Ensure justice for involuntary disappearance

Recognised as a human rights violation back in 1970s, enforced or involuntary disappearance is now unanimously accepted as one of the gravest crimes in today's world.

Article 2 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPED) defines "enforced disappearance" as an arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law. Article 7(2)(i) of the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court provides similar definition with two additional points that (a) such disappearance could even be occurred by a political organisation and (b) there must exist an intention on the part of an offender to remove someone from the protection of the law for 'a prolonged period of time'.

Article 1 of the ICPED prohibits enforced disappearance while article 24 defines a victim as not only the person who is subjected to enforced disappearance, but also as any other individual who has suffered harm as the direct result of such disappearance.

In Bangladesh, between January 2009 and August 2015, human rights groups have documented at least 212 people forcibly disappeared in the country. Often victims family filed the writ of Habeas Corpus according to article 102(2)(b)(i) of the Constitution of Bangladesh before the High Court Division. But the Court has only issued rule against the respondents and accepted the statements of the law-enforcement agencies that have formally refused involvement in all crimes of disappearance.

The UN Declaration on Enforced Disappearance (A/RES/47/133, 1992) specifies that enforced disappearance constitutes a violation of the right to recognition as a person before the law, the right to liberty and security of the person and the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and that it violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life.  

Bangladesh is not a party to the ICPED but party to the ICC and also Accession on 23 March 2010, it legally recognizes enforced disappearance as an international crime and is bound to ensure accountability. Moreover, the significance of ascertaining the customary law prohibition on enforced disappearance is important as a norm to be invoked within international and domestic jurisdictions in the absence of binding treaty law. It constitutes a crime against humanity; any enforced disappearance is a violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law. So Bangladesh government must ensure justice for involuntary disappearances.

A. Z. M. Arman Habib Student of LLM in International Law South Asian University, India