Over the last 20 years, international criminal justice has developed rapidly, and most people see this as a change for the better. Thanks to the labors, however imperfect, of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and of ad-hoc tribunals from Sierra Leone to Cambodia, it has been established that politicians and warlords who commit terrible crimes against the vulnerable can no longer count on impunity.
But a trial now starting in Bangladesh risks making a mockery of that principle. Indeed, it serves as a …

Lawyers and Witnesses at ICT Report Threats

November 2, 2011

Harassment of defense counsel and witnesses further tarnishes a flawed process. If the Bangladeshi government wants these trials to be taken seriously it must ensure that the rights of the accused are fully respected. That means making sure that lawyers and witnesses don’t face threats or coercion.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch

(New York) – The Bangladeshi government should investigate threats to defense lawyers and witnesses in cases at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) and …

NEW YORK: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the issue of convicted Bangabandhu killer Rashed Chowdhury would be “examined through due legal process because separate laws apply differently to separate states”.
Washington also stressed “transparency and objectivity in the proceedings of War Crimes Tribunal”.
Diplomatic sources in the US capital told banglanews Thursday about such observations made by the US foreign minister during her meeting with her Bangladesh counterpart, Dr Dipu Moni, at State Department. The sources said the meeting between the two foreign ministers lasted 40 minutes.
“During this high-profile meeting, …

Dr. Dipu Moni,MP, Hon‘ble Foreign Minister of Bangladesh  had a very busy schedule today which included meeting with the US Deputy Secretary of State, two Foreign Ministers, attending one Ministerial level Annual LDC Group meeting, and hosting of a reception for the Foreign Ministers/delegations of the countries of the Climate Vulnerable Forum(CVF).
During the meeting, Mr. William J. Burns, US Deputy Secretary of State, said that relation with Bangladesh is one of the highest priorities for the US and the US is closely working with Bangladesh in the areas of Food …

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (BSS) – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today endowed the world with her new peace model based on people’s empowerment, saying that cherished global peace can prevail under a multidimensional democratic approach with six mutually reinforcing multipliers.
The multipliers, she said, are: eradication of poverty and hunger, reduction of inequality, mitigation of deprivation, inclusion of excluded people, acceleration of human development and elimination of terrorism.
The Prime Minister introduced her peace model while addressing the 66th annual session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the main policymaking organ of …

The Bangladeshi government’s effort to bring to trial those responsible for atrocities during the struggle for independence in 1971 is an important and long overdue step to achieve justice for victims, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Human Rights Watch said that it strongly supports a successful legal and judicial process that is fair and impartial.
Seven people have been arrested so far under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, though specific charges have yet to be filed against them. Five are members of the …

May 18, 2011
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Prime Minister’s Office
Old Sangsad Bhaban
Tejagaon, Dhaka-1215
Bangladesh
Re: International Crimes (Tribunals) Act
Dear Prime Minister,
Human Rights Watch welcomes your government’s commitment to bring to justice those responsible for serious human rights abuses in 1971. Human Rights Watch strongly supports a successful legal and judicial process that is fair and impartial in holding the perpetrators of crimes accountable. Justice for victims of these atrocities is long overdue. Those responsible have evaded justice for far too long.
We are therefore pleased that the government has decided to set up special courts …

A federal judge in Seattle ruled that King County, Wash., did not violate the First Amendment rights of pro-Palestinian group when it refused to run an Israel ‘War Crimes’ ad campaign.
Judge Richard A. Jones on Feb. 18 denied a request to force the Metro Transit system to run the ads.
“Because King County’s policy and practice indicates that it consistently applied content restrictions on advertising to further its purpose of using its property to provide orderly and safe public transportation, the forum at issue is a …

নিউইয়র্ক থেকে এনা : শেখ হাসিনার সাথে টেলিফোনে হিলারী ক্লিন্টনের কী কথা হয়েছে তার একটি বিবরণ প্রকাশ পেয়েছে ফেসবুকে। হিডেন ট্রুথ নামক একটি সংস্থা ১৬ জানুয়ারি তা ফেসবুকে পোস্টিং দেয়ার পর যুক্তরাষ্ট্রে ব্যাপক আলোড়ন সৃষ্টি করে। কারণ, ঐ কথোপকথনে এমন সব কথা স্থান পেয়েছে যা দেশপ্রেমিক প্রতিটি নাগরিককে ব্যথিত করে। শেখ হাসিনা এবং তার সরকারকে নয়াদিল্লীর নতজানু হিসেবে এবং ওয়াশিংটনের সার্বিক তত্বাবধানে জেনারেল মইনের মাধ্যমে গত নির্বাচনে আওয়ামী লীগ ক্ষমতায় এসেছে বলে উল্লেখ করা হয়। শুধু তাই নয়, একাত্তরের বিচার ব্যবস্থা পরিবর্তনের চাপ …

The United States will help Bangladesh stage “open and transparent” trials for crimes against humanity committed during the 40-year-old Bangladesh war for independence, a visiting U.S. envoy said on Thursday.
Bangladesh last year arrested six people, including five leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the principal ally of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), charged with various war crimes.
“The U.S. government will help Bangladesh hold an open and transparent war crimes trial with the rights of defense for the accused,” Stephen Rapp, U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes …

Pakistan could learn about economic growth and confronting terrorism from its former eastern province.
Not long ago, when you thought of a South Asian country ravaged by floods, governed by bumblers and apparently teetering on the brink of chaos, it wasn’t Pakistan that came to mind. That distinction belonged to Bangladesh.
Henry Kissinger famously dubbed it a “basket case” at its birth in 1971, and Bangladesh appeared to work hard to live up to the appellation. For the outside world, much of the country’s history can be summed up as a blur …

The numbers are in dispute, but the story they tell has remained the same for four decades: 200,000 women (or 300,000, or 400,000, depending on the source) raped during the 1971 war in which East Pakistan broke with West Pakistan to become Bangladesh.

The American feminist Susan Brownmiller, quoting all three sets of statistics in her 1975 book “Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape,” compared the rapes of Bangladesh with the rapes of Chinese women by Japanese soldiers at Nanjing in 1937-38.

Accepting even the lowest set of figures for Bangladesh forces a horrifying comparison — the 1992-95 Bosnian war saw one-tenth the number of rapes as did the Bangladesh war. The rapes of Bosnian women forced the world to recognize rape as “an instrument of terror,” as a crime against humanity. But so far no one has been held to account for the sexual violence against Bangladeshi women in 1971.

As the 40th anniversary of the 1971 war approaches, the Bangladeshi government has set up an International Crimes Tribunal to investigate the atrocities of that era. But human rights advocates and lawyers fear that the mass rapes and killings of women will not be adequately addressed. They hope to ensure they are.