RAB involved in highest number of disappearances
Fri, 27/05/2011 - 12:10am | by Fahud Khan
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has registered the highest number of involvement in disappearance cases in recent years in Bangladesh, according to a finding of Odhikar, an NGO.
There were 16 reported cases of enforced disappearances in the country in 2010 while most of the victims of enforced disappearances were political opponents and businessmen, said the report.
It was presented at a workshop titled Enforced Disappearance and Role of Media in the Ratification of the Convention organized by the Odhikar at BRAC center Inn on Thursday.
RAB is facing serious image crisis at home and aboard
The report said that the crime of enforced disappearance is a serious crime and a large number of disappearances in Bangladesh took place during the countrys war of liberation in 1971. It continued even after the independence. It has re-emerged in recent years and needs to be reversed immediately, or it could herald the onset of yet another serious criminal trend.
Presided over by Farhad Mazhar, Advisor of Odhikar, the workshop was held with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland. Mr. Gabriele Derighetti, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Switzerland, addressed the program as guest speaker while sessions of the workshop were facilitated by Dr. Ahmed Ziauddin, Advisor of Odhikar and Dr. Piash Karim, Professor at BRAC University.
According to the report, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 47/133 on December 18, 1992. As of the end of February 2011, the international convention has been signed by 88 states and ratified or acceded by 23 states. The committee on enforced Disappearances will have to be set up by June 2011.
The report said, international convention for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance as the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the state or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the state, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.
Enforced disappearance is a multiple violation of human rights such as the right to life, right not to be deprived of ones liberty without due process of law, right to protection of the law, right to recognition as a person before the law, right to a fair and public trial, right not to be detained incommunicado or other similar forms of detention, right not to be subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, right to personal integrity and right to be presumed innocent.
Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina, Faso, Chile, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Germany, Honduras, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Senegal, Spain and Uruguay ratified the convention.
RAB involved in highest number of disappearances | Priyo News
