizens of Bangladesh. The current military-controlled government, however, has promised to hand over power to an elected government at the end of this year, or in January, 2009.
For the past two years, the government has faced serious challenges from the Supreme Court’s High Court Division regarding its authority to pass laws that are not relevant to a general election. The High Court Division passed a number of rulings and judgments declaring the ordinances made by the current government unconstitutional.
Although a human rights body has been long overdue in the country, people believe that the current government has created this commission, prior to its departure, to protect itself from accusations of human rights abuse. It is an opportunity to show that the government not only violates human rights but also preserves them.
People believe that the chairman and the two members of the commission are aware of the failures of the criminal justice system in the country, and that many Bangladeshis have fallen victim to torture, ill treatment and the dysfunctional legal institutions.
The country's criminal investigations fall under the control of the police, who have shown themselves to be masters of manipulation. This is one of the most crucial hurdles against upholding the law of the land.
The prosecutors, most of whom lack efficiency and commitment to their job, are incapable of assisting the courts in providing justice. The subordinate judiciary, including its staff, judges and magistrates, has scandalously been known as a warehouse of corruption. Moreover, the higher judiciary is beyond the reach of ordinary citizens due to high legal and illegal fees charged for every stage in the judicial process. And endless delays in the judicial process contribute to the destruction of public trust.
Besides, constant intervention by the executive branch of the government, as well as negligence and disrespect for judicial orders by rulers and politicians, has rendered the system ineffective.
In these nearly hopeless circumstances, a highly functional National Human Rights Commission is badly needed. According to a reliable source, the commission already received five applications from victims on its very first day of operation. The job of this body will be challenging
The success of the commission will depend on its effectiveness and competence as an independent institution. It should prioritize its work according to the current situation of the country, and its first activity should be to frame its own rules and regulations so that it can fulfill its responsibilities.
The people should keep abreast of the commission's position and its direct intervention in situations involving illegal arrests and arbitrary detention in jails and prisons. The credibility of the commission will depend on its ability to save people from custodial torture and ill treatment at the hands of law-enforcement agencies.
Bangladesh is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture and other major conventions. It is the responsibility of the commission to encourage the government to enact laws that make torture a crime, offer compensation to victims and punish the perpetrators.
Now, rights groups and victims of human rights abuses will observe the role of the commission and the implementation of international human rights norms and standards in compliance with U.N. instruments.
It is hoped that the chairman and the two members will conduct their work by effectively monitoring all cases, instead of nodding their heads in response to the version of events presented by the government and the police.
The commission should act as a facilitator for victims to get legal redress promptly and effectively. It will either emerge as an institution of public hope and trust or plunge into the ditch of frustration like the existing legal institutions in Bangladesh.
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(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender based in Hong Kong working at the Asian Human Rights Commission. He is a Bangladeshi national with a degree in literature from a university in Dhaka. He began his career as a journalist in 1990 and engaged in human rights activism at the grassroots level in his country for more than a decade. He also worked as an editor for publications on human rights and socio-cultural issues and contributed to other similar publications.)
