In a statement posted on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office called on the Bangladeshi government to ensure that perpetrators of the violence carried out during 2024’s student-led mass uprising be held accountable by referring the atrocities to the International Criminal Court.
It states that the renewed call for accountability was made in light of new reporting by the BBC which alleges audio-evidence that former prime minister Sheikh Hasina had ordered a deadly crackdown during last year’s July Uprising.
The post highlighted a UN Fact-finding report released earlier this year, which claimed that as many as 1,400 people were killed during the uprising, “the vast majority of whom were killed by military rifles and shotguns loaded with lethal metal pellets commonly used by Bangladesh’s security forces,” with countless more injured, often in permanent, life-altering ways.
The post went on to state: “Bangladeshi authorities must ensure an independent investigation into all human rights violations committed during the period, followed by a fair trial that adheres to due process safeguards without recourse to the death penalty, against all those who carried out the violence, as well as those who commanded it.”
“In line with Article 14 of the Rome Statute – in line with the recommendation made in the UN report,” Amnesty International suggests that the current interim government refer the incidents of violence carried out during the July-August uprising to the International Criminal Court.