Victims held in inhuman conditions in secret detention centres run by the Bangladesh military's intelligence wing have just begun to speak out about their horrific experiences, some of whom have been held for more than a decade and who come from all ages and political and social backgrounds.
Years after the toppling of Sheikh Hasina's authoritarian regime, victims of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh deserve justice. Their relatives, who are also victims of the disappeared, have the right to know the whereabouts of their loved ones for peace of mind and soul.
However, justice is needed not only for the victims of enforced disappearances, but also for those who suffered human rights violations at the hands of the government over the past two decades.
A country rarely recovers from trauma without some kind of justice and reconciliation. In other words, the people of Bangladesh deserve to heal, and healing requires truth, justice and reconciliation. To make this happen, Bangladesh needs a truth commission.
According to the International Justice Resource Centre, the truth commission “serves to answer many of the unanswered questions raised by the period of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and other crimes that have taken place.”
According to truth commission expert Priscilla B. Hayner, truth commissions typically have four elements: 1) they focus on past human rights violations rather than current ones; 2) they aim to present a comprehensive picture of international human rights violations over a longer period rather than a single violation; 3) they are short-lived but produce a report outlining their findings; and finally, 4) they have some power to allow access to and protection of information at all times when investigating sensitive issues such as enforced disappearances.
Truth commissions are not a new concept in Asia: the Philippine Truth Commission was established in 2010 to combat corruption.
In Bangladesh, a truth commission can be established under the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which has called for full disclosure of enforced disappearances.
Ideally, it should be established by independent international lawyers specializing in enforced disappearances, and a number of international lawyers are reportedly ready to assist Bangladesh in this vital truth-finding effort.
There are many examples in Bangladesh, such as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which was established by the Government of National Unity to address the country's traumatic experiences under apartheid.
At least 137 cases stemming from the TRC process have been registered for investigation and prosecution by South African authorities for crimes committed during the apartheid era.
Colombia's Truth Commission was established through a peace agreement signed in 2016 between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), which included provisions to investigate cases of enforced disappearances that took place in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Bangladesh Truth Commission can recommend whether perpetrators of enforced disappearances should be prosecuted, and whether they should be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court or in local courts.
The commission could also set up its own courts to prosecute perpetrators, as in Colombia, where a transitional court of justice was set up to address the killings of hundreds of thousands of people, and in which a military general and 10 others pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity.
Nearby, Argentina's Truth Commission investigated more than 30,000 forced disappearances during the so-called “Dirty War.” The Argentine Truth Commission's report opened the door to trials of the military junta and successfully prosecuted perpetrators of war crimes.
Bangladesh's membership in the United Nations means the interim government that replaced the toppled Hasina administration can ask different countries with relevant experience to provide input to Bangladesh's truth commission.
Victims of enforced disappearances, including their families and sometimes entire communities, are often entitled to compensation recognized by international law.
Certainly, compensation must be adequate, effective, prompt and proportionate to the severity of the violation and damage. In Bangladesh, compensation should be provided for all economic damages, loss of income, loss of economic opportunities and psychological damage. Rehabilitation of victims and their families should also include medical and psychological care, and social services.
Non-recurrence can and should be part of reparations: in Colombia and many other Latin American countries where enforced disappearances occurred, truth commissions and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have commonly recommended non-recurrence as part of reparations.
Now is the time for Bangladesh to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, demonstrating that the state will never again commit such a heinous crime and paving the way for the criminalisation of enforced disappearance in domestic law.
Some have called for the creation of a UN-backed special tribunal, which is a good thing in theory, but such a setup would not necessarily produce the desired results: such a tribunal would be expensive and would require strong financial and other support from the international community.
Given that the International Criminal Court and the UN are currently facing budget crises, the international community may be reluctant to support the establishment of another costly UN-backed court for Bangladesh.
The UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunals to try the Cambodian genocide cost more than $330 million in total. Many perpetrators were acquitted, but only three were ultimately convicted. The perpetrators, as well as many victims and their families, died before justice was achieved.
It is doubtful whether the victims in Bangladesh are willing to wait this long to see justice for crimes that have been largely covered up and never addressed.
Iffat Rahman is an Oxford-educated Canadian lawyer. She previously worked as a defense lawyer at the International Criminal Court, as well as at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia, and also worked briefly for UNHCR in Malaysia.
