Bangladesh: New Laws Reverse Rights Protections, Empower Abusers

According to a report by Human Rights Watch… Click to expand Image

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BN) chairman and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on February 14, 2026.
© 2026 MD Abu Sufian Jewel/NurPhoto via AP Photo

(London, September 23, 2026) – Three laws approved in September 2026 by the Bangladeshi parliament have reversed human rights protections and broken the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) commitments to reform, Human Rights Watch said today. The legislation removes safeguards created by the interim government, which ruled Bangladesh between August 2024 and February 2026, reducing protections that could prevent a return to violations such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings which were widespread in the past.The interim government had introduced two ordinances to strengthen the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), including powers to prevent, investigate, and seek accountability for enforced disappearances. After being elected earlier this year, the government of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has now legislated to remove the NHRC’s independence and weaken its investigative powers. The third law purports to abolish the paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a law enforcement agency responsible for extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture, but in effect only renames it while providing fewer safeguards than apply to the regular police.“To prevent a return to the terrible abuses of the past, Bangladesh needs real security sector reform and an independent human rights body with the authority to investigate allegations of abuse,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The new government’s efforts to shield security forces from scrutiny and accountability offer no reason to trust that killings and disappearances will remain a thing of the past.”Under the Awami League government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which ruled Bangladesh between 2009 and 2024, law enforcement agencies committed widespread abuses, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests of critics, and the use of excessive force against protesters. Although killings and disappearances have sharply declined, the Rahman government, like its predecessor, is holding hundreds of perceived political opponents in arbitrary detention.The Awami League established the NHRC in 2009, but it lacked independence and had no power to investigate allegations against security agencies. Under the law in force at the time, a committee dominated by government or government-aligned officials selected the commissioners. If it received allegations against law enforcement agencies, the NHRC could only “call for a report from the government” and submit recommendations.The interim government sought to strengthen the NHRC with an ordinance that empowered it to investigate security agencies, created a more independent appointments process, and provided more robust and independent arrangements for funding and staffing. For the first time it created a National Preventive Mechanism, which is required under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, to inspect and monitor places of detention. However, after a new government was elected in February, the ordinance had to be confirmed or it would automatically lapse.The BNP administration let it lapse. The new legislation, passed on September 6 following a walkout by opposition legislators, does not allow the NHRC to directly investigate alleged rights violations by security forces. It can only request a report from the agency facing the allegation, although a vaguely worded provision seems to allow the NHRC to open its own inquiries if that agency fails to respond, or its report is deemed unsatisfactory.The new law also restores government control of the appointments process, reduces the NHRC’s budgetary and administrative independence, and downgrades the status and independence of the National Preventive Mechanism. As with the NHRC that existed under the Awami League’s 2009 law, the law adopted by the current government does not appear to comply with standards for investigatory powers, political independence, or adequate resourcing under the Paris Principles, the minimum international standard for national human rights institutions. Also on September 6, parliament adopted the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Act, which reverses reforms in another ordinance of the interim government. While the lapsed ordinance empowered the NHRC to investigate allegations of enforced disappearance, under the new act the government will appoint a security agency other than the agency implicated to investigate such allegations. While the ordinance empowered the NHRC to monitor, inspect, and investigate detention facilities, including if it suspects a secret detention facility, those powers have been removed. The legal standard for command responsibility for enforced disappearances, which was previously based on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and held officers responsible for violations they should have known about and prevented, has also been changed. It now requires evidence of direct orders to hold a commanding officer responsible for enforced disappearances.On September 10, parliament passed the Special Response Battalion Act, renaming the RAB, which had been sanctioned by the United States for its role in serious human rights abuses. Seven of its former senior officers have been placed under targeted US sanctions, and several former members are facing trial at Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal for alleged crimes against humanity, such as enforced disappearance. The ruling BNP had previously called for RAB’s dissolution, as had Human Rights Watch.The new law transfers the battalion’s personnel, powers, and property, including records to a supposedly new force, the Special Response Battalion (SRB), which began operating on September 16. Even the logo remains the same, only changing the letters RAB to SRB. In May, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed had said that renaming the unit might lead the United States to “reconsider” the sanctions against it. Human rights experts have expressed dismay at the lack of provision for safeguards, training, oversight, or accountability in the new law. As a matter of urgency, Bangladesh’s international partners should press the government to ensure that the as-yet undrafted rules for the SRB’s activities under the new law include rigorous human rights vetting of personnel, independent external oversight, safeguards governing arrest and detention, preservation of RAB’s records and other evidence, and an end to the routine deployment of seconded military personnel for civilian law enforcement, Human Rights Watch said. The United States should maintain its sanctions on the renamed entity until adequate measures to ensure respect for human rights and accountability for past violations, are in effect. Bangladesh’s international partners, including the European Union and the United Kingdom, should also strongly express their concern at the emerging human rights record and policies of Bangladesh’s new government. “Tarique Rahman came to office promising reform, after protesters risked their lives to overthrow a government that had committed widespread and severe rights violations,” Pearson said. “It is deeply alarming to see the new government so quickly following in the abusive footsteps of Sheikh Hasina, because we have seen where this can lead.”  complete report is on below link. Source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/09/22/bangladesh-new-laws-reverse-rights-protections-empower-abusers