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UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk Report on Bangladesh press conference
“This has been an exceptionally important endeavour. On 14 August last year, Dr. Mohammed Yunus, the Chief Advisor of the Interim Government of Bangladesh, asked me to deploy a team to conduct an independent and impartial fact-finding into the human rights violations and abuses that took place between 1 July and 15 August of last year. I want to emphasise the importance of that invitation by Dr. Yunus,” Türksaid.
The fact-finding team received overall good cooperation from the authorities, as well as access to current and former senior officials and access to a lot of important official information. “I would also like to express my gratitude to the many victims and their families, witnesses, medical professionals and other experts, national and international civil society organisations who engaged with and assisted our team,” Türk added.
“Among our key findings: There are reasonable grounds to believe that officials of the former Government, its security and intelligence apparatus, together with violent elements associated with the former ruling party, committed serious and systematic human rights violations. These include hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture and ill-treatment, including of children, as well as gender-based violence,” the High Commissioner said.
“These violations were carried out with the knowledge, coordination and direction of the former political leadership and senior security officials, with the specific goal of suppressing the protests and keep the former Government’s grip on power. Women and girls were at the forefront of the early protests and our report details they were specifically subjected to gender-based violence by security forces and Awami League supporters,” Türk said.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that certain crimes against humanity have been committed, directed against protesters and their supporters.”
“We also documented serious acts of revenge that private individuals committed against supporters of the former ruling party, police officers and, in some cases, people belonging to minority and distinct religious groups in the immediate aftermath of the protests,” he said.
“Efforts to ensure accountability have begun, with many cases being lodged, including before Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal. There are major challenges and deficiencies in the current legal system, and significant steps need to be undertaken to ensure compliance with international standards of due process and fair trial,” the High Commissioner said.
The High Commissioner said his Office is available to advise the Government in addressing these issues. “There are also accountability avenues at the international level that can be considered such as universal jurisdiction as well as a referral by Bangladesh of this situation to the International Criminal Court,” he added.
“For violations of this gravity and magnitude, however, much more will need to be done than criminal trials. What is needed is a comprehensive process of truth-telling, reparation, memorialisation and reform as the path to national healing, and my hope is that this report will contribute to that,” he said.
According to the report thousands of people, including children, have suffered life-altering injuries. Resources will be needed to implement victim-centred reparation programs and provide compensation, long-term medical treatment, rehabilitation care and livelihood opportunities for victims.
The High Commissioner called for Bangladesh to institute profound reforms so that such serious violations will never occur again, and the repressive laws and institutions underpinning them are dismantled or completely overhauled.
He said that when he visited Bangladesh last October, he was deeply moved by the meetings with student leaders, civil society actors and officials who were working hard to build on the momentum to implement a new vision for a Bangladesh – one with human rights and social justice at its core.
“In recent decades, Bangladesh’s promise has too often been marred by bitter feuding, and patronage and identity politics. Today, this transition offers a chance to step back from cycles of revenge and move towards a new approach that brings the nation together in a spirit of trust-building and healing. Advancing accountability and human rights will be fundamental to achieving that transformation and change,” he concluded.
ENDS
For more information and media requests, please contact
Ravina Shamdasani: +41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org
Jeremy Laurence: +41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org
Thameen Al-Kheetan: +41 22 917 4232 / thameen.alkheetan@un.org
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STORY: Bangladesh: UN report finds brutal, systematic repression of protests, calls for justice for serious rights violations
TRT: 04:54
SOURCE: OHCHR / UNOG
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: English/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 12 February GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior Shot : Palais des Nations
- Wide shot: Podium
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “This has been an exceptionally important endeavour. On 14 August last year, Dr. Mohammed Yunus, the Chief Advisor of the Interim Government of Bangladesh, asked me to deploy a team to conduct an independent and impartial fact-finding into the human rights violations and abuses that took place between 1 July and 15 August of last year. I want to emphasise the importance of that invitation by Dr. Yunus.”
- Cut Away: cover of report
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “I would also like to express my gratitude to the many victims and their families, witnesses, medical professionals and other experts, national and international civil society organisations who engaged with and assisted our team.”
- Cut Away: infographics
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Among our key findings: There are reasonable grounds to believe that officials of the former Government, its security and intelligence apparatus, together with violent elements associated with the former ruling party, committed serious and systematic human rights violations. These include hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture and ill-treatment, including of children, as well as gender-based violence.”
- Cut Away: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “These violations were carried out with the knowledge, coordination and direction of the former political leadership and senior security officials, with the specific goal of suppressing the protests and keep the former Government’s grip on power. Women and girls were at the forefront of the early protests and our report details they were specifically subjected to gender-based violence by security forces and Awami League supporters.”
- Cut Away: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “There are reasonable grounds to believe that certain crimes against humanity have been committed, directed against protesters and their supporters.”
- Cut Away: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “We also documented serious acts of revenge that private individuals committed against supporters of the former ruling party, police officers and, in some cases, people belonging to minority and distinct religious groups in the immediate aftermath of the protests.”
- Cut Away: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Efforts to ensure accountability have begun, with many cases being lodged, including before Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal. There are major challenges and deficiencies in the current legal system, and significant steps need to be undertaken to ensure compliance with international standards of due process and fair trial.”
- Cut Away: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “There are also accountability avenues at the international level that can be considered such as universal jurisdiction as well as a referral by Bangladesh of this situation to the International Criminal Court.”
- Cut Away: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “For violations of this gravity and magnitude, however, much more will need to be done than criminal trials. What is needed is a comprehensive process of truth-telling, reparation, memorialisation and reform as the path to national healing, and my hope is that this report will contribute to that.”
- Cut Away: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “In recent decades, Bangladesh’s promise has too often been marred by bitter feuding, and patronage and identity politics. Today, this transition offers a chance to step back from cycles of revenge and move towards a new approach that brings the nation together in a spirit of trust-building and healing. Advancing accountability and human rights will be fundamental to achieving that transformation and change.”
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Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
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Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
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“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
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Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
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ends