The government said on Thursday that the United States country report on human rights situation in Bangladesh mostly relied on assumptions and unsubstantiated allegations.
It said that some biases were quite evident in the reporting pattern.
‘It is to be made public yet again that contrary to what the report claims, the former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia is a convicted person with suspended sentence under the Executive authority, and is definitely not under any form of “house arrest”,’ foreign ministry spokesperson Seheli Sabrin said in reaction to the US annual report 2023.
Reading out a written statement at the foreign ministry, she said, it was also apparent that the report mostly relies on assumptions and unsubstantiated allegations drawn from local and international non-government organisations (including anonymous sources), many of which are supported by the US government or related entities.
‘As such, some of the inherent and evident biases in the reporting pattern are quite evident,’ she said.
Bangladesh, however, appreciates continued interest of the US administration in the human rights situation across the globe, according to the statement.
‘The Government of Bangladesh takes note of the US State Department’s release of the Country Report on Human Rights Practices, 2023 and appreciates continued interest of the US administration in Human Rights situation across the globe,’ said Seheli, also director general of the public diplomacy wing of the foreign ministry.
She said that Bangladesh looked forward to remaining engaged with the UN Human Rights mechanisms, the US and other international partners, and stakeholders towards upholding its commitment to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by all citizens under any circumstances.
She, however, mentioned that the human rights situation was not perfect anywhere in the world.
‘Though human rights are non-hierarchical, fulfilment of them can be incremental as socio-economic constraints often put limit to the pace of realizing those rights,’ she said.
The statement claimed that the government of Bangladesh had been doing its best to uphold the human rights of its citizens. ‘Indeed, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the human rights situation has significantly improved in Bangladesh,’ it said.
The US Department of State in its annual report on human rights published on Monday said that Bangladesh former prime minister and chairperson of the lead opposition political party Bangladesh Nationalist Party Khaleda Zia remained confined to her home.
‘Former prime minister and chairperson of the lead opposition political party BNP Khaleda Zia remained confined to her home. She was barred from receiving needed medical treatment abroad but was being treated in a Bangladeshi hospital,’ said the US report.
In 2018, she was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment on corruption and embezzlement charges first filed in 2008, it mentioned, adding that Zia was transferred from prison to a hospital in 2019 and released to house arrest in 2020.
The report referred to international and domestic legal experts, noting the lack of evidence to support the conviction and suggested a political ploy to remove the leader of the opposition from the electoral process, even as multiple corruption charges against prime minister Sheikh Hasina were dropped by prosecutors.
The annual human rights report of the US state department has said that they found no significant changes in the overall rights situation in Bangladesh in comparison with recent years with civil and political rights, including freedom of assembly, and the electoral process.
