Mushfiqul Fazal, UN correspondent
The United Nations does not involve any forces that have been linked to human rights violations.
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, made the remark at a briefing on Monday while responding to a question about United Nations Under Secretary General Jean Pierre Lacroix’s visit to Bangladesh.
At the briefing, UN correspondent M Mushfiqul Fazal asked, “The Under-Secretary-General Lacroix had participated in a dinner jointly hosted by Foreign Secretary and the Inspector General of Police, Abdullah Al-Mamun, who served as RAB Chief and got sanctioned under the Magnitsky Human Rights Act by the US for widespread allegation of serious human rights abuse in Bangladesh. RAB is reputed to be a death squad of the Government of Bangladesh. Former High Commissioner of Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, have raised the issue of enforced disappearances and role of RAB in it. Is USG Lacroix, being the head of the UN peacekeeping operation, not obliged to consider the UN’s commitments of human rights?”
In reply, Farhan Haq said, “Mr. Lacroix met with the key people he needed to meet who deal with peacekeeping concerns. But like I said, our policy again is that we do not involve any forces that have been linked to human rights violations.”
In his second question at the briefing, M Mushfiqul Fazal asked, “On Bangladesh and the UN peacekeeping, international rights organization like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International asked the United Nations Under-Secretary-General, [Jean-Pierre] Lacroix, to raise his voice publicly for serious human rights abused by the Government's security forces in Bangladesh and ensure that perpetrators of human rights violations in the country do not get deployed on UN peacekeeping missions. Peacekeeping forces should not have track records of human rights violations. What is your comment on that?”
In response, the Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, said, “Well, our standard position is that we do due diligence on peacekeeping forces from whatever nation to make sure that they are forces that are not associated with any human rights violations.”
NR/
