Bangladesh must address labour and human rights issues, says European Union

The European Union has expressed its concern over the labour and human rights situation in Bangladesh and called upon the government to increase the pace of the implementation of the National Action Plan on labour sector and the recommendations of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review to retain duty free market access to the economic bloc.

According to the second joint Staff Working Document on the EU’s enhanced engagement with three GSP beneficiary countries — Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar — published on November 21, the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences are linked to beneficiary countries’ respect to the international standards on human rights, labour rights, environment and climate, and good governance.

The European Commission report on the Generalised Scheme of Preferences covering the period 2020-2022 identified legal obstacles to the right to establish and operate trade unions, anti-union discriminations, shortcomings related to labour inspection, gaps in implementing occupational health and safety, and persistence of child and forced labour as the key concerns in the aspect of labour rights.

It also listed deficiencies regarding freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association and civil society space, as well as cases of alleged torture, ill-treatment, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances as key concern in the aspect of human rights.

Enhanced engagement is conducted by the European Commission services and the European External Action Service, aiming to facilitate and incentivise beneficiary countries to make progress on critical areas with regard to the 15 core human rights and labour rights international conventions listed on the GSP Regulation.

Article 19 of the GSP Regulation (2) provides that the preferences may be withdrawn from any GSP beneficiaries in case of serious and systematic violation of the principles of the core human and labour right conventions.

The European Commission report said that Bangladesh remained by far the most important EBA beneficiary in terms of exports to the EU and about 50 per cent of its exports go to the EU.

According to the EU data, Bangladesh’s exports to the economic bloc were reported at 23.9 billion euro in 2022 which was 53.5% higher compared with 2021.

More than 90% of Bangladesh’s exports to the EU are ready-made garments.

Over the reporting period of 2020-2022, the 27-member bloc regularly informed Bangladesh of its concerns and conducted two monitoring missions in October 2019, and in March 2022.

The EU report observed that most of the changes to the Labour Act/EPZ Labour Act requested by the ILO Committee of Experts for a number of years either have not been addressed or addressed partially only.

It said that limited progress has been recorded in the reporting period with respect to human rights concerns expressed by the EU.

“With regard to cases of alleged torture, ill-treatment, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances, on multiple occasions in 2021 and 2022, the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights expressed deep concern about the government’s failure to complete investigations and bring the perpetrators to justice”, the EU report said.

As part of the enhanced engagement discussions on human rights, the EU repeatedly expressed concern about some of the provisions of the Digital Security Act and encouraged Bangladesh to fully implement the recommendations that the Human Rights Council made, the report read.

In September 2023, the Digital Security Act was replaced by the Cyber Security Act and the preliminary analysis showed that the Cyber Security Act was not fully aligned with international human rights standards, the EU said.

The report recommended that the authorities in Bangladesh should increase the pace of implementing the commitments on labour rights included in the NAP and ILO Road map.

With respect to the key concerns on human rights, the authorities in Bangladesh should improve freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and civil society space; investigate cases of alleged torture, ill-treatment, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances; fully implement the recommendations of the Human Rights Council’s UPR, including the abolition of the death penalty.

‘The full compliance with the GSP relevant international conventions should also be seen in the light of the expected future graduation of Bangladesh from LDC status, which would imply moving from the EBA arrangement to standard GSP, the report mentioned.

An EU High-Level mission, led by Paola Pampaloni, deputy managing director of the Asia and Pacific Department at the European External Action Service, visited Bangladesh in November 12-16 and held several meetings with the government, labour leaders and businesses.

In a meeting with the high officials of the government, the EU delegation once again recommended bringing labour laws in full compliance with international standards and to remove the minimum membership requirement to form trade union.

They also conveyed to the government that the EU wanted to see a free, fair, and participatory election in Bangladesh.