FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM)
Email: info@hrcbm.org | Web: www.hrcbm.org
At the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association, HRCBM exposes a deepening human rights emergency as victims testify before senior jurists and media.
Dhaka — August 1, 2025 — Neither the sky’s relentless downpour nor the silent forces arrayed against it could still the gathering; the seminar pressed on, undeterred, before a full house.
Full report available at https://www.hrcbm.org/wp-new/hrcbm-seminar-at-supreme-court-unveils-alarming-human-rights-crisis-in-bangladesh/
At the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association Hall, the Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) convened a landmark seminar that presented verified data and first-hand testimony documenting an alarming escalation of violence against women, children, and religious minorities across Bangladesh.
Chaired by Dr. J.K. Paul, Senior Advocate of the Appellate Division and Head of HRCBM’s Legal Panel in Bangladesh, and convened by Advocate Lucky Bachhar, the program brought together senior jurists, rights advocates, researchers, journalists—and multiple victims, who openly narrated their ordeals of displacement, abduction, sexual violence, land seizure, and mob attacks. Their testimony, delivered in the presence of the learned legal community and national media, anchored the proceedings in unvarnished, lived experience.
Download the opening statement delivered by Advocate Lucky Bachhar, Convenor of HRCBM’s Bangladesh National Chapter.Selected Findings (June–July 2025)
Gender-based violence:
June 14–30: 58 rapes, 11 gang rapes, 15 attempts; 6 murders following rape.
July: 98 rapes, 30 gang rapes, 19 attempts; 6 murders following rape; 1 suicide after rape.
Murders (July only): 77 women and 23 children killed.
Attacks on minorities:
June: 6 mob attacks; 3 arsons on minority homes; 8 minorities killed; 8 abducted; 6 forced conversions; threats against 8 persons.
July: 9 incidents including temple desecration/land grabs; 33 violent attacks including property grabs; 8 minorities killed; 4 forced conversions; 4 threats; 20 women/children abducted.
Child abductions (July): 34 cases documented.
Voices from the Seminar
Advocate Z.I. Khan Panna, senior Supreme Court lawyer and freedom fighter, spoke through tears about a justice system failing to protect the vulnerable.
Advocate Gulam Mostofa, Senior Advocate, warned: “This is no longer merely a human rights crisis—it is a crisis of the state. Before we belong to any caste, creed, or religion, we are human beings. Yet extremists now use owaz mahfils and public address systems to announce attacks on minorities, while the authorities remain silent.”
Advocate Manzil Murshed, President of HRPB, cautioned that the rule of law is being replaced by the rule of mobs.
Dr. J.K. Paul lamented that sporadic incidents have hardened into a normalized architecture of persecution, commending HRCBM’s ground work and urging it to consolidate as an institutional force capable of translating documentation into protection and justice.
A Continuum of Persecution—and the Legal Frame
Some speakers reflected that since Bangladesh’s independence, minorities have faced recurring patterns of violence, dispossession, and fear. They lamented that the values of the Liberation War—a just, rights-respecting, and inclusive republic—are increasingly eroded and distant from daily reality.
Separately, HRCBM notes the applicable international legal framework: under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, genocide (Article 6) comprises any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm; (c) deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Where such conduct forms part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, it constitutes crimes against humanity (Article 7); in armed-conflict contexts, related offenses may constitute war crimes (Article 8).
Based on the documented patterns presented at the seminar—including killings, grave bodily and mental harm, organized displacement, abductions, and the destruction of conditions necessary for community life—HRCBM submits that elements aligning with the acts enumerated in Article 6 may be present and warrants independent, impartial investigation by competent national and international authorities.
HRCBM Founder & President Dhiman Deb Chowdhury (post-event statement):
“We cannot wait for another tragedy. No more temples felled, no more children vanished, no more victims unheard. The world must not turn its back—and the state must no longer look away.”
HRCBM’s Urgent Calls to Action:
In light of the documented atrocities, HRCBM is demanding the following:
Immediate independent investigations into all recent acts of communal and gender-based violence.
Special tribunals to try crimes of rape, murder, and abduction, particularly those targeting minority women and children.
Legal reforms to prevent the weaponization of false blasphemy claims.
Emergency protection and rehabilitation for displaced and persecuted minority families.
International oversight and diplomatic pressure to ensure compliance with Bangladesh’s human rights obligations.
For Editors / Media
Full coverage (photos + full‐program video + speaker materials): Event page: HRCBM seminar at the Supreme Court Bar Association
Press kit: photos (print/web), key quotes, data tables, and anonymized victim testimony summaries (available on request).
Interview requests: Speakers, HRCBM leadership, and (with consent) victim witnesses.
About HRCBM
The Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) is a U.S.-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit and a registered NGO in Bangladesh, dedicated to defending the rights and dignity of religious and ethnic minorities. HRCBM holds Special Consultative Status with the United Nations ECOSOC and is a member of the NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court (ICC). For over two decades, HRCBM has documented violations, provided legal aid, supported victims, and advanced national and international advocacy for justice and accountability.
Press Inquiries: info@hrcbm.org
