The recently-concluded Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Bangladesh’s human rights records has been quite a surreal event. When the local media reported arrests of more than10,000 BNP activists, including its top leaders, centring the party’s October 28 rally, diplomats in Geneva were told that Bangladesh had ensured abundant political space for the opposition. Law minister Anisul HUq, who led the Bangladesh delegation and placed its progress report on implementing recommendations of the 2018 UPR, said that Bangladesh was fully committed to upholding fundamental principles and legal obligations of human rights. Certainly, there was no dearth of diplomatic niceties among the representatives of 110 countries, as almost all of them applauded Bangladesh for engaging in the process. But the recommendations they put forward were nothing close to praising the state of human rights in Bangladesh; rather they reflected deep concerns over the worsening situation. But the minister in his post-UP...

  Well-known civic rights activist Mizanur Rahman’s narration of his harrowing experience of being picked-up by police and tortured under custody, published in this newspaper’s online version on June 15, gives us some disturbing snapshots of unlawful actions of our law enforcement agencies. As a keen follower of developments related to human rights, I am reminded of the term used by the Committee on Torture (CAT) of the United nations for these kind of arbitrary and unlawful abductions by the members of law enforcing agencies. It's called “unacknowledged detentions.” Though Mizanur’s four-and-a-half hours-long unacknowledged detention came to an end to the relief of his family, the pains and psychological distress he suffered would no doubt stay with him forever.  Is this unacknowledged detention of Mizanur an exception or deviation in policing practices? Unfortunately, recent trends suggest it has become a preferred tactic to bypass the mandatory legal requirement of producin...