The High Court on Thursday ordered that the UN fact-finding report on human rights violations committed by the Awami League government during the July-August 2024 uprising be recognized as a 'historical document'.
At the same time, it also asked the government to publish the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as a gazette titled "July Revolution-2024" to preserve it as evidence and as a source of knowledge for future generations.
Government bodies, including the law ministry, were also asked to submit a progress report in this regard to the HC within three months. The High Court bench of Justice Fahmida Quader and Justice Sayed Jahed Mansur delivered the verdict after holding a hearing on a writ petition.
Supreme Court lawyer Md Tanvir Ahmed filed the writ petition on August 13 last year, seeking directives to take action against those responsible for maintaining the fascist regime and for the genocide committed during the July-August mass uprising in 2024.
After holding a preliminary hearing on the petition, the High Court issued a rule on August 15, 2024.
Later, a fact-finding team from the OHCHR prepared a report after conducting an investigation into the human rights violations in Bangladesh between July 1 and August 15, 2024. The report was published in February of this year.
In May, the writ petitioner filed a supplementary application, incorporating the UN report.
Following the supplementary application, the HC on May 14 issued a rule asking the government bodies concerned to explain why the fact-finding report of the OHCHR should not be declared a 'historical document'.
It also asked the government to explain why the report should not be published as a gazette titled "July Revolution-2024" to preserve it as evidence and as a source of knowledge for future generations.
Lawyer Md Tanvir Ahmed appeared in court in support of his petition, while Deputy Attorney Generals Muhammad Shafiqur and Tanim Khan represented the state.
In its 114-page report, the UN, based on testimonies from senior security officials, confirms that Hasina herself ordered security forces to kill protesters. On July 19, she explicitly instructed them to "arrest the ringleaders of the protests, the troublemakers, kill them and hide their bodies."
Her trusted lieutenant, then-home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, reinforced this directive in meetings with top security officials, ordering the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to use lethal force.
These instructions and consequent measures paved the path for the killing of as many as 1,400 people-including many children-in what the UN describes as "crimes against humanity."
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