We wanted to highlight two stories from Bangladesh that caught our attention this month, both involving women human rights defenders facing serious reprisals for their activism, cases that reflect a wider pattern of pressure on those who speak up for accountability and workers’ rights, set against a backdrop of weakening institutional safeguards.
In January 2026, academic and woman human rights defender Layeqa Bashir learned via social media that her contract at the University of Asia Pacific in Dhaka had been terminated, despite never receiving an official notice. Bashir, who convened the university’s complaints committee on gender-based violence and had recently recommended disciplinary action against a senior staff member, had faced months of smear campaigns and pressure to resign after a private social media post was leaked and distorted online. She was labelled «Islamophobic» by student groups and received threats to her safety, ultimately filing a police complaint over the harassment. Front Line Defenders considers her dismissal directly linked to her human rights work and role in advancing academic freedom and gender-based accountability.
More recently, in September 2026, tea workers’ rights defender Gita Rani Kanu was arrested in Moulvibazar and remains in detention. Kanu, who leads several organisations advocating for tea workers’ wages and land rights, was leading a peaceful rally for a daily wage increase when protesters, including Kanu herself, were attacked and injured. While hospitalised for her injuries, a counter-complaint was filed against her by the same union leadership implicated in the attack, resulting in her arrest on charges including assault and theft. Front Line Defenders considers the case retaliatory and has called for her immediate release.
These individual cases unfold as the institutional avenues meant to protect defenders like Bashir and Kanu are themselves under threat. In August 2026, civil society organisations including FORUM-ASIA and Odhikar urged the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions to launch an urgent review of Bangladesh’s National Human Rights Commission, after Parliament repealed stronger 2025 reforms and reinstated a weaker legal framework. The resulting 2026 Bill would strip the Commission of independent investigative power over security forces, narrow its mandate on human rights defenders and civil society engagement, and weaken guarantees for women’s representation, exactly the kind of independent oversight defenders like Bashir and Kanu would need.
A similar pattern appears in two draft bills published in June 2026 on enforced disappearance and human rights institutions. While welcomed as a first step toward implementing Bangladesh’s international commitments, both bills contain significant gaps: the enforced disappearance bill allows detentions to be kept secret on «state security» grounds and leaves investigations in the hands of the police, including in cases implicating police themselves, while the accompanying NHRC bill would hand control of commissioner selection almost entirely to government appointees, with no guaranteed seat for civil society.
Taken together, these developments illustrate a concerning trend: as individual defenders face escalating harassment and prosecution, the institutions meant to hold the state accountable and protect them are being simultaneously weakened. We stand with Layeqa Bashir and Gita Rani Kanu, and echo civil society’s call for Bangladesh to strengthen, not dismantle, the safeguards its human rights institutions need to function independently.
