It'll be crucial to ensure due process in criminal cases, probe revenge violence: UN

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Monday hoped that their recent independent fact-finding report will support truth-telling, accountability, reparations, healing and reform in Bangladesh.

"It will be crucial to ensure due process in criminal cases and investigate revenge violence, including against minorities," he said, while sharing a global update at the 58th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Turk said Bangladesh last year experienced a paroxysm of violence as the government of the time "brutally suppressed" a student movement that carried human rights as its torch. "The country is now charting a new future," he said, adding that their recent independent fact-finding report on the grave human rights violations that took place is an "important contribution" to this journey.

UN Resident Coordinator in Dhaka Gwyn Lewis on Sunday informed Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, will brief the member states about its findings on March 5 during the 55th session of the Human Rights Council.

Dr Yunus stressed documenting all "atrocities" committed during the regime of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The atrocities, including the crackdown on protesters at Shapla Chattar, police brutalities against protesters after the verdict against Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, and extrajudicial killings over the years.

"There is a need for proper documentation of all atrocities committed against the people of this country. Unless this documentation is done, it is difficult to know the truth and ensure justice," said the Chief Adviser. He made the comment when UNRC Lewis and Senior Human Rights Adviser at the UN Resident Coordinator's Office in Bangladesh Huma Khan, called on him at the State Guest House Jamuna.

Meanwhile in Myanmar, 2024 was the deadliest year for civilians since the military coup four years ago, said the UN rights chief in Geneva on Monday.
Turk said the military ramped up brutal attacks on civilians as their grip on power eroded, with retaliatory airstrikes and artillery shelling of villages and urban areas, arbitrary arrests and prosecutions, and the forcible conscription of thousands of young people.

 "I urge the international community to decisively cut the supply of arms and finance that enable the military's vicious repression," said the UN human rights chief. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The office was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 1993 in the wake of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights.

The office is headed by the high commissioner for human rights, who co-ordinates human rights activities throughout the United Nations System and acts as the secretariat of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. The eighth and current high commissioner is Volker Türk of Austria, who succeeded Michelle Bachelet of Chile on 8 September 2022.

In 2018-2019, the department had a budget of US$201.6 million (3.7 per cent of the United Nations regular budget), and approximately 1,300 employees based in Geneva and New York City. It is an ex officio member of the Committee of the United Nations Development Group.

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