We welcome the long-awaited release of the fact-finding report of the United Nations Human Rights Office about the crimes and abuses committed by the Awami League government during the July-August uprising. And as expected, it provides conclusive proof of the systematic brutalities inflicted upon protesters as well as Sheikh Hasina's role in orchestrating them. This should put to rest any lingering attempts—domestic or international—to distort, downplay, or whitewash the atrocities the regime carried out in a desperate bid to retain power. The facts are now indisputable, so the path to justice should be clearer than ever before.

In its 114-page report, the UN, based on testimonies from senior security officials, confirms that Hasina herself ordered security forces to kill protesters. On July 19, she explicitly instructed them to "arrest the ringleaders of the protests, the troublemakers, kill them and hide their bodies." Her trusted lieutenant, then-home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, reinforced this directive in meetings with top security officials, ordering the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to use lethal force. These instructions and consequent measures paved the path for the killing of as many as 1,400 people—including many children—in what the UN describes as "crimes against humanity." Other findings of the report are equally chilling.

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Hasina oversaw July protest killings: UN

In its 114-page report, the UN, based on testimonies from senior security officials, confirms that Hasina herself ordered security forces to kill protesters. On July 19, she explicitly instructed them to "arrest the ringleaders of the protests, the troublemakers, kill them and hide their bodies." Her trusted lieutenant, then-home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, reinforced this directive in meetings with top security officials, ordering the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to use lethal force.

It states that protesters were shot at point-blank range and killed. It identifies the integrated role of at least seven security forces, including the Army, BGB, and RAB, as well as ruling party activists, who coordinated to arbitrarily harass, arrest, torture, and even execute protesters. The details provided by the report about these developments, and the roles played by both security and intelligence agencies, are shocking. The report also sheds light on the sexual violence committed against women protesters as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent. It reveals that officers also obstructed medical care for injured protesters, intimidating doctors and pressuring them to falsify medical reports or deny treatment to victims. Forensic pathologists were forced to misclassify causes of death, erasing proof of extrajudicial killings. There were also frequent internet blackouts to disrupt protesters' ability to organise.

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UN recommends disbanding RAB and NTMC

Following the unveiling of the report, the UN rights chief has rightly called for additional criminal investigations to determine the full extent of these violations. For now, it is only appropriate that the ongoing trials of former regime figures and officials incorporate these findings as evidence, which the chief prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) said they would. The UN, however, said it would not share evidence from its investigation with Bangladesh unless the trials meet international standards. There are certain issues that may stand in the way of a UN approval of the justice process, but we hope for the sake of the victims that those will be resolved soon. It is also vital that past crimes by the Awami regime, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions, are tried and those responsible held to account. The UN has made a number of recommendations in its report, which too must be seriously considered and acted on.