OHCHR chief due in city today

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is scheduled to visit Bangladesh from Sunday to Wednesday, reports BSS.

"The government of Bangladesh warmly welcomes the first-ever visit of any UN High Commissioner for Human Rights," said a press release issued by the foreign ministry on Saturday.

Apart from her meetings with the cabinet members, Bachelet will interact with the National Human Rights Commission, youth representatives, CSO leaders and the academia during her tour in Dhaka.

She would pay homage to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15 by placing a

wreath at his portrait in front of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in the city's Dhanmondi area.

The top executive of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) will also have the opportunity to interact with the forcibly displaced Rohingya people during her trip to Cox's Bazar, through which she would be equipped with concrete information to press hard the agenda for the repatriation of the Rohingya to the ancestral homeland in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.

Bangladesh has been closely working with the UN in the field of human rights and this visit would be an important occasion to highlight Bangladesh's national perspective and the government's sincere efforts to protect and promote human rights of the people, including updating domestic legal framework, creating awareness and sensitizing the implementing agencies, the release added.

This is important that the national context, in particular the economic development amidst the pandemic and other evolving crises, the maintenance of peace and security of the people, and constraints like the Rohingya crisis and the adverse effect of climate change, are taken into consideration in assessing the human rights situation of the country, according to the release.

"The visiting UN high commissioner remains well aware of the plethora of achievements of Bangladesh in the human rights domain, including the treaty-body reporting as well as through other mechanisms," it mentioned.