Staff Reporter:
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed deep concern and disappointment, alleging that conspiratorial and fundamental changes to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Ordinance 2025 have placed the process of forming the Commission under bureaucratic control, thereby destroying the possibility of constituting it independently of government influence.
In a statement issued on Saturday, TIB said stakeholders involved in drafting the ordinance were kept in the dark, a development it described as evidence of bureaucratic rigidity and even sabotage holding the long-anticipated reform process hostage.
TIB criticised the inclusion of the Cabinet Secretary in the Selection Committee, saying the move was made solely to ensure government control of the process by perpetuating authoritarian practices.
The organisation termed the development an embarrassing example of the government’s surrender to bureaucrats with anti-reform interests.
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said that after the National Human Rights Commission Ordinance was published in gazette form, TIB and other stakeholders – despite identifying several weaknesses – had hoped an opportunity had emerged to free the Commission from bureaucratic capture and to constitute it in line with public expectations and international standards.
“However, within just one month, on 9 December, the very selection committee that could have served as the cornerstone for preventing bureaucratic abuse of power has been turned into an instrument of government control,” he said.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman added that the NHRC and other constitutional and statutory commissions in Bangladesh have long remained ineffective due to government influence, and the change to the selection committee should not be seen as an isolated incident but rather as part of a conspiratorial attempt to maintain the status quo.
Describing the bureaucratic takeover of the selection committee – and the government’s acquiescence to it – as deeply disappointing, he noted that the amendment does include a positive provision for establishing a National Preventive Mechanism to prevent cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
“However, the inclusion of the Cabinet Secretary in the Selection Committee alone effectively undermines all prospects for the independence, impartiality and effectiveness of the National Human Rights Commission, as well as the very spirit of that provision,” he said.
TIB called upon the government to immediately withdraw from what it described as an embarrassing position of surrender to a sabotage-driven, anti-reform bureaucratic clique, repeal all imposed provisions in the ordinance – particularly the inclusion of the Cabinet Secretary in the selection committee – and undertake a complete overhaul of the NHRC Ordinance.
