ICRF Presents Independent Legal Rebuttal of OHCHR Report on Bangladesh at Press Club of India
New Delhi : The International Crimes Research Foundation (ICRF), along with Law Valley Solicitor and S Shakir (FRSA), organised a press conference at the Press Club of India on Saturday to present an independent legal rebuttal to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on the July–August 2024 unrest in Bangladesh. The press conference saw the participation of Senior leaders of the Awami League who presented their views on the findings.
Opening the press conference, Nijhoom Majumder, Barrister & Solicitor and Head of the Legal Team, ICRF, said the rebuttal was the outcome of a detailed legal and factual examination of the OHCHR report and its underlying methodology.
He stated that the ICRF review found the UN report to be fundamentally undermined by serious structural and methodological deficiencies, including selective use of evidence, lack of transparent verification, internal inconsistencies, exclusion of relevant testimonies, and an arbitrary restriction of the inquiry’s temporal scope. These shortcomings, he said, materially compromise the credibility of the OHCHR’s conclusions and risk misleading the international community.
According to Nijhoom, the fact-finding mission failed to interview key state actors and senior security officials, relied heavily on secondary and partisan sources, and ignored extensive evidence of violence directed at law enforcement personnel, political workers, journalists, and minority communities. The rebuttal report, he said, calls for accountability grounded in legal rigour, inclusivity, and fairness, rather than selective attribution of blame.
Following the presentation, Bangladesh Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury Nowfel addressed the media and detailed his engagement with the OHCHR fact-finding team.
“We’ve gathered to hand you a report made by an organisation on the UN report, which was a one-sided report, done hastily, without any tangible evidence from our side — no witness statements, no testimony from the accused,” he said.
Chowdhury Nowfel stated that Awami League leaders were not formally informed when the UN report was being prepared. Despite repeated attempts to engage with the Geneva-based team, he said meaningful interaction came only at a late stage. He added that although he participated in a five-hour virtual meeting and explained the legal framework governing police conduct and use-of-force protocols, none of this was reflected in the final report.
“It appeared that the narrative had already been decided. Our interview was taken almost to justify conclusions already drawn,” he said.
He further alleged that the OHCHR relied heavily on media outlets openly aligned with the interim Yunus administration while disregarding testimony from senior police officials and detained political leaders. He also disputed allegations regarding the use of lethal force from helicopters, stating that such claims are technically untenable — a point he noted was indirectly acknowledged within the UN report itself. Despite this, he said, these allegations were used in domestic proceedings to convict former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in what he described as a one-sided trial.
Speaking thereafter, Awami League representative Rabi Alam appealed to journalists to examine the situation independently.
“We came here to let you know about the atrocity that happened in July–August in Bangladesh. Innocent people were killed, snipers were there, police were killed. It was a meticulous design,” he said.
He alleged that blame for the violence was unfairly placed on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League government, while civilians continued to suffer. “Innocent people are still dying — hanged and burned. There is no law, no justice, no human rights — not even minority rights,” he said.
Addressing the gathering, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud thanked the ICRF for preparing what he described as a comprehensive rebuttal to a “biased, one-sided, and fabricated” OHCHR report.
Referring to the July–August 2024 unrest, Dr. Mahmud stated that while student deaths occurred — the circumstances of which remain under investigation — hundreds of police officers were also killed. He noted that even the interim government’s first Home Adviser had publicly questioned the origin of bullets recovered from victims’ bodies, stating they did not match weapons used by the police, border forces, or the military, and was subsequently removed from office.
Dr. Mahmud questioned the credibility of casualty figures cited internationally, pointing out repeated fluctuations — from 400 to 800, then 1,200, and later 2,000 — while the UN report cited 1,400 deaths. He said the government’s gazette notification listed approximately 800 deaths, including individuals who died due to accidents, drownings, family disputes, or unrelated criminal incidents, and that media reports indicated over 100 listed individuals later returned alive.
He alleged that the OHCHR ignored these inconsistencies, failed to reflect testimony provided by Awami League leaders — including his own interview — and overlooked the interim government’s decision to grant indemnity for atrocities committed between July 15 and August 15, 2024. These included killings of police personnel, Awami League workers and supporters, vandalism, and violence against religious minorities.
Describing the post-August situation, Dr. Mahmud claimed that over 400,000 Awami League leaders and supporters were arrested, with more than 100,000 still in jail, and alleged deaths in custody and widespread political persecution. He cited recent incidents of mob lynching and said selective responses from the UN Human Rights Commission exposed deep bias.
Dr. Mahmud announced that a formal objection would be submitted to the UN Secretary-General and relevant UN bodies against the OHCHR report and its authors, accusing the Commission of endorsing a narrative that supports oppression rather than the oppressed.
Explaining the choice of New Delhi for the press conference, he recalled India’s role in Bangladesh’s Liberation War and said the event reflected enduring gratitude and shared democratic values.
The organisers clarified that the rebuttal report does not deny that violence occurred during the unrest. Rather, it seeks to correct omissions, expose methodological failures, and challenge selective accountability in the OHCHR report. They called for an impartial, comprehensive, and genuinely independent international review.
“Justice must be complete, impartial, and grounded in truth — not political expediency,” the organisers said.
Link of the Rebuttal: https://icrfoundation.com/icrf-rebuts-ohchr-bangladesh-report-citing-evidence-gaps-and-bias/
