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UNHCHR chief arrives today

Michelle to raise extrajudicial killings, disappearance, freedom of speech issues: UN

Published : Sunday, 14 August, 2022 at 12:00 AM  Count : 681

Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, during the first visit by a UN rights chief to Bangladesh, will raise issues of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and freedom of expression.
The UN office announced that at the Bangladesh government's invitation, Michelle Bachelet will start her visit from Sunday to Wednesday to see the ground reality of human rights issue in Bangladesh.
"Bangladesh strongly hopes that the Chief of UN human rights mechanism would witness by herself how the country is doing miracles to keep on track their development journey; integrating human rights into it," Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.     During her visit to the capital Dhaka, the UN rights chief is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other ministers. Apart from her meetings with the Cabinet Members of the government, she will interact with the National Human Rights Commission, youth representatives, CSO leaders and the academia during her tour in Dhaka.  She would also pay homage to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Bangabandhu Memorial Museum on August 15.
A UN official said Bachelet will hold meetings with the government and civil society members on enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and freedom of expression, according to the media reports.
Welcome the visit of the UN rights chief to Dhaka, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen said, "This is for the first time such a chief boss is visiting Dhaka, I think this is an opportunity for us to explain our situation/position to the UN body and at the same time what measure we have taken to overcome the situation," he added.
"We received many allegations against human rights violation in the country, some are seriously needed to be investigate, and some are baseless, even some times we found that the newspaper reports are not factually correct, so it is an opportunity for us to discuss everything directly with the senior officials, the Foreign Secretary said.
"The High Commissioner will also travel to Cox's Bazar where she will be able to visit camps housing Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and meet with refugees, officials and non-governmental organisations," her office said in a statement.
The visit comes ahead of the fifth anniversary this month of the Rohingya exodus into the southeastern tip of neighbouring Bangladesh, it said hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas left Rakhine State in August 2017 after the crackdown, which the UN is investigating over genocide charges.
Bangladeshi authorities have become increasingly impatient about hosting the refugees while criticising the rest of the world for not providing more assistance.
Meanwhile, nine human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday that Bachelet 'should publicly call for an immediate end to serious abuses including extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances'.
"This is a key opportunity for the High Commissioner to call for a halt to the Bangladesh government's further descent into authoritarianism by ceasing the harassment and reprisals against critics," it reads.
It is the first time that a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has visited Bangladesh since the post was established 29 years ago in 1993.
Sultana Kamal of Ain-o-Salish Kendra (ASK) welcomed the visit and said, "We as human rights activists hope that the High Commissioner will have the opportunity to meet and talk with victims and members of the civil society including human rights activists outside government control so that she can get a fuller picture of the human rights situation of the country.
Adilur Rehman Khan, Secretary of Odhikar, said, "UN must make Bangladesh accountable regarding gross human rights violations perpetrated for more than a decade."











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