Dhaka, 11 December 2025 – On International Human Rights Day 2025, the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) called for impartial investigations, accountability of perpetrators, and comprehensive victim-centred services, compensation and rehabilitation for all those affected by recent human rights violations. Referring to recommendations from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights following the July mass uprising, BLAST stressed the urgency of ensuring family- and victim-centred support, as well as medical and psychosocial assistance. The organisation highlighted the need for fair and transparent inquiries into all incidents of violence occurring since the uprising, including politically motivated cases, mass arrests, mob violence, rising online and offline violence against women and children, harassment through misinformation, attacks on cultural workers such as Baul artists, fatal assaults on justice seekers in court premises, and incidents harming religious sentiments. BLAST acknowledged as a positive step the CID’s recent exhumation of bodies from Rayerbazar cemetery—undertaken to identify 114 unidentified victims of the July–August 2024 uprising—and urged authorities to ensure dignified handover and reburial of remains after autopsies and DNA collection. Citing Bangladesh Mahila Parishad’s latest findings that 636 incidents of violence against women and children occurred nationwide in the last three months, BLAST underscored the deepening insecurity faced by women, children and marginalised groups, as well as their growing obstacles in accessing justice. Upholding this year’s theme, “Human Rights: Essential in Everyday Life,” BLAST urged authorities to take effective, rights-based measures to protect constitutional rights and the rule of law, ensure immediate accountability for serious violations committed by state actors, prevent recurrence of abuses, and guarantee independent investigations, justice for victims, and full victim-centred support and rehabilitation.
