Presentation for the UN CED Event

The 2015 report of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances states that enforced disappearances are committed in 88 countries, wherein 43,563 cases are outstanding.  Perpetrated by agents of States who are sworn to protect human rights, enforced disappearance has reached a global magnitude causing untold devastation on the lives of the disappeared, their families and society. “Everyday is filled with emptiness, sadness and grief,” laments a Belarusian wife of a disappeared and echoed by many others.

Odhikar Bangladesh Human Rights Monitoring Report February 1-29, 2016

Odhikar believes that ‘democracy’ is a form of the State and presupposes that freedom and human rights are its foundations. Democracy is not merely a process of electing a ruler. Democracy is the result of the peoples’ struggle for inalienable rights, which become the fundamental premise to constitute the State defining collective aspirations and responsibilities. Therefore, the individual freedoms and democratic aspirations of the citizens – and consequently, peoples’ collective rights and responsibilities - must be the foundational principles of the State.

NEPAL: Urgent Appeal for Release of 12 Human Rights Defenders and Conflict Victims Arrested this morning, February 12 at 8:30 am in Baluwatar, Kathmandu

19 February 2016, Manila, Philippines — The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) strongly condemns the recent arrest of 12 Human Rights Defenders and conflict victims, which occurred this morning at around 8.30AM in Baluwatar, Kathmandu and asks for their immediate release. On the occasion of the 66th National Democracy Day of Nepal, the Prime Minister of Nepal was expected to deliver a speech during the ceremony at the Nepalese Army Pavilion in Kathmandu where also the President and other high level officers of Nepal were attending the event.

BANGLADESH: Immediately release Mahmudur Rahman, arbitrarily imprisoned since 2013

JOINT PRESS RELEASE

Geneva-Paris-Hong Kong, February 3, 2016. The authorities of Bangladesh should immediately release journalist Mahmudur Rahman, who completed 1,000 days in custody without trial on January 6, 2016 as part of the Government’s efforts to stifle critical voices in the country, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a OMCT-FIDH joint programme) and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said today.

Mr. Mahmudur Rahman, Acting Editor of the Amar Desh newspaper, has been detained since April 11, 2013, after he was charged with sedition and unlawful publication of a Skype conversation between International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Judge Md Nizamul Huq and an external consultant in December 2012. At the time of his arrest, the Amar Desh office and its press were raided by the police, journalists and press-operators were beaten and driven out, and the press building was sealed. It has remained closed since. From April 11 to 24, 2013, Mr. Rahman was subjected to torture while in police custody.