In December 2025, journalists and staff at The Daily Star in Dhaka took refuge on the roof while fire spread through their building. The newspaper reported that 28 people were rescued after hours inside. The offices of Prothom Alo were also attacked that night. For readers, the danger reached beyond the two newsrooms: an attack on the people gathering the news can limit what a community learns about events on its own streets.
Those attacks came more than a year after Sheikh Hasina resigned on August 5, 2024, following a deadly crackdown on protesters. The UN Human Rights Office reported retaliatory attacks on police, Awami League figures and members of minorities in the immediate aftermath. The episodes occurred at different times and involved different circumstances. Together they show why physical safety matters to journalists, political participants and people trying to obtain justice.
Four requests from Global Justice Network
On November 1, 2026, Global Justice Network (GJN) asked four international bodies to examine aspects of Bangladesh’s restrictions on peaceful political activity. The organization used two online forms and sent two emails. It cited public records and sought assessment of the law and its implementation.
GJN asked the office of Gina Romero, the UN special rapporteur on peaceful assembly and association, to seek Bangladesh’s explanation of the restrictions, their duration and the means of challenging them. Under the UN Special Procedures system, an expert may request clarification and recommend action. A recommendation cannot itself lift a domestic restriction.
GJN asked Amnesty International to update its assessment of the ban. It completed the reporting form and its email-confirmation step. It separately asked Human Rights Watch’s Geneva office to refer the matter to the Bangladesh team for research into verifiable cases. GJN supplied no confidential testimony or identifying victim information.
Through the Commonwealth Secretariat’s contact form, GJN asked for dialogue with Bangladesh on participation and legal safeguards. The form confirmed that the message was sent. The next meaningful development would be a request for evidence, a substantive response or a published communication setting out questions for the authorities.
What is at stake for households
The World Bank’s October 2026 assessment found that rising prices had eroded purchasing power as job creation stalled. It estimated an increase in poverty even as remittances strengthened. The slowdown had begun before the 2024 political transition, and the Bank also pointed to underlying problems in energy supply and banking.
These economic findings come from the Bank. They were not findings made by the recipients of GJN’s requests. Their relevance is practical: when wages buy less or jobs are scarce, people have reasons to organize, question officials and seek competing proposals. Whether a journalist can safely cover that meeting, or a citizen can challenge an order preventing it, affects which proposals voters ever get to hear.
As of November 2, GJN’s records confirmed the form steps and the dispatch of its emails. They contained no substantive response from the four recipients. A UN experts’ letter dated December 29, 2025, preceded this initiative and remains a separate public record.
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