Ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30, rights organisation Odhikar said the Sheikh Hasina-led government used enforced disappearances as a tool of state repression during its roughly 15-and-a-half years in power. It said opposition activists, dissenters and ordinary citizens faced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations. The Hasina government fell on August 5, 2024, amid a student-public uprising.

Bangladesh ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance on August 29 after the interim government assumed office on August 8, 2024. Odhikar said ratification created an obligation to enact domestic legislation. The cabinet approved the Prevention and Remedies of Enforced Disappearance Act, 2026 on August 3, and an amended draft was introduced in parliament on August 27.

Odhikar objected to provisions allowing investigations by security forces other than the accused force, saying such probes could be biased. It also criticised a provision allowing up to five years’ rigorous imprisonment if a court finds a complaint false. The group demanded investigations be assigned to an independent National Human Rights Commission, protections for families’ property and bank-account access, and withdrawal of alleged false cases against returned victims.