Human rights activists of the country expressed their concern over politicisation and repressive laws to visiting UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet.
They also narrated the challenges they are facing in their respective sectors.
Issues related to democracy, enforced disappearance, governance, women's rights and environmental rights were discussed during the closed-door meeting held at a five-star hotel in the city on Monday.
During the meeting, the human rights activist also stressed the need for ensuring a conducive environment so that they can work freely without any restrictions.
Executive Director of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers’ Association, Syeda Rizwana Hasan said that they presented the challenges they were facing while performing the works during the meeting.
“We also stress the need for creating an environment where law enforcing agencies, judiciary, NGOs and media can work freely without the influence of over-politicisation,” Ms Rizwana said.
There are movements in 80 countries across the world for democratic and governance reform and the meeting observed that continuous dialogue is needed to find out the right system, she added.
It was also observed that only an election cannot ensure a proper reform rather a long post-election process is needed to do so, she said.
The brother of a person, who is believed to be the victim of enforced disappearance also attended the meeting and described the turmoil of his family.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com