Bangladesh country of concern: CIVICUS

Bangladesh was marked as a country of concern by international human rights organisation CIVICUS in its global report on fundamental freedom released this morning.
Mass citizen protests have been met with violence by state and non-state actors and acts of censorship and the use of excessive or lethal force by security forces against protests have been documented in Bangladesh, said the report.
According to the report titled ‘People power under attack’, civil society is under serious attack in 111 countries, up from 109 countries in the previous update in March 2018.
‘This means that repression of peaceful civic activism continues to be a widespread crisis for civil society in most parts of the world, with just 4 per cent of the world’s population living in countries with open space for civil society (civic space),’ read the report.
‘In just the past few months, we have seen blatant attacks on protesters calling for justice on the streets of Bangladesh, assassination of rural activists defending their right to land in Guatemala and vilification of civil society organisations supporting refugees in the Mediterranean. The litany of violations is long and growing,’ it said.
According to the report, there are 23 countries with closed civic space, 35 countries in the repressed category and 53 in the obstructed category. Just 44 countries receive an open rating, while 41 countries are rated narrowed. In terms of population, over a quarter of all people on the planet live in countries with closed civic space, while just 4 per cent live in countries with open civic space. 
The report mentioned Bangladesh as a country of concern saying that in the past two years, the Bangladesh authorities increased use of repressive laws to crack down on the freedom of assembly and target and harass human rights defenders and journalists, including photojournalist Shahidul Alam, arrested in August 2018. 
Civic space conditions deteriorated further ahead of national elections scheduled for December 30. Members of the student wing of the ruling party have attacked student activists, academics and journalists with impunity, the report said.
The report read, ‘Scores of activists and government critics have been detained around protests and some are facing criminal defamation charges under Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act, which has been systematically used to silence dissent. A new Digital Security Act passed in September 2018 incorporates Section 57 of the ICT act and contains other measures that are overly broad and vague, and inconsistent with Bangladesh’s international human rights obligations. The authorities have also embarked upon intensive and intrusive surveillance and monitoring of social media and have attempted to weaken opposition parties by arresting their members and dispersing their gatherings. Cases of enforced disappearances continue to be reported.’

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net