UN fact-finders due soon as advance team ends mission

The UNHRC will deploy a fact-finding team in Bangladesh in the coming weeks to report recent rights violations and abuses during student protests as the UN advance team ended its mission last week.
The fact-finders will analyse root causes and make recommendations to advance justice and accountability and for longer-term reforms.
The advance team discussed modalities for the investigation, the UNHRC said on Friday, as it received commitments from the interim government and security forces for full cooperation in this work.
During its period from August 22, the team met student leaders, many of whom have been detained or injured in recent weeks.
They also met a wide range of advisers, the chief justice, senior officers of the police and armed forces, lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders, representatives of political parties, and minority and indigenous communities.
They discussed wider issues like civic space, the need for truth, justice, healing, reparation and reconciliation, and other human rights approaches to the reform process in which the UNHR Office could provide sustained support.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk received an invitation from Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus to conduct an impartial and independent fact-finding mission into human rights violations from July 01 to August 15.
The UNHR Office says Mr Türk warmly welcomes the announcement of Bangladesh's accession to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
He also hails the establishment of a five-member national commission of enquiry to determine the whereabouts of individuals forcibly disappeared allegedly by law-enforcement agencies.
"The issue of enforced disappearances has a long and painful history in Bangladesh, on which the UNHR Office and UN human rights mechanisms have advocated robustly. We stand ready to support the Commission in its work, which should be in close consultation with victims and their families and in line with international human rights standards, including the guiding principles for the search for disappeared persons."
"The UNHR Office looks forward to supporting the interim government and people of Bangladesh at this pivotal moment to revitalise democracy, seek accountability and reconciliation, and advance human rights for all...," concluded the statement.

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