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There were no significant changes with respect to human rights situation in Bangladesh in the year of 2023, according to a report released by the United States State Department in Washington DC on Monday.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken launched the ‘2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices’, highlighting rights issues across the world.

According to the report that covered the time from January 1 to December 31, 2023, bangladesh’s significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government and harsh and life-threatening prison conditions.

It said there were also issues related to arbitrary arrest or detention, serious problems with the independence of the judiciary, political prisoners or detainees, transnational repression against individuals in another country, arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, punishment of family members for alleged offenses of a relative and serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, censorship, and enforcement of or threat to enforce criminal libel laws to limit expression.

The year 0f 2023 also saw serious restrictions on internet freedom, substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operation of nongovernmental and civil society organizations, restrictions on freedom of movement, inability of citizens to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections, serious and unreasonable restrictions on political participation and serious government corruption, said the report.

It went on to mention issues like serious government restrictions on or harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations, extensive gender-based violence, including domestic and intimate partner violence, sexual violence, workplace violence, child, early, and forced marriage, and other forms of such violence, crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting members of ethnic minority groups or Indigenous peoples, laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults, crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons, significant restrictions on independent trade unions and workers’ freedom of association and existence of the worst forms of child labor.

There were numerous reports of widespread impunity for human rights abuses, said the report, adding that in most cases, the government did not take credible steps to identify and punish officials or security force members who may have committed human rights abuses.