The High Court on Thursday directed the government to declare the UN fact-finding report on human rights violations during the July 2024 mass uprising a historical document.
The court ordered the government to publish the report in a gazette notification, labelling it as 鈥楯uly Revolution鈥�2024鈥�, to preserve it as a record for future generations.
The HC bench of Justice Fahmida Quader and Justice Sayed Jahed Mansur passed the verdict while disposing of a public interest litigation filed by Supreme Court lawyer Md Tanvir Ahmed.
The court also directed the law and home secretaries, the inspector general of police, the chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, and the National Human Rights Commission chairman to submit a compliance report within three months.
The writ petition was treated as a continuous mandamus, meaning the court may revisit the matter if developments arise, deputy attorney general Tamim Khan said.
In May 2025, the High Court issued a rule asking the authorities to explain why the UN report should not be declared a historical document and preserved.
The UN Human Rights Office published the report in February 2025, based on findings from a fact-finding team that investigated the period between July 1 and August 15, 2024.
The team interviewed protesters, including the injured, and documented serious human rights violations.
The report alleged that then prime minister Sheikh Hasina ordered security forces to kill protesters and hide their bodies to crush the student-led uprising.
It stated that on July 18, 2024, the then home minister chaired a meeting of top security and intelligence officials, where he directed the Border Guard Bangladesh commander to use lethal force more freely.
According to the report, the next day, Hasina herself told officials to 鈥榓rrest the ringleaders, kill them, and hide their bodies.鈥�
The UN also cited Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader, who on July 19, 2024 told reporters that security forces had been ordered to 鈥榮hoot on sight鈥欌�攁 command the report said violated international human rights standards.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker T眉rk called the crackdown a 鈥榖rutal, coordinated strategy鈥� by the Hasina government to stay in power.
He said the investigation found reasonable grounds to believe that hundreds of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, and forced disappearances were carried out with the knowledge and direction of top political and security leaders.
Based on deaths reported by various credible sources, the report estimates that as many as 1,400 people may have been killed between July 1, 2024 and August 5, 2024 and thousands were injured, the vast majority of whom were shot by Bangladesh鈥檚 security forces, said the report.聽
Of these, the report indicates that as many as 12 or 13 per cent of those killed were children. Bangladesh Police reported that 44 of its officers were killed, it mentioned.
Responding to a question at a hybrid press conference, Rory Mungoven, the chief of the Asia-Pacific Section of the UN Human Rights Office, had said that they had found the use of military rifles in 66 per cent cases of deaths, shotguns with pellets in 12 per cent, pistols 2 in per cent and others in 20 per cent cases, while referring to a Dhaka Medical College forensic department examinations of 130 cases of deaths as mentioned in the report.