Verdict on Sheikh Hasina pulls focus from global human rights groups

Different leading human rights groups have unveiled their reactions and feedback on the death penalty sentenced to former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The verdict was handed down by the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka on Monday (17 November 2025). It should be added that Sheikh Hasina has been in India since 5 August 2024 when she was unseated from power. Sheikh Hasina's political party Awami League has been meanwhile banned and an interim government has been running Bangladesh since 8 August 2024.   

The United Nations Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and another few global rights platforms have expressed reserved comments on the verdict on Sheikh Hasina which is death penalty. 

The United Nations has meanwhile stated that the UN Human Rights Office does not support death penalty. Rather the UN is interested to see good governance, socioeconomic equality and political justice and rule of law to prevail in Bangladesh. 

On the other hand, Human Rights Watch has commented that death penalty was sentenced to two individuals-Sheikh Hasina and her unseated ruling party's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Monday. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has put forward the observation that both Sheikh Hasina and Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal were physically absent in Dhaka when the verdict sentencing them to death was issued. HRW Deputy Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly has said that repression, authoritarianism and injustice have affected Bangladesh for many years. Meenakshi Ganguly further said that prosecution in the International Crimes Tribunal, Dhaka has failed to meet international standards. Amnesty International has remarked that the prosecution of Sheikh Hasina was carried out at an unnaturally high speed which seems astonishing, Amnesty International added. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International oppose death penalty. Both these organizations believe death penalty is a violation of human rights. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called upon the Bangladesh interim government to establish accountability and integrity in the judicial system. Amnesty International and HRW also said that law and order top brass fellows belonging to the overthrown Sheikh Hasina government should be subjected to stern punishment as well. Human Rights Watch has voiced worries that for reasons of the above verdict on Sheikh Hasina, trepidation about arbitrary ruling system might be spiked in Bangladesh. Human Rights Watch has several times expressed resentment and fears about the prevalence of political retaliation, political interferences and vengeance in Bangladesh which have persisted for decades. HRW asserted that justice and equal rights cannot be ensured in the middle of biased governing norms, politicized bureaucracy, corrupt law and order forces and nepotism in state organs.
 
It may be recalled that the UN Human Rights Commission signed a deal with the Bangladesh interim government in July 2025 to set up an office in Dhaka.
 
Bangladesh's political landscape is still going through jitters and a smokescreen with widespread speculation shedding light on volatile circumstances which obscure the likelihood of elections at the right time.

>>BBC