Can National Human Rights Institutions Hold Governments Accountable Without Institutional Independence? Lessons from Bangladesh’s NHRC Bill 2026
On 20 December 1993, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Paris Principles, which established a simple but enduring proposition: a national human rights institution cannot effectively protect rights unless...
Beyond Donor Eligibility: Bangladesh’s Human Organ Transplantation Act 2026 and the Right to Health
Bangladesh’s recent Human Organ Transplantation Act 2026 bears significance in the country’s kidney transplant-related law reform. By expanding the eligibility of living donors to include emotionally related donors and strengthening...
Bangladesh’s ‘Gay Awakening Moment’: Section 377 and the Decriminalisation of Homosexuality as a Human Rights Obligation
Bangladesh is currently experiencing what can possibly be termed a “gay awakening moment”. Not because the country has finally come to terms with homosexuality, both socially and legally, but because...
The Vacuum of a Child Sexual Abuse Specific Law in Bangladesh
An eight-year-old girl was raped and subsequently killed by her neighbor in Dhaka, Bangladesh on May 19, 2026. Child sexual abuse (hereinafter referred to as CSA) is a rampant phenomenon...
The Unseen Wounds: Psychological Injury and the Legal Fight Against Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh
The first-ever Bangladesh law against enforced disappearance, the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Ordinance 2025 lapsed in April 2026, following the election of the country’s new parliament. It passed after...
Gender-Based Violence and the Struggle for Justice: Rohingya Women at the Intersection of Law and Displacement
For Rohingya women in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, the refugee camp is not simply a humanitarian space. It is a site where gender-based violence (GBV) is woven into the structures of...
Weaponized Legalism and the Promise-Performance Gap: Press Suppression in Transitional Democracies: Part 2 – Comparative Global South Perspectives
In Part 1, I examined how Bangladesh’s interim government weaponized legal frameworks to suppress the press; Part 2 broadens the lens to parallel patterns across the wider Global South and...
Weaponized Legalism and the Promise-Performance Gap: Press Suppression in Transitional Democracies: Part 1 – Bangladesh
This two-part blog examines how transitional governments in the Global South systematically suppress press freedom through “weaponized legalism”—the use of formally legal procedures to violate fundamental rights while maintaining constitutional...
Climate Change and the Erosion of Children’s Rights in Bangladesh
In 2023, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued General Comment No. 26, recognising climate change and environmental degradation as urgent and systemic threats to children’s rights....
Towards an Independent Judiciary: The Case for a Separate Judicial Secretariat in Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s judiciary has long struggled to transform constitutional guarantees of independence into a practical reality. While the landmark Masdar Hossain judgement in 1999 laid down the foundation for the separation...
Is Bangladesh Violating Its ICCPR Obligations?
On 29 August 2025, Bangladesh witnessed an incident where a former Minister, Abdul Latif Siddique, Dhaka University Professor Sheikh Hafizur Rahman, journalist Manzurul Alam, and at least 13 others were...
Mob Justice, State Failure: The Right to Life Betrayed in Bangladesh
On 18 September 2024, a man named Tofazzal Hossain was seized inside Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall at the University of Dhaka, beaten repeatedly by a group of students who accused...
