United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, Gwyn Lewis, said, “the situation is very uncertain until a transitional government is formed and announced,” adding that “discussions are ongoing across the broad spectrum of political parties, including the students themselves.”
In an interview today (06 Aug), the Resident Coordinator spoke about the recent developments in Bangladesh via video link from Dhaka.
She said that the UN has been doing what it can as a system, echoing the Secretary-General’s call for "calm and restraint" and the High Commissioner for refugees’ call for “independent, impartial and transparent investigation to help Bangladesh understand what has happened over the past weeks, but also to hold perpetrators to account and to rebuild trust within the society.”
Lewis also said, “Our good offices as conveners have been used by all sides. We've reached out to the government last week when we had concerns about the situation on the ground calling for restraint, calling as well for the violence to stop and the killings to stop.”
She added, “There's also been a very high number of arrests, and we've really done a lot of advocacies around that. And now we're really thinking through, we're in a changing situation, potentially a new government in a very short space of time. And the UN has a huge range of technical and different types of operations support that we will provide and continue to provide to the people in Bangladesh.”
Asked about the human rights situation in the country, the Resident Coordinator said, “There's been a lot of concern around repression, lack of freedom of assembly, lack of freedom of expression. So there's many issues around human rights. And so this is why I think the call from the High Commissioner for Human Rights to put in place an investigation and really delve into what happened, why it happened, and to hold people to account is very important because the human rights situation is and has been problematic.”
Lewis continued, “hopefully we can turn a page with this new transition government and begin on a new footing. One built on trust and holding people to account and moving forward so the future can be brighter and the human rights issues can be addressed more systematically.”
As the country is still recovering from the destruction from recent cyclone and floods, the Resident Coordinator said, “I think we really need to think about how we support the most food insecure people, but also how, we adapt our current programing to make sure that they are best fit for purpose, because Bangladesh is a country on track to graduate from these developing countries and is still a country that is on track to do well in terms of the 2030 Agenda. So we really need to maintain that momentum and make sure that the support we're providing to the government is fit for purpose.”
Lewis also said, “if and when this transition government is shaped and the voices of the young people in the country are heard, I think we can really shape and move forward to continue the trajectory of positive development, improve that trajectory to make sure it's more inclusive, to make sure that there's no communities that are left behind.”
She concluded, “I think the UN really has a critical role in terms of issues like transitional justice to support institutional reform, to support security sector reform. And so there's lots of technical areas as the development side that I think we can contribute to and hopefully and continue to build, and work with the people of Bangladesh for a brighter future for everyone.”