Shafiqul Islam Kajol, the editor of the daily newspaper Dainik Pokkhokal, has been missing for six weeks. On March 10, he went to his newspaper’s office in Dhaka. A few hours later, he left the building, got on his motorbike and drove away. He did not return home to his family that evening and has not been seen since. His family fears that he could be a victim of enforced disappearance, and his son, Monorom Polok, has published a heartbreaking .

Suspicions have been heightened since Amnesty International from outside Kajol’s office on the day of his disappearance. This shows a number of unidentified men watching his motorbike for nearly three hours before he left the building and, at one point, appearing to tamper with it. The family reported his disappearance to the police the next day, but the authorities initially refused to act and have denied that he is in police custody.

Worrying Timing

But the timing of Kajol’s disappearance is worrying. The day before, the government opened an against him and 31 other prominent journalists under the country’s infamous Digital Security Act 2018, which has been described by Amnesty as an attack on freedom of expression. The journalists are accused of publishing “offensive, false and defamatory news” on Facebook. 

These allegations are similar to those made against the award-winning photojournalist and TIME Magazine Person of the Year, Shahidul Alam, who was arrested at his home in 2018. He was charged with making provocative comments in an , in which he criticized the government for extrajudicial killings, disappearances, corruption, bribery and rigging the quota system for government jobs. Thankfully, due to an international outcry — including questions raised in the UK Parliament — Shahidul was granted permanent bail. Upon his , he said: “It is a fantastic feeling to be free in a free country, breathing free air. But I hope for freedom for everyone else.”

But there has been very little coverage of Kajol’s disappearance as it has been completely eclipsed by coronavirus reporting. Amnesty International has on the Bangladeshi government to launch an urgent investigation into his disappearance and, if he is in state custody, to release him, but this has not been picked up by the media yet.

Bangladesh has a sad history of enforced disappearances and currently 151 out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. According to the International Federation for Human Rights, these have since the ruling Awami League came into power under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2009, and the systematic nature of targeting “suggests that enforced disappearances are being used as a political tool by the government to silence criticism and dissent.”

The families of those who go missing suffer a unique kind of torture, never knowing what has happened to their loved ones, always hoping that they are alive but constantly fearing the worst. It is a pain that most of us cannot even imagine.

Fearing the Worst

Last year, the Bangladesh-based human rights organization, Odhikar, documented at least 34 incidents of alleged . Eight of them were later found dead, 17 had been arrested, while the whereabouts of the other nine remain unknown.

One disappearance that remains unsolved is that of Ahmad bin Quasem. Quasem is a Bangladeshi lawyer who was called to the bar in the UK. He was while representing his father, a senior opposition leader, before a tribunal set up by the Bangladeshi government to prosecute crimes committed during the Liberation War against Pakistan. On August 9, 2016, a group of plain-clothed police officers entered his apartment without a warrant and dragged him into an unmarked van. He has not been seen since, and his family, including two young daughters, fear the worst. They may never know what has happened to him. His father was hanged a month after Quasem disappeared. 

We must not allow Kajol’s disappearance to be forgotten. If his story remains in the shadow of the global pandemic, we may never find out what has happened to him. He does not deserve this. His family does not deserve to suffer the pain of never knowing. We need to shine the media spotlight on his case and call on the Bangladesh government to launch an investigation immediately. It was the international outcry that saved Shahidul Alam’s life. Now we need to save Shafiqul Islam Kajol.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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360° Context: Britain Faces a Historic Election

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The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, doesn’t believe in economic and social rights, claiming that it is “too hard to hire and fire people” in the UK, and has “obnoxious bigots.” And the leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, is opposed to gay marriage and abortion, even in cases of incest and rape.

If the Tories win this election, so many of our rights — from workers’ rights to women’s rights and everything in between — will be under threat. Even the most basic right of all — the right to life — is at risk. The euphemistically pledges to “update” the Human Rights Act. But let’s be clear, they won’t be “updating” it to strengthen our existing rights or add new ones — they will be stripping away important protections that apply to us all. Remember, this is the same party that in 2015 pledged to scrap the Human Rights Act altogether. With a Conservative majority, none of our hard-fought-for and hard-won rights will be safe.

Our Human Rights

By contrast, the current Labour shadow cabinet is united by its belief in — and respect for — human rights. Jeremy Corbyn has spent his whole life fighting for the rights of others, both here in the UK and overseas, and the party front bench is packed with human rights lawyers, advocates and campaigners.

If Labour wins the election, we will have a home secretary who is committed to civil liberties. Diane Abbott has fought tirelessly for the victims of the and for women held indefinitely in immigration detention centers such as Yarl’s Wood and Brook House. Rather than punishing migrants, Labour will end indefinite detention and use the money saved to support survivors of trafficking and modern slavery. Instead of bringing back hanging, Labour will restore funding for prisons and provide support for people with mental health problems and drug addictions.

A Labour government would not just protect our existing rights but would create new ones. Labour has pledged to introduce a brand new right to food. Social rights like this are needed more than ever before. In the last decade, the use of has increased by more than 5,000%. It is a moral disgrace that so many of our citizens have been driven to this. Labour will put an end to “food-bank Britain” and ensure that no child goes hungry in the fifth richest country in the world.

As well as food, Labour will end rough sleeping within five years, build thousands of new homes and ensure everyone has access to free education through a National Education Service.

But our human rights are meaningless if we cannot enforce them in the courts. The Tories know that, which is why they cut the Ministry of Justice budget — including critical funding for legal aid — more than any other department. There are now legal aid deserts all over the county, and millions of people have been left without access to justice. That is why Labour has committed not only to restore funding for early legal advice, but also to hire hundreds of community lawyers and build an expanded network of law centers. Labour will treat access to justice as a fundamental human right, the same as education or health care.

Beyond Our Borders

The protection of human rights would not stop at our borders. A Labour government — with Emily Thornberry as foreign secretary — would put human rights and international humanitarian law at the heart of Britain’s foreign policy. This means immediately suspending arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen and conducting a root-and-branch reform of our arms-export regime.

As Thornberry said at the party conference earlier this year, Labour will never put strategic alliances with dictators like Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman before our responsibility to uphold human rights and protect lives across the world. Our government should never turn a blind eye while our “allies” murder journalists and drop bombs on buses full of innocent children.

With Labour in charge, Britain would be a beacon of hope around the world, standing up for democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. But this also means coming to terms with our own history, which is why Labour would conduct an audit of the impact of Britain’s colonial legacy to better understand our contribution to violence and insecurity around the world. Only by acknowledging this can Britain credibly criticize human rights abuses in other countries, especially former colonies.

With so much focus on Brexit, it is important to remember what else is at stake in this election. Boris Johnson and his cabinet are so opposed to human rights that they are challenging their very existence. A Johnson government would not hesitate to turn back the clock on human rights progress — and even go so far as to repeal the Human Rights Act. This is what is at stake in this election and what we are fighting for. Labour will always protect and respect our human rights. The Conservatives will destroy them.  

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post In Britain’s Election, the Future of Human Rights Is at Stake appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.