Dotty Street Chamber, a legal consultancy appointed by the ousted prime minister and Awami League (banned) president Sheikh Hasina, has written a letter to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Falkar Turk. The letter was written out of concern about the UN’s ‘Fact Finding Report’ on human rights violations during the July 2024 coup in Bangladesh. The letter was written last Thursday (May 28).
The letter reads, ‘Honourable High Commissioner, I am writing this letter to you as the legal advisor to Sheikh Hasina, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh and President of Bangladesh’s largest political party, Awami League. This letter is to express serious concern about the Fact Finding Report entitled “Human Rights Violations and Abuses Related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh” (hereafter Report) published by your office on February 12, 2025.
“Information has now come to light that—even based on the interim government’s own official documents—in light of the misleading and inflammatory information that was spread to justify the violent overthrow of Sheikh Hasina’s government—the fact-finding report’s conclusion that 1,400 protesters were killed at the time was grossly inaccurate and unrealistic,” Doty Street’s letter said.
It added, ‘The official gazette has now confirmed that the actual figure is about half of the UN report. Some more unbiased reports put the number even lower, a fraction of the widely publicized number. It is very worrying that the conclusions of the UN report are so widely inconsistent with the facts. It calls into question the credibility of the fact-finding process itself and sets a worrying precedent of using such misinformation to incite and legitimize political violence. It is therefore humbly requested that your office issue a correction and public retraction statement in order to bring out the true facts.’
Standing on behalf of Sheikh Hasina, the organization wrote, ‘This unfortunate situation is probably due to the failure of the United Nations investigation team to properly investigate the politically motivated allegations against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. According to the report, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) conducted an independent fact-finding investigation into alleged human rights violations and abuses committed between 1 July and 15 August 2024 at the invitation of the interim government of Bangladesh.
The letter also said, ‘Since coming to power on August 8, 2024, Dr. The interim government led by Muhammad Yunus has itself been accused of engaging in widespread human rights abuses. These allegations have been documented by many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and have been the subject of Article 15 communications filed with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity.’
The letter mentions, ‘Furthermore, Dr. Yunus himself clearly admitted that the movement to oust Sheikh Hasina was not a spontaneous mass coup; Rather it was a highly planned and disciplined operation. He named his Special Assistant Mahfuz Alam as the key planner of the nationwide anti-government campaign. How much of the OHCHR information search mission conducted in Bangladesh. There is cause for serious concern that Yunus and the interim government were under the influence. Because, in such a situation, where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s political opponents have clearly played a major role in conducting the information-seeking process, the impartiality and independence of the UN report is called into question.’
“Another concern is that—which the report itself acknowledges—the time frame of the data search was limited to only the alleged torture incidents from July 1 to August 15, 2024,” Doty Street’s letter to Falker Turk said. As a result, OHCHR has had no opportunity to investigate the interim government’s own ongoing human rights violations. These include widespread violence against elected representatives of the Awami League and attacks on religious minorities. At the same time, the report echoes the same allegations, based on which power was seized by unconstitutional means.’
Casting doubt on the death toll during the July uprising, the letter said, ‘Despite the above concerns, the most pressing concern at the moment is the report’s conclusion, which states that “as many as 1,400 people may have been killed during the protests, most of them killed by military rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets, which are commonly used by Bangladeshi security forces.” The OHCHR said it determined the ‘estimated’ number of 1,400 by comparing data from the Ministry of Health with detailed death lists collected from various sources, including civil society organizations, and excluding duplicate data. The report added, “Based on this information, OHCHR estimates that the number of protest-related deaths could be as high as 1,400.”
The organization appointed by Sheikh Hasina stated in the letter that, ‘Furthermore, it (the UN report) states that 78 percent of the total deaths (which equates to more than 1,000 deaths according to OHCHR’s estimate of 1,400) were caused by firearms, which are usually used by members of the state security forces. Now the interim government’s own official gazette (attached) has confirmed that the death toll is around 834, which is almost half of the UN report. But the number 834 is also not entirely reliable. Because, the political objectives of the interim government can have an impact here. For example, the student-led anti-discrimination movement, which opposes Sheikh Hasina’s government, itself put the death toll at an even lower figure of 650.
The letter also stated that if the investigation was conducted based on a truly independent and impartial source, ‘the actual number would probably be lower’. It said, ‘The loss of so many lives in violent protests is undoubtedly a profound human tragedy. Sheikh Hasina’s government was then in the process of setting up a commission of inquiry to investigate possible excessive use of force by the police and security forces. But claims of a higher number of deaths were used to exaggerate the nature and extent of the violence and portray Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as ordering the massacre of peaceful protesters. This allegation was the central element of the campaign to overthrow his government.’
“A report from your office has been used in this context to support blatantly false and inflammatory information and to legitimize the violent act of overthrowing the government,” the letter directed Falkar Turk. This is extremely unfortunate and sets a worrying precedent for future abuses of UN human rights processes. In view of the obvious and serious inaccuracies in the number of casualties mentioned in the report, and in the interest of protecting the integrity and credibility of the fact-finding process conducted by your Office, OHCHR is humbly requested to publicly retract and correct the claim that 1,400 protesters were killed.’
This action is necessary to ensure that the United Nations does not become a tool to perpetuate a false narrative by misrepresenting what actually happened in July-August 2024 in Bangladesh, the letter urged. Dear High Commissioner, Please accept the assurance of my highest respect and consideration. At the same time I am deeply grateful for your kind attention to this important matter.’
