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Published on September 16, 2025
“This week’s visit from the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights to Bangladesh comes at a time of increasingly egregious assaults on Bangladesh’s hard-won democracy and the fundamental human rights of its own people.
The EU delegation intends to use this visit to ‘learn more about the work of the interim government in promoting good governance and advancing human rights’ through conversations with government representatives. Yet any conversation with ordinary Bangladeshis will immediately disabuse the delegation of the notion that good governance and human rights have been promoted or advanced.
On the contrary, Bangladesh today is a country ruled by an unelected head of state, who has repeatedly delayed elections and banned the country’s largest political party. Millions of Bangladesh’s citizens have thus been effectively disenfranchised. Awami League supporters, members of the media and the judiciary have been arbitrarily detained on fabricated charges or stripped of their employment, simply because of their political allegiance. It is a country where minorities, women and girls fear politically or religiously-motivated acts of violence.
The EU delegation must take note of the persecution, lawlessness and authoritarian acts that have become embedded under Dr Muhammad Yunus. Neither economic growth nor civil society can return while Bangladesh’s government still unlawfully detains political opponents and tolerates violent attacks against religious and ethnic minorities.”
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