BNP Govt’s Law on Enforced Disappearances

The government has produced a draft law on enforced disappearance. Below is my breakdown of what it contains, along with both versions of the document — the Bangla original from the Ministry of Home Affairs, and an English translation I’ve uploaded here.

A note on the documents: The English text here is my own unofficial translation, provided for reading only. Section 34 of the bill states that the Bangla text prevails, and only a text published by the Government in the Official Gazette is authoritative.

[Bangla version — Ministry of Home Affairs](Click here) ·

[Unofficial English translation](Click here)

Government email for opinions on the draft law: political5@moha.gov.bd

Bangladesh acceded to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in August 2024. Before that, no domestic law criminalised enforced disappearance at all. The interim government’s Commission of Inquiry went on to document 1,569 cases between 2009 and 2024. At least 251 people never came back. Only 36 bodies were ever recovered.

The interim government issued the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Ordinance, 2025 to address this. That ordinance was never tabled as a bill in the new Parliament, so it lapsed. This draft is what replaces it.

Commanders can be held liable for failing to prevent enforced disappearances. Superior orders and state security are ruled out as defences. Families can finally obtain a certificate to deal with a missing person’s property.

But the ordinance gave the National Human Rights Commission the power to investigate these cases. This draft gives that power to the police — and the police are one of the forces the law itself names as capable of committing the crime. There is no independent investigating body anywhere in the 34 sections.