Transparency International Bangladesh has raised alarm over the draft National Human Rights Commission Act 2026, warning that the proposed law could make the commission dependent on the government and law enforcement agencies when handling complaints against members of those agencies.
The draft proposed by the BNP government also ensures overwhelming ruling party control in the appointment of commissioners, said the watchdog in a press release.
TIB said such provisions would once again turn the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) into an ineffective institution under government control, echoing practices from the authoritarian era.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said that the interim government’s ordinance had empowered the commission to directly investigate enforced disappearances, killings, and other violations allegedly carried out under state patronage.
That authority has now been rolled back with the reinstatement of Section 18 of the 2009 Act, which requires the NHRC to depend on reports from the government or agency heads in cases involving law enforcement.
Iftekharuzzaman warned that this clause had previously prevented the commission from attaining “A” category status under international standards and effectively shielded law enforcement agencies from accountability.
He added that Section 13 of the draft law further restricts the commission’s ability to initiate investigations on its own, while removing provisions that allowed inspection of detention sites operated by intelligence and military agencies.
The inclusion of senior government figures — the Speaker, law minister, home minister, a ruling party MP, and the cabinet secretary — in the commissioner selection committee was described as a mechanism for absolute government control.
He said, the draft also removes the ordinance’s safeguard clause that the commission “shall not be under any ministry or department of the government.”
“On one hand, the Commission is described as an independent institution; on the other hand, what could be the justification for removing a clause that safeguards its autonomy and independence?”
he added, “Furthermore, in order to make the Commission more inclusive, the requirement in the ordinance to include representatives from ethnic minorities and women as commissioners has been replaced with the condition of ‘qualified candidates’, which would turn the Commission into a ‘patriarchal’ and ‘majoritarian’ institution.”
TIB expressed concern that replacing mandatory representation of ethnic minorities and women with a vague requirement for “qualified candidates” would turn the NHRC into a patriarchal and majoritarian institution.
Allowing 30 per cent of staff to be deputed from government service and permitting serving officials to be appointed as commissioners would, in Iftekharuzzaman’s words, reduce the body to a “figurehead institution” under bureaucratic control, the release said.
The TIB executive director urged the government to abandon this “contradictory and self‑defeating path” and align the law with its election manifesto commitment to protect human rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
TIB expects that reconsideration of the controversial provisions could help establish a truly independent and effective NHRC.
