OHCHR head urges Bangladeshi authorities to engage with student protests

Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 18th July. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Wednesday urged authorities in Bangladesh to engage with students demands to end to the quota system for government jobs amid rising unemployment.as the violent protests continued at university campuses across the country.

OHCHR office noted that the demonstrations erupted two weeks ago, and students have been clashing with their pro-government counterparts and the police in Dhaka, and other cities.

According to media reports the Bangladeshi Government closed all public and private universities after the protests turned deadly with six people killed and scores injured.

UN rights chief Volker Türk on post X said that all acts of violence and use of force, especially resulting in the loss of life, must be investigated and perpetrators held to account.

“Freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are fundamental human rights,” he added.

The office said that the students are protesting quotas which reserve a third of government jobs to the children of veterans of the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

The quotas were abolished in 2018 but reinstated earlier this month, it added.