UN HR chief Volker Turk to visit Dhaka this month

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk is scheduled to pay a three-day official visit to Bangladesh in the last week of October.

“We are working on this,” a senior official told UNB.

The UN Human Rights chief is expected to meet Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus and other stakeholders to have broad discussions on rights issues, including the establishment of an office in Dhaka, said the official.

Earlier, he received an official invitation from the Chief Adviser to conduct an impartial and independent fact-finding mission into human rights violations committed from July 1 to August 15.

The office deployed a fact-finding team to Bangladesh, with a view to reporting on violations and abuses perpetrated during the protests, analysing root causes and making recommendations to advance justice and accountability and for longer-term reforms.

Bangladesh is witnessing a number of visits from the United Nations for two reasons-new interim government in place and Bangladesh’s 50 years of UN membership.

Volker Turk made a phone call to Bangladesh interim government Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus in August.

During his recent visit to New York, Chief Adviser Prof Yunus sought support from foreign friends for Bangladesh’s new journey towards a happy and prosperous future, stressing that they do not want to miss the opportunity to build a new Bangladesh.

On September 17, 1974, Bangladesh became a full member of the United Nations.

As part of an ongoing engagement with the interim government, an advance team of the UN rights body visited Bangladesh from August 22-29 and met student leaders of the recent protests, as well as a wide range of advisers in the Interim Government, the Chief Justice, senior officers of the police and armed forces, lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders, representatives of political parties, and minority and indigenous communities.