Reports

“Where No Sun Can Enter”

A Decade of Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh

The 57-page report, “‘Where No Sun Can Enter’: A Decade of Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh,” finds that, despite credible and consistent evidence that Bangladesh security forces routinely commit enforced disappearances, the ruling Awami League has ignored calls by donor governments, the UN, human rights organizations, and civil society to address the culture of impunity. Alongside the report, Human Rights Watch created a webpage tracking and profiling the cases of 86 victims in Bangladesh who were forcibly disappeared and who remain missing.

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  • Toxic Tanneries

    The Health Repercussions of Bangladesh’s Hazaribagh Leather

    This report documents an occupational health and safety crisis among tannery workers, both men and women, including skin diseases and respiratory illnesses caused by exposure to tanning chemicals, and limb amputations caused by accidents in dangerous tannery machinery.

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  • “Will I Get My Dues … Before I Die?”

    Harm to Women from Bangladesh’s Discriminatory Laws on Marriage, Separation, and Divorce

    This 109-page report documents how the country’s discriminatory and archaic personal laws impoverish many women at separation or divorce, and trap some women in violent marriages because they fear destitution. Current laws deprive women of an equal right to marital property.

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  • “The Government Could Have Stopped This”

    Sectarian Violence and Ensuing Abuses in Burma’s Arakan State

    This report describes how the Burmese authorities failed to take adequate measures to stem rising tensions and the outbreak of sectarian violence in Arakan State.

  • “The Fear Never Leaves Me”

    Torture, Custodial Deaths, and Unfair Trials after the 2009 Mutiny of the Bangladesh Rifles

    The 57-page report provides a detailed account of the mutiny and documents serious abuses in the aftermath, including torture by security forces of people in custody on suspicion of planning the mutiny, and of ongoing concerns about fair trial violations in mass trials of hundreds of suspects at a time.

  • “Crossfire”

    Continued Human Rights Abuses by Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion

    This 53-page report documents abuses by RAB in and around Dhaka, the capital, under the current Awami League-led government. Nearly 200 people have been killed in RAB operations since January 6, 2009, when the government assumed office.

  • “Trigger Happy”

    Excessive Use of Force by Indian Troops at the Bangladesh Border

    This 81-page report documents the situation on the border region, where both Bangladesh and India have deployed border guards to prevent infiltration, trafficking, and smuggling.

  • Perilous Plight

    Burma’s Rohingya Take to the Seas

    This 12-page report examines the causes of the exodus of Rohingya people from Burma and Bangladesh, and their treatment once in flight to Southeast Asian countries.

  • Ignoring Executions and Torture

    Impunity for Bangladesh’s Security Forces

    This 76-page report details the involvement of soldiers, paramilitary officers, and police in so-called "crossfire killings" and other custodial killings, torture, "disappearances," and arbitrary arrests.

  • The Torture of Tasneem Khalil

    How the Bangladesh Military Abuses Its Power under the State of Emergency

    This 39-page report graphically details Khalil’s 22-hour ordeal in May 2007 in Bangladesh’s clandestine detention and torture system – a setup well known to the government, ordinary Bangladeshis, Dhaka’s donors and diplomatic community.

  • Judge, Jury, and Executioner

    Torture and Extrajudicial Killings by Bangladesh’s Elite Security Force

    This 79-page report describes how Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), established in 2004 to stop spiraling crime, has made a practice of killing criminal suspects in detention. Torture methods used by the force include beatings, boring holes in suspects with electric drills, and the application of electric shock.

  • Breach of Faith

    Persecution of the Ahmadiyya Community in Bangladesh

    This 45-page report documents the campaign of violence, harassment and intimidation unleashed by the Khatme Nabuwat (KN)--an umbrella group of Sunni Muslim extremists--against the Ahmadiyya community.

  • "Bad Dreams"

    Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia

    Migrant workers in the purportedly modern society that Saudi Arabia has become continue to suffer extreme forms of labor exploitation that sometimes rise to slavery-like conditions. Their lives are further complicated by deeply rooted gender, religious, and racial discrimination.

  • Ravaging the Vulnerable

    Abuses Against Persons at High Risk of HIV Infection in Bangladesh

    Bangladesh is stoking an emerging AIDS epidemic with violent police abuse of sex workers, injection drug users and men who have sex with men. In this 51-page report, Human Rights Watch documents rapes, gang-rapes, beatings and abductions by both police officers and powerful criminals known as mastans.

  • Caste Discrimination

    A Global Concern

    Caste-based discrimination blights the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world, and the World Conference Against Racism should have the issue squarely on its agenda, Human Rights Watch urges in a new report.