Stop forced disappearances, save the humans believe in your faith or not

With a call on the government to ratify the convention for saving people from forced disappearance, rights and socio-political organizations are being observed today the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world. Amid the growing number of reports concerning harassment, ill-treatment and intimidation of witnesses of disappearances or relatives of persons who have disappeared, The UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and decided to declare August 30 the International Day to be observed beginning in 2011. Since then, rights groups in Bangladesh have been observing the day campaigning for ratification of the international convention as over 200 people, mostly having political backgrounds, disappeared in last seven years. The government, however, denied that incident of enforced disappearance were taking place in the country. Minister for home affairs Asaduzzaman Khan declined comment when asked why the government seemed unwilling to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance adopted by the United Nations if it was truly against enforced disappearance. To mark the day, the Moulik Odhikar Surakkha Committee, a platform of citizens campaigning for upholding human rights, held a conference at the National Press Club. A number of families of the victims of enforced disappearance also joined the day-long conference titled ’Appeal of relatives: no more enforced disappearance, killing and abduction. The Asian Legal Resource Centre in an emailed statement said justice had not been done to the victims of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh. ‘The families of victims of enforced disappearance are being denied access to the complaint mechanism whenever allegations are brought against the agents of the state,’ it said, adding, ‘The police refuse to register such complaints.’ The ALRC urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold Bangladesh accountable before the international community for its failure to provide remedies to victims and families of victims of enforced disappearance. Rights organization Odhikar stated that 150 people, mostly from political backgrounds, fell victim to enforced disappearance between January 2009 and August 2014.