The interim government has taken a move to form a national commission and a tribunal for ensuring justice for the victims of enforced disappearance and their families to make the International Convention for the Protection of All Enforced Disappearance effective.
The proposal was made in the second draft of the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Remedy Ordinance 2025, presented at a view exchange programme organised by the law ministry at the Judicial Administration Training Institute in Dhaka on Saturday.
Law adviser Asif Nazrul, addressing the event as the chair, said, 鈥榃e want to enact the law as we are not confirm whether the next government will enact such a law. We want to form a strong commission.鈥�
He said that they would form a truth and reconciliation commission.
鈥楾ruth Justice Commission or Truth Reconciliation Commission is much needed in our country. If the commission was formed in 1972, it would have been better.鈥� he added.
According to the draft, the national commission on enforced disappearance would comprise five members headed by a retired High Court Division judge.
It said that the members of the proposed commission would include one retired district and sessions judge, a former secretary, a medical forensic department professor and a human rights activist having 15 years of experience in a recognised human rights organisation.
International Crimes Tribunal chief prosecutor Tajul Islam said that the provision of 15 years of experience should be dropped while appointing a human rights activist to the commission as a youth might learn more within a month than one can learn in years.
鈥榃e should not bar it with an age limit. We have to appoint a member having efficiency,鈥� he added.
The member of the commission would be appointed following discussions between the government and the Supreme Court, said the draft.
It said that the head office of the proposed commission would be in Dhaka and, if necessary, its offices would also be set up at divisional, district and upazila levels. 聽
The responsibility, power and functions of the proposed commission include recording the allegations of enforced disappearance, conducting or supervising investigation, and visiting jails, places, or establishments anywhere in Bangladesh to probe the incidents of enforced disappearance.
The draft said that an enforced disappearance victim could file a complaint with the commission, police station, or a first-class magistrate and the commission would prepare a primary report within 48 hours.
If the report is satisfactory, the victim can file a first information report or the commission can investigate directly, the draft said.
Legal experts and rights activists, however, opposed the complex process of recording a case.
鈥業t is a complex process of recording a case and such process will give a scope to the perpetrators to escape,鈥� said attorney general Md Asaduzzaman.
The draft also said that the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Remedy Tribunal would be considered as a sessions court and the government would appoint judges of the rank of a district and session judge, said the draft.
It said that the trial would be completed within 120 days.
Environment, forest and climate change affairs adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan said that constituting tribunals in 64 districts for trial of enforced disappearance cases would not be logical as incidents of enforced disappearance were not reported in the past nine months of the interim government.
Social media influencer and activist Pinaki Bhattacharya addressed the event virtually.
Education affairs adviser professor Chowdhury Rafiqul Abrar, human rights organisation Odhikar secretary Saira Rahman Khan and poet and thinker Farhad Mazhar also spoke.
Sanjida Islam Tulee, co-founder of Maayer Daak, a platform for enforced disappearance victim families, among others, was also present.
On December 14, 2024, the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance in its first interim report submitted to the interim government found prima facie involvement of the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and some high-ranking officials of security forces and her government in enforced disappearances.
The government formed the commission after it had taken office on August 8, 2024, three days after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regime on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising.
The commission said that they recorded 1,676 complaints of enforced disappearances that took place during the Hasina regime, while 758 complaints were scrutinized.
The commission estimates the number of enforced disappearance incidents in the country would cross 3,500.
