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The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) commemorates the Human Rights Day, observed each year on the 10th of December. This day this year marks 70 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and thus makes the day of greater significance. This day is an opportunity to assess the situation of human rights across the world and to ascertain how hard the States must work to ensure basic human rights for every individual. Unfortunately, in Asia, the situation of human rights has been deteriorating with repressive regimes coming to power, institution of repressive state policies, institutionalized impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations and persecution of human rights defenders.

Continuing to defend human rights and justice amid persecution Dhaka, 09 October 2018: Odhikar remembers the victims of human rights violations around the world while commemorating its 24th founding anniversary on the 10th of October 2018. The Organisation regularly campaigns to stop the human rights violations of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture and degrading treatment, violations to ethnic and religious minority rights and violence against women that occur in Bangladesh, as well as joining international campaigns on these issues. The Organisation is still operating due to the volunteer services of grassroots level human rights defenders associated with Odhikar and its members and staff; and their commitment to human rights activism. Odhikar would like to express heartfelt gratitude to all the human rights defenders, international and regional organisations, local partners and networks, supporters and well-wishers who have stood by the Organisation for the last 24 years; that have expressed solidarity with it and that have actively and continuously campaigned against the persecution it faces.

Subsequent to the genocidal attacks on the Rohingya community by the Myanmar military and Buddhist extremists on 9 October 2016 and 25 August 2017, Odhikar took the testimonials of 150 Rohingya victims who took refuge in Bangladesh. Based on these testimonials, Odhikar and the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) submitted a report to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation into the alleged inhuman acts brought upon the Rohingyas. As a part of the mission conducted, Odhikar uncovered that the acts of genocide against the Rohingya community included, but was not restricted to, extrajudicial killings, large scale gang rapes, enforced disappearances and the torching of Rohingya villages. Odhikar conducted a second fact-finding mission by visiting several Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh from 4 to 13 February 2018 in an attempt to uncover the killing fields and mass graves that were created as a result of the genocide.

Odhikar would like to express its immense concern and condemnation regarding the horrific attacks by the Chhatra League leaders have unleashed on students protesting for the reformation of the quota on government jobs, since 30 June 2018; along with the police barring protestors from holding protest programmes on this issue, the police picking up a protestor of the Movement and disappearing him for one day – before showing him as arrested; and arresting another protestor and taking him into remand. Even though such attacks are being carried out on students from Dhaka University and other universities, Odhikar condemns the fact that the perpatrators have not been brought to justice and the government chooses to remain silent regarding this matter