Bachelet didn’t express any concern over Bangladesh situation: Anisul

Law Minister Anisul Huq on Sunday said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet did not raise any concern regarding the human rights situation in Bangladesh but both sides discussed a number of issues.

He said the issues included the Digital Security Act (DSA), writer late Mustaq Ahmed’s death, who was arrested under the DSA, training of personnel of the law enforcement agencies on HR aspects, freedom of press and freedom of speech; and the overall rights issues.

The government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina highly values human rights issues as she is also the victim of human rights violations, the minister told reporters after his meeting with Bachelet at the State Guesthouse Padma.

“I strongly upheld it (to UN rights chief),” said the minister, adding that Bangladesh always upholds human rights and works on how its violations can be stopped by enforcing laws.

Asked whether the UN rights chief voiced any concerns, minister Huq said, “No, there were no concerns.”

He emphasized the DSA-related issues in the meeting.

The law minister said there are ongoing discussions with her office on the best practices of DSA and he received a report in this regard

The law minister said the UN rights chief asked about Mustaq Ahmed but she did not raise further questions once the Minister read out Mustaq’s post-mortem report.

He said they laid emphasis on training for the personnel of the law enforcement agencies on HR issues.