Bangladesh: ILAAD joins sixteen international organisations in condemning the political exclusion of lawyers from the governance of their profession

ILAAD
Jul 6
4 min read

The International League Against Arbitrary Detention (ILAAD) has joined fifteen other international human rights organisations, bar associations and law societies in issuing a joint statement condemning the politically motivated exclusion, intimidation and interference in the democratic governance of the legal profession in Bangladesh.

Coordinated by JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF), the statement is being released simultaneously from eleven cities across Europe, Asia and Australia.

More than 300 lawyers barred from elections in twenty-three bar associations

Since the formation of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led Government under the leadership of Tarique Rahman on 17 February 2026, the signatory organisations report widespread obstruction targeting lawyers identified as supporters of the Awami League, as well as independent candidates.

According to reports published in the national press and independently verified by JMBF, more than 300 lawyers have been prevented from contesting elections in at least twenty-three bar associations. These include the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association and the bar associations of Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Khulna, Gazipur, Barishal, Cumilla, Manikganj, Munshiganj, Dinajpur, Naogaon, Jhalokathi, Panchagarh, Chandpur, Shariatpur, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Tangail, Meherpur, Patuakhali and Thakurgaon.

The violations reported include the refusal of election commissions to issue nomination papers, obstruction of the collection and submission of nomination forms, the arbitrary rejection of candidacies, threats, physical violence, police harassment, and the deliberate creation of a climate of fear.

Among the most serious incidents documented by the signatories:

The Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association reportedly cancelled the nominations of forty-two lawyers, branding them <cite index="0-0">"collaborators of fascism"</cite>; the Mymensingh District Bar Association reportedly cancelled sixteen candidacies, and the Munshiganj District Bar Association eleven.
In the elections for twenty-three executive posts in Dhaka, twenty-one in Chattogram and fifteen in Shariatpur, Barishal and Jamalpur, not a single Awami League-supported or independent lawyer was permitted even to collect nomination papers.
In Gazipur, thirty-nine lawyers seeking nomination for sixteen executive posts were reportedly denied nomination forms by the Chief Election Commissioner.
In Thakurgaon, police officers allegedly visited the home of a presidential candidate late at night to pressure him into withdrawing his candidacy; in Shariatpur, a lawyer was reportedly assaulted while attempting to collect nomination papers.

The Bangladesh Bar Council placed under political administration

The signatories are equally alarmed by the decision taken by the authorities on 30 June 2026 to constitute a fifteen-member ad hoc committee, composed exclusively of pro-BNP and Jamaat-backed lawyers, to administer the Bangladesh Bar Council — the statutory body regulating the legal profession — from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.

The decision violates the democratic principles governing professional bodies, undermines the independence and representative character of the legal profession, and perpetuates practices already adopted under the previous interim government.

A documented pattern of repression

These developments form part of a broader crackdown on the legal profession. Between August 2024 and September 2025, JMBF documented 268 incidents of repression affecting 849 lawyers, including arbitrary arrests, politically motivated prosecutions, harassment, intimidation and other reprisals, in direct violation of the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.

For ILAAD, whose mandate concerns the fight against arbitrary detention, these findings call for particular vigilance. Arrests and prosecutions carried out on the basis of a lawyer's political opinion or affiliation fall squarely within the categories of arbitrary detention identified by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD). Moreover, a legal profession weakened by political interference deprives detained persons of their first line of defence: where lawyers are silenced, arbitrary detention goes unchallenged.

What the signatories are calling for

The sixteen organisations call upon the Government of Bangladesh, the legal profession and the international community to:

Revoke the order constituting the ad hoc committee of the Bangladesh Bar Council and annul the committees elected through seriously flawed, irregular and discriminatory electoral processes;
Ensure free, fair, transparent, inclusive, non-discriminatory and democratic elections, in accordance with the Bangladesh Bar Council Order, 1972, the constitutions and statutes of the bar associations, and the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers;
Restore all unlawfully cancelled candidacies and guarantee every eligible lawyer equal access to nomination procedures, irrespective of political opinion, affiliation or perceived political identity;
Cease immediately all forms of intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest, politically motivated prosecution, surveillance, coercion and violence against lawyers;
Conduct prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations into all allegations, and hold those responsible to account;
Respect and guarantee the independence, autonomy and self-governance of the legal profession;
Call upon national and international bar associations, law societies and legal institutions to monitor developments closely and express solidarity with lawyers whose professional rights are being violated;
Urge the international community, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, to engage constructively and urgently with the Government of Bangladesh.

The signatories reaffirm their solidarity with all lawyers in Bangladesh who continue to defend the rule of law and the independence of their profession, peacefully and without discrimination.

The sixteen signatory organisations

Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE, Brussels) · JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF, Paris) · International Observatory of Lawyers at Risk (OIAD, Paris) · French National Bar Council (CNB, Paris) · German Federal Bar (BRAK, Berlin) · Italian National Bar Council (CNF, Rome) · Foundation Day of the Endangered Lawyer (The Hague) · Geneva Bar Association · German Bar Association (DAV, Brussels) · Paris Bar · International Association of People's Lawyers (IAPL, Bordeaux) · International League Against Arbitrary Detention (ILAAD, Paris) · Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA, Canberra) · People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR, Varanasi) · Belarusian Association of Human Rights Lawyers (Vilnius) · Public Association "Dignity" (Astana).

Download the full joint statement: