Hill Voice, 31 May 2023, International Desk: Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM), an NGO in special consultative status with ECOSOC of the United Nations, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) against government of Bangladesh alleging the countenance of state apparatus in the genocidal crime against minorities in Bangladesh.
On May 26, 2023 the PIL was filed with the High Court division of Bangladesh Supreme Court under article 44 and 102 of the Constitution of the People’ Republic of Bangladesh which guarantees the right of every citizen to appeal at the High Court Division and gives discretionary power to the “High Court” to issue orders.
The writ 6355 of 2023 emphasizes the state’s constitutional obligation to enforce fundamental rights of all citizens guaranteed under article 27, 37, 40, 41, 42, and 43 of the constitution. In the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) HRCBM highlighted a series of lawsuits on the matter and subsequent reluctance of all governments of Bangladesh (past and present) to obey high court orders to curtail atrocities against minorities in the country and uphold justice for the community. This act of indisposition amounts to the state’s countenance in the genocidal crime and crime against humanity under the definition of Article Nos. 6 and 7 of Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) wherein Bangladesh is a signatory party.
Nowhere in the world, a community has been subject to such brutalities for a prolonged time that spans over 75 years. The plights of minorities in this geographic area started in 1946 with India’s division that allowed Pakistan to rule the land and unleash reign of terror on Hindus and other minorities of then East Pakistan. Pakistani brutality broke all bounds when it’s Army and Islamist cohorts targeted primarily Hindus, Bengali intellectuals, and Buddhists during independence of Bangladesh in 1971 killing 3 million people, displacing 10 million more while gang raping 400,000 women and girls.
Bangladesh which born out of Bengali Nationalism lost it’s identity soon after paving the way for Islamization and social intolerance to take root in the very fabric of the society due to patronage of political parties who favoured Islamic identity to advance political millage rather than Bengali nationalism. Over the last 45 years, minority communities became a scapegoat of political tug of war and a subject of Islamists to prey on. This decades long periodic mass attacks, land grabbing, forceful conversions, gang rape of minority women and girls and state sponsored discrimination against the community is threatening the very existence of minorities in the country. The irony is that state judicial systems to law enforcement, media, and the world over are pathetically biased, the apathy and prejudice against minorities of Bangladesh are truly disheartening.
The lawsuit filed aggregates all previous lawsuits in an attempt to seek immediate judgement depicting gravity of the situation. It is to be noted that despite a series of pending lawsuits filed by HRCBM and others, the government completely ignored plights of minorities allowing Islamists to continue prey on the minorities threatening their very existence in the country. Therefore, HRCBM had no choice but to file this important lawsuit alleging that these brutalities committed against the community in aggregated amounts to genocide for which all governments of Bangladesh (Past and Present) are complicit of the genocidal crime.
