Bachelet didn’t express any concern over Bangladesh situation: Law Minister

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

He said the issues included Digital Security Act (DSA), writer late Mustaq Ahmed who was arrested under the DSA and died later; 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, minister Huq told reporters after his meeting with Bachelet at State guesthouse Padma on Sunday afternoon.

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

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

He said they had discussions on many issues and he reiterated those issues on the DSA in the meeting which he already shared with the media here in the past months.

Huq said there are ongoing discussions with her office on the best practices of DSA and he received a report in this regard. He said they take a decision on further steps he goes through the report.

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, reports UNB.