Fortify Rights has said the Bangladesh government must ensure accountability for cases of enforced disappearances during the brutal rule of the country’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and provide reparations for victims’ families and survivors.
Today marks one year since the Bangladesh interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, established the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances.
‘Enforced disappearances were a hallmark of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s despotic rule, and should never be allowed to happen again in Bangladesh,’ said John Quinley, Director at Fortify Rights.
‘Despite making progress on ensuring accountability during the first year of work of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, the interim government must do more to address past crimes, including through fair and impartial criminal prosecution of all those involved and reparations for victims and their relatives.’
On August 27, 2024, Bangladesh formed an independent commission to investigate the thousands of disappearances, and in the same month, the government acceded to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
The domestic commission has so far received more than 1,800 cases of enforced disappearance, and has reported that hundreds of forcibly disappeared individuals remain missing.
In December 2024, the commission published sections of its final report, acknowledging the systematic nature of enforced disappearance, which was ‘orchestrated by a central command structure’ during the rule of the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina. In June 2025, Bangladesh’s interim government extended the commission’s mandate until December 2025.
On May 15, 2025, 11 international human rights groups, including Fortify Rights, said in a joint statement that ‘the ordinance should exclude the death penalty as a sentencing option.’
In June 2025, the U. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances published a report on Bangladesh in which it recommended implementing ‘specific measures for the survivors of enforced disappearances,’ including access to justice and reparations, including legal and financial support.
‘True accountability requires a victim-centered reparations program, fair justice procedures, and unwavering transparency for victims and survivors,’ said John Quinley. ‘Survivors and the relatives of the disappeared cannot wait. Their healing depends not only on prosecutions but on recognition, redress, and the dismantling of abusive security structures that allowed the enforced disappearances to occur on such a widespread and systematic scale.’
