Human Rights Commission ordinance held hostage to bureaucratic capture, govt surrenders to anti-reform forces: TIB

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has alleged that conspiratorial changes to the National Human Rights Commission Ordinance 2025 have placed the process of forming the commission under bureaucratic control, effectively destroying the prospect of establishing an independent and government-free commission.

In a statement issued on Friday, December 13, TIB said stakeholders involved in drafting the ordinance were kept in the dark while the Cabinet Secretary was included in the selection committee. Through this move, authoritarian practices aimed at retaining government control have been sustained, which TIB described as an embarrassing example of the government’s surrender to an anti-reform bureaucratic clique.

TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said that after the National Human Rights Commission Ordinance was published in gazette form on November 9, 2025, stakeholders, despite identifying several weaknesses, had remained hopeful that it would create an opportunity to free the commission from bureaucratic capture. However, within one month, on December 8, the selection committee was turned into an instrument of government control, completely undermining that possibility.

He said this change to the selection committee was not an isolated incident, but rather part of a long-standing practice of maintaining government influence that has rendered the Human Rights Commission and other constitutional bodies ineffective over the years.

Dr Iftekharuzzaman further said that although the amendment includes a positive provision to establish a National Preventive Mechanism to prevent cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the inclusion of the Cabinet Secretary in the selection committee alone is sufficient to destroy the commission’s independence, neutrality and effectiveness, rendering the provision meaningless.

He also noted that the ordinance’s positive potential has been further weakened by provisions such as replacing the mandatory obligation to inform the commission of actions taken for non-compliance with its orders with permissive wording like “may be informed”.

TIB called on the government to immediately withdraw from what it termed an embarrassing position of surrender to an anti-reform bureaucratic clique and to repeal the imposed provisions in the ordinance. The organisation specifically demanded the removal of the Cabinet Secretary from the selection committee and a complete overhaul of the National Human Rights Commission Ordinance.

It is noteworthy that Ordinance No 62, published in the gazette on November 9, 2025, did not include any bureaucratic representative in the selection committee as stipulated in Article 7. However, in the amended ordinance published on December 8, the Cabinet Secretary was unilaterally included in the selection committee without informing stakeholders, a move TIB views as an attempt to ensure bureaucratic dominance.