Promoting effectiveness of democracy protection institutions: A study on the national human rights commission of Bangladesh

This thesis examines the various ways in which international norms find purchase at the domestic level in the particular context of Bangladesh, and the relative balance between local, endogenous advocacy (the ‘pull’ driven by legal entrepreneurs) and external transmission and persuasion. It also assesses the initial operations of the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh (NHRC) and identifies measures in relation to those operations. The NHRC emerged in a context that was not particularly hospitable. The process of installing the commission began with an attempt by the UN, as part of its global aspirations, to establish NHRIs for every country in the world under the somewhat optimistic assumption that their creation would promote and protect human rights. The various competing demands of the government, the HRNGOs and civil society, and the UN, were involved in this procedure. Successive governments were not interested in setting up the commission and the UN eventually convinced the military-backed caretaker government to initiate the process. The disastrous initial operations of the NHRC were nothing but a vivid example to substantiate the disinclination of consecutive governments. The operations of the commission were frustrating as it has been generally unsuccessful in ensuring an effective human rights remedy for its citizens. However, the commission, in a perverse way, did fulfil its purpose – as a measure of improving the government’s public image and diminishing the risk of major international pressure without posing any significant threat to the powerful. While the outcomes of the NHRC have not been those expected by the UN, it has done something else that was in itself useful and could turn it into a kind of all-purpose Good Samaritan that does small, virtuous things. Nevertheless, it was a paradox that encouraging a national commission has produced an institution that appears to do little more than paper over the problems and fulfil procedural demands. The NHRC of Bangladesh was far away from the accomplishment of its desired objectives, considering the repercussions of actors and factors, such as the government’s lack of political will, personality politics among the commissioners, disengaged deputation staff, the selective engagement of the HRNGOs and the great dependency on the UNDP and donors.

Submission note: Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Department of Archaeology and History, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, Latrobe University, Bundoora.