There were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Bangladesh in 2023, the United States has said in a new report.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken launched the country-based report titled ‘2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bangladesh’ prepared by the US State Department on human rights practices in 2023 early Tuesday.

The report stated in the Bangladesh part that there were no significant changes in the human rights situation in the country during the year.

According to it, significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrest or detention, serious problems with the independence of the judiciary, political prisoners or detainees and transnational repression against individuals in another country.              

Stating substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organisation, funding, or operation of nongovernmental and civil society organisations, the report also marked the inability of Bangladeshis to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections.

The US report said police criminally charged thousands of opposition party leaders and activists, mainly BNP members, related to political demonstrations during the year and detained many of the accused.

According to the report, the government showed reluctance to take action against incidents of corruption and corrupt officials and offered them a kind of impunity.

“The law provided criminal penalties for conviction of corruption by officials, but the government did not implement the law effectively. There were numerous reports of government corruption in 2023, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity,” the report said.

There were numerous reports of widespread impunity for human rights abuses, said the report, adding that in most cases, the government did not take credible steps to identify and punish officials or security force members who may have committed human rights abuses.

Human rights activists have come up with ambivalent reactions to the US report on the human rights situation in Bangladesh.

Nijera Kori Coordinator Khushi Kabir said incidents of human rights violation occur in Bangladesh and these are reported in newspapers and human rights activists work on these.

Admitting that not all human rights violators face music in Bangladesh, she said she finds no reason to accept such observations from a country like the United States, which itself is struggling to ensure human rights for its citizens.

Khushi Kabir cited the examples of the University of Southern California’s cancellation of a student’s valedictorian’s commencement speech concerning her pro-Palestinian views, arrests of hundreds of students at Columbia University, New York University, Yale University and Harvard University, and the incident of a man’s setting himself on fire outside the Manhattan court where Donald Trump’s hush-money trial was going on. “They are backing and patronising Israel forces to continue conducting genocide in Gaza. They should look their face in the mirror before accusing any other countries of human rights violation,” she said.

Senior lawyer of Bangladesh Supreme Court and Chairperson of Ain O Salish Kendra Executive Committee ZI Khan Panna said the government should take this report seriously.

“The government shouldn’t dismiss the report. Rather, it should focus on the findings and address those properly to improve our human rights situation,” he said.

ZI Khan Panna said they published their findings on 31 December last year about Bangladesh’s human rights situation in 2023.

“According to our report, extrajudicial killings and torture in police stations have reduced significantly but there is scope for more improvement in other areas,” he added.