Draft Enforced Disappearance Law Risks Perpetuating Impunity: NCP

The National Citizen Party (NCP) has sharply criticised Bangladesh’s proposed Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Act, 2026, warning that the draft could perpetuate a “culture of impunity and denial” by allowing law enforcement agencies to investigate allegations against themselves.

The Cabinet approved the draft law on August 3, after the government repealed in April an ordinance on enforced disappearances promulgated by the previous interim government. The NCP said new legislation was urgently needed because the repeal left Bangladesh without a legal definition applicable to newly committed enforced disappearances. However, it said the government had produced a fundamentally flawed draft despite promising stronger legislation.

The party’s main objection concerns Section 14, which requires a person seeking to report an enforced disappearance to approach a police station, with the police then responsible for investigating the allegation.

The NCP described this as an “obvious conflict of interest”, particularly because the draft itself recognises that personnel from the police, Army, Navy, Air Force, Rapid Action Battalion, Border Guard Bangladesh, Coast Guard, Ansar and government intelligence and investigative agencies could be involved in enforced disappearances. “In other words, the institutions that may themselves face allegations of enforced disappearance will retain control over investigations into those allegations,” the party said.

The NCP said the concern was compounded by the police’s previous record of refusing to register complaints. According to the party, the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances received more than 1,500 complaints, but General Diaries could be filed in fewer than 250 cases because police refused to record many allegations.

The proposed law allows families to approach a magistrate if police refuse to accept a complaint. But the NCP said this does not resolve the fundamental problem because the investigation would ultimately return to the police. The party also questioned whether ordinary investigating officers would have the practical authority to investigate powerful state institutions.

Enforced disappearance cases in Bangladesh have historically included allegations against senior police officials, intelligence agencies, military officers and paramilitary forces. The NCP said an ordinary police sub-inspector could face difficulties compelling such institutions to hand over documents, identify personnel, produce officers for questioning or allow access to suspected detention facilities. “An investigation may continue on paper while impunity persists in practice,” it warned.

Concerns Over Punishment for False Complaints

The NCP also raised concerns about Section 21, which would allow a court to sentence a complainant to up to five years of rigorous imprisonment if an allegation was proven false after trial and found to have been made with the intention of harassment. The party said safeguards against deliberately false allegations were necessary and supported retaining such a provision in principle. However, it argued that punishment for false complaints could only be justified if the original allegation had been investigated independently.

Under the proposed system, the NCP said, a family could accuse police of an enforced disappearance, have the allegation investigated by police themselves, and then potentially face imprisonment if the complaint was later deemed false. Such a system could deter genuine victims and families from reporting disappearances, particularly when evidence required to prove a case may itself be controlled by the institution being accused, the party added.

NCP Cites International Obligations

The NCP also argued that the draft falls short of Bangladesh’s international obligations. Bangladesh joined the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in August 2024. Article 12 requires allegations of enforced disappearance to be investigated promptly and impartially, according to the party.

The NCP said the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances has also made clear that when members of a particular force are accused of involvement, that force should not participate in the investigation. The party called for Section 14 to be amended so that every allegation is investigated by an independent body operating outside the chains of command of the police, military, intelligence agencies and other security forces.

It urged the government either to restore the mechanism contained in the repealed ordinance, which assigned investigations to a trained unit of the National Human Rights Commission, or establish another genuinely independent agency with sufficient authority to investigate security institutions. “Without an independent investigative mechanism, this draft law will not end impunity; it will perpetuate it,” the NCP said.