Press & Public Statement: JMBF Strongly Condemns the Forceful Withdrawal of Candidature in District Advocate Bar Association Election 2025 in Naogaon and Sirajganj

Paris, France; January 30, 2025: France-based human rights organization, JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF) strongly condemns the recent violent and unlawful actions that have taken place in the relation of District Advocate Bar Association Executive Body Elections, held on January 30, 2025, across various regions of Bangladesh, including Naogaon, Sirajganj, and Rajbari.

The incidents on January 25 & 24, 2025, in Naogaon, January 16, 2025, in Sirajganj, and January 29, 2025, in Rajbari, where members of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement and political figures affiliated with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Amar Bangla (AB) Party forced the withdrawal of independent and Coordinated Lawyer Council candidates backed by the Bangladesh Awami League for the District Advocate Bar Association Executive Body Election 2025 through physical assault, harassment, coercion, threats of violence, and intimidation, represent a gross violation of human rights. These actions are a direct attack on the very principles of justice, rule of law, and democracy.

JMBF calls on the Bangladesh Government to take immediate and decisive action to hold the perpetrators accountable, cancel these one-sided elections, and reschedule the date for the District Advocate Bar Association Election. Additionally, JMBF demands that the government ensure the safety of all candidates and lawyers involved in these elections and guarantee that these violent acts never again threaten the democratic rights of the people of Bangladesh.

JusticeMakers Bangladesh Calls for Exemplary Punishment for Death of Female Government Employee in RAB Custody

Human rights organization JusticeMakers Bangladesh is deeply concerned and outraged over the death of a female government employee in the custody of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Naogaon Sadar.

JusticeMakers Bangladesh calls for exemplary punishment for those responsible, in a fair trial according to the Torture and Death in Custody (Prevention) Act 2013, by forming a judicial committee to investigate the incident and identify the perpetrators.

The human rights organization believes that the death of a female government official in RAB custody is a grave violation of the basic human rights declared by the United Nations and provided for in the Bangladesh Constitution.

Bangladeshi Human Rights Lawyer Shahanur Islam Received Repeated Death Threats!

Shahanur Islam, a prominent human rights lawyer and gay rights campaigner in Bangladesh received repeated death threats SMS over his mobile phone.

Recently on 25th August and 6th September 2022, he received separate two death threats messages along with his wife and kid over his mobile phone. 

On 25th August 2022 around at 10:17 pm BST, Mr. Islam received threats message in English language over his phone from an unidentified number. The message states that if you don’t stop fighting aims to establishment of homosexual rights in BD, immediately you will be killed along with your family members brutally.