- C. whereas Bangladesh ranks 146 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index; whereas attacks against journalists, bloggers and the media continued and the government continued to use repressive legislation to restrict the right to freedom of expression; whereas in 2017 at least 25 journalists and hundreds of bloggers faced legal proceedings based on the law that regulates information and communication technologies, which criminalizes the online publication of information that blasphemes or defames; whereas at the beginning of 2018 the government presented a new digital security law, which due to the vagueness of its formulations could drastically muzzle critical voices;
- D. whereas on 5 August 2018, Shahidul Alam, journalist and human rights defender, was detained at his home by plain cloth members of the Detective Branch of Police, but his family members and lawyers were not informed of his whereabouts at the time of his arrest; whereas he appeared in court on 6 August, charged with “spreading propaganda and false information against the government” under the section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act; whereas during his hearing Alam informed the court that he had been tortured in detention; whereas Alam’s application for bail on 6 August was rejected, and refused again on 11 September, and his appeal has been repeatedly postponed since;
- E. whereas the violation of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and notably the freedom to believe or not believe and freedom of opinion and expression have increased in recent years in Bangladesh; whereas people who have tried to criticize or express scepticism about religious views have been attacked and killed; whereas Bangladeshi blogger Limon Fakir, has been detained without trial for over a year and a half and his latest application for bail was rejected by the High Court of Dhaka on 6 November; whereas he was arrested for posting articles and videos about Islamic fundamentalism on his blog; whereas in June was Killed Shahjahan Bachchu, a journalist and blogger who defenced the religious tolerance and atheism;
- F. whereas civil society continued to face aggression by state and non-state actors, including increased harassment and surveillance by security forces; whereas the activities of NGOs were still restricted by the 2016 Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Bill;
- G. whereas in July and early August 2018, largely peaceful students protests occurred in Dhaka to demand road safety and reforms in the transportation sector; whereas the peaceful protests were repressed by the police, hundreds of students were injured and an unknown number of protesters were arrested and detained;
- H. whereas human rights organizations have documented extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, and forced disappearances committed by State security forces; whereas more than 86 people were victims of enforced disappearance in 2017 and at least 27 were victims between January and August 2018; whereas some of those arbitrarily detained are held for a long time in secret places of detention and others are later found dead, presumably victims of extrajudicial killings; whereas in 2017, 154 extrajudicial killings were recorded;
- I. whereas since May when the "zero tolerance" policy against suspected drug offenders started, at least 248 deaths and thousands of arrests have been registered; whereas the complaints from human rights activists, who warn that deaths committed by special forces are in fact extrajudicial executions;
- J. whereas torture and other ill-treatment in custody remained widespread, and that complaints were rarely investigated; whereas, according to data compiled by national organizations, at least 125 people were tortured to death by state agents from January 2009 to May 2018; whereas relatives of victims, journalists and human rights defenders who investigate cases of

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