On 2 December 2020, the Solidarity Group for Bangladesh [1] submitted its mid-term assessment report of the status of implementation of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations accepted and noted by Bangladesh in its third UPR.
In its third UPR in May 2018, 251 recommendations were made, of which the government accepted 178 and noted 73. Many of the third cycle UPR recommendations are the continuation of the first and second UPR cycles. Of the 178 recommendations accepted by the government, the report assesses the 83 that are relevant to the work of the submitting organisations.
The report found that the government failed to fully implement all the 83 recommendations it accepted: 30 of them were only partially implemented, while no progress was made towards the implementation of the other 53. Out of the 72 “noted” (i.e. not accepted) recommendations, the report assessed 57 recommendations and found that the government failed to take any steps to implement 55 of them, and only partially implemented the remaining two.
Bangladesh has made no progress in implementing recommendations related to: the right to life; freedom of expression, association, and assembly; the prevention of torture and ill-treatment; enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings; gender equality; and cooperation with UN mechanisms. Bangladesh has yet to produce an implementation action plan for the accepted UPR recommendations.