A Critical Analysis of the OHCHR Report on Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a fact-finding report on 12 February 2025 on the human rights violations and abuses linked to the July–August 2024 protests in Bangladesh. The fact-finding team was tasked with reporting on events that occurred between July 15 and August 15, 2024. The report documents incidents that violate universal human rights, including the excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, as well as recommendations to prevent future occurrences of such violations. While the report plays a crucial role in supporting the Interim Yunus government and drawing international attention to state accountability and the protection of fundamental rights, it also has its fundamental flaws.

It raises questions regarding methodological limitations, including the complex political landscape of the country, the selection of a biased background description, political framing, and the challenges of documenting abuses in a polarized socio-political environment. The report as a whole appears seriously biased, mainly used the selected information and documents provided by the newly recruited or promoted (the so-called reward promotion) loyal officials of the interim government, and interviews of the victims, witnesses and supporters of the wining party in the political fight and completely ignored the defeated party, i.e., the previous government, officials and members of Bangladesh Awami league (BAL) and the officials and who were in charge of maintaining law and order situation in the field at the time of protest.